Issue 2, Vol 2: 31 January 2011 *In this issue:*
- Commissar's Notes: Cry the beloved students: The post apartheid indictment<http://www.sasco.org.za/show.php?include=pubs/moithuti/2011/issue2.html#one> - Opinion: Student struggles not in vain<http://www.sasco.org.za/show.php?include=pubs/moithuti/2011/issue2.html#two> [image: Commissar's Notes]Commissar's Notes Cry the beloved students: The post apartheid indictment 'A tragedy is being enacted in South Africa', where hundreds of thousands of unemployed youth loiter in the streets while some sit in the backyards of their rural homes with no hope or prospects of progress in their lives. They live on the meager pensions of their grandparents who are not only burdened with supporting themselves but their children and grandchildren, all of whom sit at home unemployed and unemployable. To make matters worse, institutions of higher learning continue, remorselessly, to exclude students, from the same poor backgrounds. The higher education system, yearly, drives out hundreds of thousands of students, spewing them into the streets. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands do not even bother attempting to register in institutions of higher learning out of the knowledge that there is no way in hell they would afford higher education fees. It is only those students who sprout from working class backgrounds that suffer this calamity, sending their dreams and those of their families flying off the window. Without skills, that could allow poor students to compete on a sound footing in the labor market, their lives reach a dead end. Those from well to do backgrounds do not even feel the pinch of education costs and therefore acquire necessary skills and compete with an added advantage in the labor market. As a result, poverty and opulence continue within specific family lineages regardless of the fluidity of capitalist society. To prove this fact in the past two weeks alone, hundreds of thousands of students have been spewed into street corners by institutions of higher learning with brazen impunity. These institutions claim lack of space. But, these are the same institutions that have spent millions revamping management offices and business centers, but have barely spared a cent not only to develop but expand academic facilities such as lecture halls, libraries, computer labs etc. Isn't it that at the core of each institutions mandate is the task of teaching and learning? Or has the pendulum swung? For, it is in this arena that institutions have been found most wanting. When the state attempts to intervene, institutions of higher learning hide and lodge behind the woodworks of institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Institutional Autonomy and academic freedom have now become the finest instrument with which to keep the democratic government at bay whilst allowing unfettered room for ruthless economic calculation to hold sway in institutions at the expense of community service. Surely things cannot be allowed to continue this way. And indeed, right under the noses of a rather toothless democratic government which claims to have education as its apex priority, institutions of higher learning continue to slam, shut, the door to education on the faces of poor working class students. It is now clear; the continued exclusion of working class students is nothing but a continuation of class apartheid; otherwise there is nothing else to explain the fact that working class students have been the most prominent casualties of the registration period. Working class families often look up to the education of their offspring as a way out of poverty and penury. To add salt to injury, Minister of Higher Education – Dr Blade Nzimande – ineptly argues that the flocking of students into institutions of higher learning was "unexpected", both by the institutions themselves and the Ministry of Higher Education. If not this, what else should have been expected? That Matriculants from poor backgrounds should have simply continued and stayed at home without so trying to access higher learning? That rather than seek higher education, working class youths should stick to what they seem to excel in: crime? Our government has the cheek to splash money on nonsensical expenditure such as the billions spent on the arms deal, Gautrain, World Cup stadiums, and still continues to claim that Education is its apex priority. By the way, while government continues to yelp about apex priorities, higher education's share of the total budget has decreased by a whopping 20% since 1996. So much for an apex priority, so much for radically pursuing skills development in order to grow the economy, blah, blah, blah! Whilst Mpumalanga can point to the colossus of Mbombela stadium towering over Nelspruit overshadowing any previous sign of architectural genius, it does not have a single university it can point to. This is where our problems lie. Whilst we were overzealous to please FIFA, we do not have the same zeal to please ourselves by satisfying our own basic needs, such as education. It is more than an indictment that the post-1994 government does not have a single campus, let alone university that it can point to as a product of its own work. Rather than see the building of more campuses or universities, we have seen the merger of institutions shrink rather than expand the number of campuses. Almost every merged institution has at least one campus closed down. It is in this context that it was shocking to hear Dr. Blade Nzimande stand tall and say: the flocking of students in institutions of higher learning was unexpected. If this is not a gratuitous insult on those such as us who voted for the ANC I do not know what else is. It is now difficult not to believe those who once argued that a 'tragedy is being enacted in South Africa', where a 'very large percentage of the population are being sacrificed on the altar of the neoliberal logic of global capitalism'. Rather than address these, the new growth path pursues the now failed logic of gear: fiscal austerity as the panacea of all our economic problems. Yes, rather than focus on defeating market fundamentalism, our government is pre-occupied with attempting to muzzle the media. Just as the case of those who cannot access the system seems strong. Hundreds of thousands of graduates sit at home unemployed watching the sunrise and set. It is not because their qualifications are superfluous to the needs of the economy, but that capitalist economies need reserve labor in order to extract lower wages from those already in capitalist employ. Captains of industry keep increasing profit levels in order to feed their ever-expensive lifestyles. This can only be achieved through employing as less as possible while producing as much as possible. The dictum: "higher productivity at the lowest possible cost" taught in our curriculum and imbibed by economic students' everyday is the locomotive that drives our economic direction. More than ever, progressive minds need to ensure that they work together to save our future by wrestling the direction of our education from the hands of the wolves of the capitalist market posed who will not only destroy the ever decreasing access to education but will damage South Africa's future. We need a government that is willing to take institutions of higher learning head on, not the toothless critic we now have. We need to do away with the notion that institutions of higher learning are enclaves for the rich and wealthy, otherwise we will fall flat on our noses in our quest to defeat apartheid and its economic edifice: capitalism. *Lazola Ndamase is Secretary General of SASCO (South African Students Congress)* [image: Deputy Secretary General of SASCO]Opinion: Student struggles not in vain *Reflections on the article by Jonathan Jansen 27/01/2010* On the 27th of January as part of my routine activities of checking news on the internet, I learnt that the University of Free State is planning to get their drop-outs who are left with one or two modules to complete their degrees back to the university on condition that they are able to complete within a year. I must confess, reading the article by the liberal vice-chancellor( on Timeslive, 26/01/2010), I was perplexed by progressive reforms being introduced by the university given the attitude of our organisation towards the man himself. Upon very serious thought processes, I realised that I nearly suffered from emotional blackmail that constitute the larger part of the article. I realised that given the attitude of the professor towards student political activism, it could have only be imaginary to think that our "good" professor could have acknowledged the contribution of the student movement in the change of minds by the university administration. What university of Free State introduced is not something that comes out of the innovative minds of university "think-tanks" or policy makers. It is exactly what has always been contained in most if, not all of registration proposals by our branches. It is however important to welcome the final acknowledgement of logic of student movement by university professors. Indeed a teacher can learn one or two things from the student and some of us who have been engaged in students’ struggles are very pleased that the professors are finally breaking boundaries of their "intellectual-cocoon". The professor finally acknowledges our logic and uses it in his article. He says "The reason is simple: you need a degree to find a job to pay off your student loan. The longer you are without a job; the interest on your debt escalates. It is a vicious cycle for the poor. Without that student obtaining a degree, she cannot earn money to help her parents pay for the other children waiting in line to study for their qualifications." It is however breath-taking that Jansen only realises now how simple the reasoning is; after he and his cohorts excluded many of these students in the past. If it is true that the mother who alleged arrived in Jansen’s assisted in the change of mind by the UFS administration I feel obliged to congratulate the poor woman for her ability to show the professor that the we live in a country where the working class constitute the larger portion of the society, the society with alarming unemployment and poverty. If indeed it is true, it is a sign that Jansen never took the views of SASCO serious. It shows that his continuous banning of the student movement has done great disservice to himself, his administration, the student population and the people of the country in general. The poor mother could have never arrived in the office of Jansen had he attempted to listen to the students. Had he never resorted to intimidations, suspensions and expulsions of student leaders, he would have learnt a lot from them. I feel vindicated that the campaign of SASCO on the increase of student and worker representative in statutory bodies of institutions of higher learning is proved to be more necessary than ever in the history of the country. I am certain that had we been represented by more people in bodies like council; our professor would have learned more from our activists. The article by the professor did nothing but exposed his lack of knowledge about student problems. The reality is that reforms happening anywhere in institutions of higher learning are the product of students’ struggles. We forgive our "good" professor for forgetting our Free Education Campaign and our recent launch of Right to Learn Campaign and the work done by our organisation in various campuses. While we must all appreciate the reforms by the University of Free State, we ought to make it clear that this must also be followed by scrapping –off exclusion rules. It cannot be logical that the university brings the students back to finish their studies while chasing others to the streets. If that happens we will all know that this is not an attempt to assist poor students to "break the poverty cycle" but a debt collection tactic. *Ngoako Selamolela is the Deputy Secretary General of SASCO* -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
