#FeesMustFall

To understand this hash tag, one has to know about another hash tag:

#RhodesMustFall

I have written about this in a few blog posts last year. The students at the University of Cape Town (UCT), together with teachers and other staff members demanded that the statue of John Cecil Rhodes, in the centre of the UCT campus, had to be taken away. This was also done, after a short time of protests. The undercurrents were South Africa’s reflection on the colonial era and also a need for renewal of the reconciliation process. Even the role of Nelson Mandela (whose name is linked with Rhodes, in the Mandela Rhodes Foundation) was questioned.

The last month or so South Africa has seen similar protests, yet quite different. This time – and it is nothing new – the fight is about tuition fees. South Africa does not have extremely high fees but for most of the population they are still not affordable. According to what I hear, the country could afford free tertiary education. The ANC-government has, however, not opted for this route. It claims that the nation first has to roll out a social security system. The critiques say that this is not happening anyway. Many billion rand disappear into mismanagement or corruption. (Read more about this on the blog of my friend and colleague, Hans Engdahl).

This time the different universities had informed students about an increment of fees for 2016. About 6 %, which I think is equal to the inflation. The students did not want this. So, students took to the streets. In almost every university town! This Thursday and Friday the University of KwaZulu-Natal therefore decided to close the University.

Rico and Clint ( in the middle) are discussing strategy with the students.

Some of UKZN-colleagues were marching with the students and yesterday evening I got first-hand information from the protest march in Pietermaritzburg. It had been a very peaceful march. The police had been there and acted in a helpful manner. A few minor incidents happened. Like some students who started to through empty plastic bottles over a fence onto the Provincial Legislature Building. Those were directly stopped by the organisers, who directly expressed that this was a peaceful demonstration.

There is a widespread support in South Africa for the students this time. The ANC has promised free education long ago and it does not happen. The minister of Education, Blade Nsimande, really made a mistake by trying to joke and say that the students must fall. By the way, he is the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and he is now the target of the revolution.

Well known, high profile leaders, like Senior Vice-President of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Frank Chikane, Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and even the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT), Max Price, support the protests. Maybe it is because their own children take part in it. All three have sons who have been arrested.

News24 writes that the son of the UCT VC was arrested. IOL-news reports about the sons of Makgoba and Chikane and especially about the reaction of Makgoba:

Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba broke down on Thursday as he reacted to his son’s arrest during the student protest at Parliament against university fee increases.

On his his blog Thabo Makgoba says:

I appeal to Bishops and parishioners in all our dioceses to support students and staff at tertiary institutions, and to pray for an amicable resolution to the crisis. Apart from holding prayer vigils, I appeal to our churches to give practical help to students in distress.

I also find a statement from church leaders on this blog. The link is here. I am sorry that I don’t see the preseiding bishop of ELCSA as one of the signatories, although there are two other Lutherans. One from ELCSA (N-T) and one from LUCSA.

Late yesterday afternoon, President Zuma informed the country that the fees will stay the same for 2016. How the government will compensate the universities is not clear. But the students take this as a victory.

If this will lead to a system with free tertiary education is still to be seen. That would, I believe, definitely be a step in the right direction.

Historical statues – a battle field

In yesterday’s SABC News Prime Time, the fights around various statues in South Africa was described in terms of the statues as a battle field.

So, what is the battle all about? As far as I can assess, it is about who controls history. This is of course a very general statement. If we dig a bit deeper it is not only about how the history is written but also how it should be present in the public spaces.

In my own understanding it is important to reflect about artifacts like old statues. Very few people would be of the opinion that statues of Adolf Hitler should have been kept in Germany after the end of the World War II. (If there were any such statues – I am not sure).

But which statues should remain and which should be either moved or destroyed? Not easy. This discussion takes places, as far as I can understand, in most societies. In today’s South Africa the discussion is animated and sometimes violent.

It all started – I think – with the Cecil Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT). It is now clear that the statue will be removed. Cecil John Rhodes caused a lot of suffering and death in southern Africa. Whether it was more than Hitler caused is not easy to say. Personally I doubt it. But I think it is a valuable standpoint that the statue must go.

But is this what the discussion in today’s South Africa is really about? Isn’t it rather about a reconciliation process that is contested? Many young, black students regard much of the reconciliation process as flawed. Today even Mandela is being criticised.

So, it is not only the statue at UCT that is under fire. Literally some EFF members placed a tyre around a colonial statue, situated in Uitenhage’s Market Square and set it alight. According to Eyewitness news the EFF takes responsibility for this.

On the website of the EFF one can also read that the party are fully behind the demand at the UCT that Rhodes must fall.

Interestingly enough ANC members cleaned another colonial statue that the EFF allegedly tried to deface. This according to News24.

On the website of the ANC, the party supports the demand for accelerated transformation, as the party writes:

The calls for Rhodes and other statues to fall are a symptom of the underlying problem of a lack of transformation in the institutions and in society in general. Twenty one years into democracy transformation can no longer be negotiated. The ANC unequivocally supports the calls of students for accelerated action to drive change. For too long, deep seated and institutionalised resistance to transformation has been the hallmark of many sections of our society and this untenable situation must change.

But I get the impression that the ANC rather wants discussions than violence:

We must also debate the meaning our different people attach to these symbols. As a nation we must find each other, in the absence of emotive racial polarisation, to build and unite around symbols that are an embodiment of the values and ethos of a democratic South Africa and the overarching principles of reconciliation and a common nationhood.

Another party, the DA, is critical when it comes to the methods used by the EFF. They refer to Mandela and write on the website:

President Mandela did not support the destruction of monuments, but rather the building of new ones, and the incorporation of existing monuments into an inclusive vision for the future of our society.

At the other end of the spectrum we find the Afrikaner organisation AfriForum that exists to protect the rights of the Afrikaners a community. They reacted to a statue at Church Square in Pretoria, that was painted green last week. On the website the organisation writes:

AfriForum launched a petition a week ago, asking for a moratorium to be placed on the removal and relocation of all statues and monuments in public areas. The organization also proposes that a national heritage summit be held where all concerned parties can discuss the future of the country’s cultural heritage.

It will be interesting to see what will happen in all this. Will for example the statue of Gandhi in Pietermaritzburg remain? Can anything bad be said about him? Yes, of course. He was, according to many, a racist and there are numerous quotes that support this. But the good that he did, can it maybe weigh up the thoughts that he held? And how many politicians or world leaders do we find without faults? Surely they are all placed on a continuum.

I think I have come to the conclusion that we would manage quite well without statues. Let us use the money for other things. Like food and shelter for the poor.

Rhodes - out

The decision seems to be clear. According to eNCA the senate at UCT voted in favour of removing the statue. 181 for and only 1 against! I understand that the senate wants it to be removed altogether.

If I understand it correctly the council must also make a decision and then it has to go to a body called Heritage Western Cape. So, we’ll see what happens.

Across South Africa people discuss this. Media personality Gareth Cliff wrote on his blog last week and compared Rhodes to king Shaka. This has sparked a twitter frency, according to IOLnews.

The protesters at UCT are also being compared with ISIS. This shows the feelings that these kinds of actions evoke. But a column in News24 gives prompt answers to this allegation.

We’ll see what will come out of this. I see tweets about removing other statues as well. Like Louis Botha outside the parliament.

Will this be prophetic? Were will it stop?

One thing is clear. The reconciliation process needs to be taken to another level. Nothing surprising in that. Reconciliation, just as democracy, is perishable. Every generation needs to renew it.

Mandela and Rhodes = true?

A few hours ago a colleague in Cape Town and I spoke over the phone. He alerted me to the situation in Cape Town and at the UCT in particular regarding the discussion about whether or not the Rhodes statue should remain at the centre of the UCT. See one of my blog posts about this conflict.

It goes without saying that this is a much bigger issue than just concerning a single statue. Hence students and staff at the Rhodes University have also raised concerns. Protesters at the UKZN have defaced another statue, George V. I have also published a blog post about that.

And now discussions are being held around the Mandela Rhodes Foundation and its colonial legacy.

My colleague in Cape Town made it clear to me that academics question the role of Mandela himself. Was it appropriate of him, to link his name with the name of Rhodes, taking into account the values that Rhodes stood for?

I google Rhodes and Mandela and find two debate articles in Mail and Guardian where  Judy Sikuza, programme director of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, tries to explain how this dichotomy or juxtaposition can be reconciled. I am not totally convinced.

The other debate article is written by Ntombizikhona Valela, a masters’ student in the history department at Rhodes University’s and also a member of the Black Student Movement. She gives the information that there have been debates around changing Rhodes University’s name since the 1990s - in particular since 1994.

Without really revealing her own standpoint she makes it clear that Rhodes University will face huge problems if they don’t listen to the demands from the students:

But, with the emergence of a new kind of student in a different political moment in which young people nationwide are challenging the notion of the rainbow nation and whether we can truly say we are in a post-apartheid era, it remains to be seen whether Rhodes’s final fortress will stand.

My colleague from Cape Town said earlier this morning, young South African feel that Mandela needs to be de-iconized.

We are in for interesting times in the country.