Dumisani Sondlo shares some simple advice with the leaders of the #FeesMustFall campaign.
The #FeesMustFall campaign has thrust a new set of individuals’ names into the national spotlight. Apart from the name Mcebo Dlamini and Chumani Maxwele – before the month of October – the names of student leaders such as Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, Shaeera Kalla, Jodi Williams, Fasiha Hassan, Dudu Ndlovu, Zikisa Maqubela and Vuyani Pambo were virtually unknown.
As the pink and white smoke of stun grenades lingered at the gates of Parliament, the nation was further introduced to Kgotsi Chikane, Nathan Taylor, Markus Trengrove, Ian Price and Bucks Whaley.
The names of these student leaders were suddenly mentioned in the same breath as those of Jacob Zuma, Blade Nzimande, Mmusi Maimane, Gwede Mantashe, Adam Habib, Max Price and Sizwe Mabizela.
The age of social media and live television introduced the nation to the T-shirts of the ANCYL, DA and EFF – all tied together in a knot at the University of Johannesburg.
With a common purpose, various ANC-aligned formations were seen sharing a stage and microphone with the EFF right in front of Luthuli House.
With a slight pan-Africanist tinge, some common Struggle songs were meshed together in a style that has recently become commonplace in EFF rallies.
Every campus was suddenly awash with the song Solomon (Mahlangu). Black and white students together sang “My mother was a kitchen girl – my father was a garden boy”. That’s why I want this education. Without distinction, a common song came from Bulls and Stormers, Chiefs and Pirates fans alike, from Cape to Cairo, from Morocco to Madagascar, we’ll reclaim Azania using the Freedom Charter.
We saw images of students mopping their own residence bathrooms and cleaning up after every rally that had not involved confrontation with the police, while reciting an old PAC refrain of “High morale! High discipline”!
And then there was that iconic image of Wits SRC President Nompendulo Mkhatshwa with her trademark doek, leading a crowd, with red dust filling the air.
Using social media tools, this generation of students turned a little Monday spark at Wits University into ambers that rolled through Parliament by Wednesday, and into a raging inferno.
I could not help wondering if the workers in Marikana would have been so brutally massacred had they known how to use digital age social media tools like Twitter in August 2012.
The thing about being a student who leads a mass protest action like this is that you are usually the last one to realise that you are the one leading it. I know this from experience. As a 15-year-old, I led one such action at my high school in the Eastern Cape.
In the heat of the action, the leadership instinct in you has a way of kicking in.
And as the leader, you are not in charge of everything that the protesters do. No one can possibly be in charge of something as organic as that. But, of course, student leadership instinct is usually about a single-minded focus on solving the problem at hand.
I can bet my bottom dollar that neither of Mkhatshwa nor Maxwele, Dlamini, Kalla, Chikane, Whaley, Hassan, Trengrove, Taylor Maqubela, Williams, Ndlovu or Pambo could have realised that they had become the de-facto leaders of the nationwide #FeesMustFall campaign.
Surely not even Ilan Price, the son of UCT vice-chancellor Max Price, realised how deeply involved he had become.
As a 15-year-old, I had not realised it either. I only sought to ensure the protest was non-violent. And by standing up and consistently communicating that desire, you automatically gain a measure of moral authority.
And by articulating what the students should do to keep things non-violent, you unwittingly begin to direct a practical part of the protest action. As the student leaders at Wits are now accused of “selling out” to management by some elements, I completely empathise with them.
As those from the Tshwane University of Technology, who are now unfairly accused over some of the violence at the Union Buildings, I understand how it feels to be in their shoes. I am now 41 years old, and have analysed the actions of that 15-year-old youngster that I was. And I have some simple advice to share with the leaders of the #FeesMustFall campaign.
* You have to come to terms with the fact that, whether you intended it or not, you will always be seen as one of those who are responsible for the victories and disappointments of the those who you lead.
* You may not have advocated for the accompanying violence, but you cannot pick and choose the part of the story that you will own.
* As individuals and as groups, take full ownership of the narrative and the story of #FeesMustFall. Organise competent people who can write the story of your campaign. Do not accept the narrative of the mainstream media without making sure your voices ring louder.
* In the process of retelling the story of #FeesMustFall, do not be sensational or antagonistic towards the university management. They are as much mired in this as you are.
* Take solace in the knowledge that you have seriously affected the conscience and the core of this nation in a manner that can never be reversed. I believe that most of the student leaders in the #FeesMustFall campaign will play a positive role in the future of South Africa.
*Sondlo is a communications practitioner, entrepreneur and leadership mentor residing in Cape Town. He holds an Honours degree in Communications from Fort Hare University, as well as Honours and Master’s Degrees in Public Administration (both Cum Laude) from Stellenbosch University.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Cape Times
** E-mail your opinion to [email protected] and we will consider it for publication or use our Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.