Past leaders of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) and the ANC believe the students' movement has lost the plot.
Though there is no agreement on the relevance of the student body, all feel that Cosas's confrontational attitude is no longer necessary.
The major contrast between the Cosas of 1979 and the one operating from the ANC headquarters on the 14th floor of old Luthuli House is in the discipline and level of maturity, according to the first Cosas president, Ephraim Mogale.
Another Cosas stalwart of the mid-1980s, Kgotso Chikane, said: "Then you had to be politically inclined and highly disciplined to be a member of Cosas. But these days it is just fashionable to join Cosas."
Cosas has a vital role to play as a pressure group in advocating policies to be endorsed by the government, according to Lulu Johnson, Cosas president between 1984 and 1986. However, the student body had to deal with discipline before even thinking of tackling such "pertinent" issues.
Former Cosas president Lebohang Maile agrees discipline has been lax. "It is our concern that if Cosas fails to address the question of discipline, it will be difficult to address challenges facing the education system and other problems," he said.
Maile and the national leadership of Cosas intervened when the Gauteng leadership called on students to trash private and Model C schools and prevent pupils going to school.
"There should be a change in approach on how to press our demands. And this means a change in the character of the organisation," he said.
The reason for the collapse in discipline is difficult to pinpoint. The ANC and former Cosas leaders admit they have failed to provide adequate guidance and support to the "youngsters".
Mogale, now an ANC MP, said Cosas had previously always had political support and advice from the ANC underground.
Gauteng Education MEC Ignatius Jacobs, a Cosas member between 1979 and 1981, said: "I will be the first to admit that lack of guidance from the past leadership is one of the factors resulting in the current behaviour in Cosas."
An ANC spokesperson, Nomfanelo Kota, said she was aware of the lack of formal interaction, though the students body still regarded Cosas as a vital education component structure.
The ANC spends millions of rands a year funding Cosas - by offering the use of its old headquarters building and through direct financial grants.
A source said the ruling party channelled about R1,8-million towards Cosas's 10th congress held at the weekend. "It's more of a question of the ANC seeing Cosas as a tactical constituency and nothing else. What do they gain from unruly and unguided missiles like these?" said the source.
Maile claimed Cosas had more than 300 000 members paying R5 a year - which brought in more than R1,5-million from fees alone.
He sought to explain why he was still the president of Cosas, which comprises primary and secondary school students while he was studying at Unisa.
"There should be someone available to take political decisions when the rest of the executive is at school. I have matriculated and dedicated my work to Cosas," he said.
"I was elected president in 1998 and I couldn't abandon the movement in the middle of nowhere. That's why I chose to step down at a national congress," he said.
Maile was also accused of double standards because he matriculated at the exclusive Crawford College - ironically, one of the schools Cosas threatened to trash as part of its "anti-privatisation campaign".
"I grew up in the township and attended township schools. Therefore my attending Crawford should not be used as a personal attack on me."
Maile added: "Criticism levelled against the movement is that it has lost touch with its constituency except for the
response it gets from 'truant' pupils during the movement's ever chaotic marches.
"We have conceded that Cosas is very weak, but that does not mean there is a gap between us and the branches. There is a lot of co-ordination."
When city streets were trashed during past Cosas marches, hawkers' stock looted and cars burnt, there was talk - including a suggestion from Education Minister Kader Asmal - that the organisation should be depoliticised.
Asmal also suggested, after the Alexandra mayhem last year, that there should be legislation regulating political parties on school premises.