One of the University of the Western Cape's illustrious graduates, and currently a Professor of Linguistics at the institution, Prof Charlyn Wessels Dyers, recently posted comments of her own and fellow alumni on Facebook in response to an online threat by a student against those daring to board student buses in order to go and write exams.
This group’s condemnation of what is happening at UWC is clear and many of the writers of the posts are known to me. Collectively we share a history of UWC’s formation under repressive rule but also of celebration when the first non-white Vice-Chancellors were appointed; and when we hosted Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison, as the culmination of everything we opposed under apartheid.
I remember how the main hall rocked with Nkosi Sikelele as Mandela strode victoriously down the aisle and onto the stage to be feted as the person who embodied our struggle for democracy and freedom.
On Dyers’ Facebook post is a photo of her and other struggle stalwarts at one of the earliest protests at UWC in 1973 when the campus was littered with security police and spies. There is also a poster of Adam’s Small’s Kanna Hy Ko Hystoe in which Dyers acted in a major role in 1972.
Small’s play resonated with us because we were all affected by the forced removals and issues affecting Modderdam Squatter Camp, on UWC’s doorstep, in which many of us were involved.
So, the Grande Dame of English has a pedigree second to none, and the credibility to tell students where to get off. Thus her response to the following menacing Facebook comment from Abongile MK Qalintshebe, a law student:
‘The Gods has spoken “enter that bus at ur own risk and complete ur exams at hospital” our call is free education for4All and ending outsourcing…it was never about exams….until our demands r met we shall continue renovating our lovely campus, ofcoz together with SAPS and the security guards….”.
Beneath a screenshot of this comment Dyers wrote:
“How do you negotiate with such evil? Lock them up and throw away the key!! And can someone please explain the total silence of Zuma and his blunt Blade while our beloved UWC is destroyed?”
This response exemplifies the anger of many of us who were pivotal to the formation of UWC. Other alumni responded likewise:
“And to think UWC was always a beacon of hope during the struggle years. Did certain governmental leaders abuse this facility to their own benefit? Did they forget the contribution UWC made towards their current political achievements? Why don't the students concentrate on their exams? Is it not in the first place why they are there - to gain a better life for all?”
“I trust their faces are clear on the pictures. Remember when we all had to reregister way back them. Nevermind the Prez where is Mr Fransman? Enjoying what's being done to his Prov's varsities?”
“Remove them from your lovely campus with force. I trust that the majority of the students want to write exams, so why is "majority rule" not respected now? In my opinion, the government is quiet, either because they cannot handle it and really just don't care, or because it is in their interest to make this province messed up enough so that the masses vote for them.”
“…UWC with its proud record produced excellent leaders. Some who struggled to get an education. Our Rights based culture and the attitude of some are destroying our country. How can you build a nation without a sound education? This is not about education. This about hidden agendas. They must seek their gods ' will somewhere else. Get rid of them.”
The political and racial suspicions run deep in our community and alumni are disturbed by the wanton destruction that cannot be justified in the name of free education. Their anger is a response to vandals who are mindlessly destroying not only a beautiful campus but an institution that had been forged out of blood, sweat and tears.
The missive sent by Rector Tyrone Pretorius, highlights the extent of the violence perpetrated. Accusing him of being unwilling to meet with them and unwilling to squash UWC’s “historic debt”, the students ran riot on the campus.
Police were called in when students were mobilizing in the residences intent on setting the residences alight. To quote the Rector:
“This was followed by widespread damage across campus with windows and doors broken in buildings, including the A and B block, Life Sciences, School of Public Health, Economic and Management Sciences and Social Sciences. The Police fired stun grenades and any reports of live ammunition being used by the Police, are not correct. We also have visual confirmation of students setting off large fire crackers to add to the confusion.
The students then retreated to the residences and continued with indiscriminate violence and attacking of security. They also started various fires between the residences and set fire to the Residence Life (ResLife) and the Residence Administration buildings. The situation escalated and the Police then brought in reinforcements. Protesting students continued to provoke the Police, vandalised Kovacs Residence property, looted the Kovacs tuck shop and broke down large parts of the University fence.
Initially the Police did not react to the provocation, however, late afternoon they started to arrest students. The Police were armed with stun grenades, teargas and rubber bullets and we have been informed that the Police were shot at with live ammunition. The ferociousness of the attacks today and the disregard for the rights of others is absolutely shocking and is condemned in the strongest possible terms.”
Students also assaulted a female security officer whom they held at knife-point and another who was held hostage. UWC’s fire and medical officer had to be rushed to hospital. The wanton destruction and taunting of police have elicited an un-assuaged anger among many of us who have been central in the formation of UWC as a non-racial non-sexist institution.
Just as the UDF leadership gave up its power and bestowed it on the ANC, in the same way the Coloured student leadership gave up their vanguard role to African student leaders as an acknowledgement of the deprivation of majority rights under apartheid.
It is this conscious sacrifice one group made for the other, under the banner of non-racialism, that has created ethnic tension between Coloureds and Africans.
Yes, I have said it – African hegemony is increasingly pissing those of us off who believed in majority rule and the undertone in those Facebook comments is clear “we did not build up this university for you to destroy.” Ambiguously, “you” could refer either to the protesters or the “Other”. In a context of excessive government debt and a scarcity of finances, a news report estimates that the damage done to UWC property amounts to R12million.
Buses have been torched at UWC; residences set alight; and at Wits and Fort Hare shops were looted and books burned. And so from UCT to Wits protests have spread to other black campuses, either in solidarity with the demand for free education or simply because protesting is fun - especially when exams are around the corner.
Initial claims that the free education campaign would be peaceful, were absolute hogwash. Anyone with common sense would have known that the uncompromising brinkmanship and unwillingness to negotiate with university managements like adults would ultimately end in chaos and violence.
Allegations of a third force by those who thought they were protesting for a legitimate cause, have become commonplace amongst those who now have some remorse about the recklessness of their actions. The protests that started at Wits with the ANC Youth League and EFF youth vying for the hearts and minds of the student electorate, cannot be reversed.
A direct response to the RhodesMustFall campaign and the dominance of Black Consciousness ideology that spearheaded this movement, it is about political competition with DASO’s ascendancy on campuses across the country.
These political and ideological battles are of course related to SA’s stagnant economy. As I write this column, economist Dawie Roodt is sharing his thoughts with Lindsay Williams on Fine Business Radio as to the motivations behind the protests. Positing that the widespread riots underlie a declining economy, growing unemployment and poverty, he avers that, “students are realizing that it is not nice to be in SA.”
Government’s failure to equip the labour force with the requisite skills to build a modern economy has much to do with the unrest. And the more the ruling party destroys the country’s infrastructure and state enterprises through incompetent appointments and local government authorities, the more it crafts conflicting macro-economic policies, digging a flailing economy deeper into an even deeper hole.
With an ever declining economy, the belief that all matriculants should go to university, even when they are ill equipped for higher education, further exacerbates the problem. This is the reason universities today have become the repositories of collective grievances and power struggles against a state epitomized by a ruling elite that students both strongly resent and strangely identify with. No wonder one student leader on their march to Parliament chanted: “we voted for Zuma, we deserve a response.”
This is the contradiction students live with.
Until they understand that their vote strengthens the ruling party’s lack of accountability and corruption, they have no leg to stand on. And universities will remain sites of struggle for students who remain trapped in this conundrum.
After 20 years of democracy, students should know by now that loyal and peaceful opposition means using their vote to change the very government that frustrates them. They should also know by now that in a constitutional democracy, violence is not an option. Hence, many who initially supported the student cause, now despise them.
Rhoda Kadalie
