Interesting middle class split in South African beliefs emerges from university protests

A very interesting divide has occurred amongst the middle class in South Africa, which can be seen on Facebook and in the media. I have never seen such a marked split amongst people of similar backgrounds and from the same religious organisations, many arguing with indignation about the matter at hand. 

There is little dispute amongst the majority of middle-income and lower-income groups that students need to pay less for education and that the protests have successfully exposed how poorly government has done in managing taxpayers’ money and funding education. The disagreement seems to have boiled down to the initial stages of the protest: Was it right to initiate it by blocking roads and preventing other students from attending lectures in order to achieve the ‘greater good’ of lower student fees? A surprising number of educated citizens do not hesitate to say “yes” to this question. 

The people who initiated the protests knew very well that the majority of students would prefer to carry on with their routine lives and attend lectures rather than to protest. Coercion was therefore necessary to increase participation and get the ‘snowball’ rolling, and if this initial step had not been taken, the protests would not have gained sufficient momentum to make the impact they did.

In a democracy, however, the Rule of Law must reign supreme and individuals’ rights to freedom of choice are to be respected. These liberties have come down from centuries of liberal thinking and are based on the Golden Rule of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. 

The Golden Rule is used to distinguish right from wrong by placing a thinker in another person’s or another group’s shoes. This mode of morality is designed to suppress one’s self-interest or one’s group-interest by helping one to imagine the cost that one’s actions will have on others. Thinking such as: “I have to have that” or “We must do this because it will ultimately be best for everyone” is limited and restrained by the Golden Rule.

Liberal or Constitutional democracies have this at their core and this principle has produced laws such as freedom of movement (i.e. free entry into public roads), freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom from coercion and intimidation in order to protect the rights of minorities; or, as was the case of the university protests, to protect the majority’s right to attend lectures and facilities they had paid for.

In a liberal democracy, your belief of what is best for another person or for society does not trump their belief in what is best for them. Only strong conservatives, dictators, fascists, Communists, Leninists, Maoists and Stalinists attempt to force what they believe on others via coercion, and it is very worrying that so many South Africans don’t seem to understand this concept.

Liberal democratic thinking evolved partly from the realisation that each individual has a tiny fraction of the full knowledge of what is really best for society because there are so many unforeseen consequences of seemingly benevolent actions. What might the unforeseen consequences in this case be? 

Students initially demanded a 10 percent increase instead of higher increases proposed by the institutions. When they saw that the strike had gained momentum, the 10 percent went to 6 percent and finally went down to a 0 percent increase. Students were very successful in their strategies this year and got more than they had initially wanted.

The universities had set fees in line with inflation, however, and now there will be a shortfall in funds. Government has a vast debt and no money to spare, and even the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), which should be funding poor university students, is short of R51 billion. The universities themselves will therefore end up footing a large proportion of the deficit on student fees.

Inflation will necessitate that these institutions cut administrative staff, lecturers and tutors; and cut internal post-graduate funding and reduce library funding, research funding and a range of other funding which will ultimately cripple them. Furthermore, universities rely heavily on external income from endowments, donations and bequests, which benefactors are likely to withdraw if chaos is allowed to reign as it has.

As universities’ resources wither and larger numbers of students are accepted it is likely that there will be protests at the end of each year (just before exams) where students will re-demand a zero percent increase or indeed a decrease in fees.

Police and university leadership took very little interest in enforcing the law and the rights of other students, and so more protesting is the logical approach to follow, especially after Blade Nzimande enforced the belief that the country can afford free education. The government has thoughtlessly opened a huge can of worms by promising what it cannot deliver.

Now that the road has been opened to lower fees (via chaos and unconstitutional behaviour), where will it end?  Universities will take immense financial strain and protest action and disruption have been given the green light and will increase. These may be some of the unforeseen consequences of #feesmustfall.