THERE is little doubt that the broad anti-establishment student movement has generated much frustration for some, and a fair measure of uncertainty for others.
For others, still, there remain many hard and difficult, hitherto unanswered questions. Parents and grandparents are having sleepless nights. Academics wince at early retirement while in the prime of their scholarly lives.
The 2017 student intake is threatened, and our 2016 matriculants face an even more uncertain future. Committed, hard-working students feel cheated, saddened and enraged. When given the rare chance, student leaders are at pains to explain how important executive undertakings summarily have been dishonoured.
They also lament the arbitrary viciousness heaped upon peaceful dissenters, harmless bystanders, media reporters, concerned parents and lecturers, service delivery staff, and even persons of the cloth.
Student protesters have said time and again that neither their plight, nor their mandates and needs are really taken to heart, even though and especially since the entire country supports the Fees Must Fall campaign. And hence the turn to prolonged protest action. The reluctance on the part of authorities to genuinely engage in honest dialogue has driven many literally into deep despair. And so they refuse to back off and get back to class.
All of this, together with the almighty return of ruthless, blind aggression is what really drives the current uprising. A luta continua! While we may certainly agree that the struggle must continue, what, in this instance, are some of the more critical issues that no one can really fail to take heed of?
Having made the basic discovery that neither the vice-chancellor nor the university council is empowered or enthusiastic, really, to bring about meaningful change to their plight, protesting students must, as a matter of utmost urgency, come to the realisation that the ruling establishment, likewise, is not, cannot be, and never will be their redeemer.
A near-exact stand-off unfolded before our eyes in 2012, resulting in the brutal slaying of 34 utterly despairing mineworkers. Here the dreadful struggles of breadwinners equally were disdained and terminated by a callousness of the highest order. What do student protesters think has changed so fundamentally since then? Current developments in the political economy reveal that things have not become better, but infinitely more ominous.
The overriding question student protesters, the academia, concerned parents and ordinary South Africans, generally, should ask, is this: whereas little uncertainty exists about the validity of the no-fees campaign, is it not somewhat imprudent to think that it will ever be fully considered, let alone respected in the ruling domain? In light of recent happenings, is it not more likely that cruelty, ruin and general mayhem will ever more become the order of day? If 34 mineworkers could be pitilessly massacred without eliciting repentance or shame from those bearing accountability, what stands in the way of even just a few students eventually or inevitably paying the ultimate sacrifice?
The call on students to return to class and write exams should not be equated with a rejection of what ideally transmutes into a glorious mission aimed at the concrete realisation of some of our most cherished and honoured aspirations, as proclaimed in our constitution. A return to class must be sustained by simultaneous struggle for a better life for all, of which the student protest movement forms a crucially important part.
Newspaper editors and journalists should return the spotlight to the real issue at hand. Media attention more and more has turned to issues of violence and destruction, and how important universities are for the growth and development of the land. When student leaders openly declare that influential power figures have basically snubbed them in their fight, and how this has greatly contributed to the disintegration of university life, then why are such accounts not subjected to due in-depth inspection and more well-balanced reporting?
By the same token, when university think tanks decided to remove or suppress, ever so surreptitiously, study courses that can inspire real, critical thought, did they not realise that this will come back and bite them where it hurts most? If our students were more conversant in the true tradition of rational, critical thought, they would long have understood that no capitalist-aligned authority – based either on university premises or in the capital of Pretoria – can or will ever accede to their demands.
And neither would we have had the constant hankering to everything’s good that’s African, or the revulsion of everything Western. The principles of human dignity, equality and respect – primary aspirations of the current crusade – can be found in constitutions of arguably every single nation. But now we are told that Kant and co are no longer relevant simply because they emanate from Western soil?
The Fees Must Fall movement has called for the decolonisation of university life. Good, fair and about time, too. What many fail to see is that South Africa in its entirety needs to be decolonised. It took more than 20 years for a globally renowned campus to remove an impression of Verwoerd, with lots of tears, regrets and admonishments thrown into the mix. On the other hand, it is simply unfathomable that spectacular advances made throughout the course of human history must now be scorned, simply because "skin colour" has yet again become the moral compass of life. How utterly misguided, humiliating, embarrassing and regrettable at the same time.
Where do protesting students stand on the 90% local-content scheme? Word has yet to emerge of how this guileful undertaking was really a failed attempt to recolonise, or rather retribalise, millions of unsuspecting listeners. The then COO in question based his decree on findings that South Africans were more inclined to listen to foreign tunes. On that basis, they had to be forced-fed a healthy dose of home-grown content. "We have our own Beyoncé," it was said. But where is she? This is not to discount the valiant efforts and constant toils of many of South Africa’s cultural workers. But are we really going to deny that various new trends and accomplishments – those that can inspire and guide our lives and work – are often or also to be found in far-off lands?
Our students must not be hoodwinked into snubbing excellence, achievement and progress. Those who rebuke true human distinction on skin colour uphold the foundations of a deeply uninformed, unapprised racist order.
Insofar as the Fees Must Fall movement deserves our full support, we can never cast off that which stands for and contributes to the greater good, whether it comes from the east or the west, or from the north or the south. If Africa is truly the cradle of humankind, then it stands to reason that all people are members of one human family. Or did I miss something spectacular in the land still so wholly consumed by the sins of the past?
● Dr Kronenberg is the Lead Co-ordinator of the South-South Educational Collaboration & Knowledge Interchange Initiative