THESE are dark days for students. Their revolution has suffered dramatic setbacks in recent weeks. This is of concern because, as they so often tell us, they are the leaders of tomorrow.

First there was the ousting of the ANC-aligned South African Students Congress at the University of Fort Hare, alma mater of, among others, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Robert Mugabe and Robert Sobukwe. The student representative council there is now controlled by the Democratic Alliance Students Organisation.

This is the second campus that Sasco has lost to Daso. Last year, the DA students took control of the SRC at Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

But it is the Fort Hare loss that is so galling. As the ANC’s Eastern Cape secretary Oscar Mabuyane pointed out, “It’s quite disappointing because Fort Hare is our pride. You cannot complete a conversation about the struggle for liberation without mentioning Fort Hare. It is not an easy thing to accept, [losing] Fort Hare. The institution is a cradle for continental leadership in progressive politics. It’s a very sad moment.”

The party’s provincial leadership summonsed Sasco to a meeting to give an account of themselves. Here there was much discussion about Daso’s seemingly underhanded election campaign and the “dirty tricks” used to get more than 52% of the vote.

It appears that by seditiously focusing on the issues at Fort Hare, such as the exploitative treatment of students on government loans, the lack of meal allowances, the squalid residences, large fee hikes, and so on, Daso had sabotaged the ruling party’s attempts to bolster the Sasco campaign by having senior ANC leaders drop in on the campus from time to time and impress the youngsters there with their shiny cars.

One such leader was Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. He once handed out R50 notes to stall owners and informal traders during walkabouts at Pietermaritzburg taxi ranks. Who knows how Sasco would have fared had he repeated this crowd-pleasing stunt at Fort Hare.

Another was Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula. We’re not sure exactly of the thinking here. In fact, at the Mahogany Ridge, we’re convinced that, where Mbalula is concerned, there is no thinking, ever, as a matter of course. But that is by the by. Clearly parading a man widely regarded as an idiot before the student body was perhaps too progressive an election strategy – even at this cradle of continental leadership.

Then there was that business with Mcebo “I love Hitler” Dlamini, who was undemocratically removed from his position as SRC president at Wits University by vice-chancellor Adam Habib, the well-known Jewish puppet and Woolworths customer.

This week students gave Habib until yesterday afternoon to reinstate Dlamini, failing which the university will come to a standstill. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking – Friday, weekend, usually quiet on campus, etc – but you really shouldn’t. These guys are serious. Sasco, Progressive Youth Alliance members and some of their friends, even had a protest march. About 250 students atttended, according to news reports. The university could be reduced to rubble by Monday if the people’s demands are not met.

Meanwhile, at the University of Cape Town, the neo-colonialists have suspended Chumani Maxwele, the faeces-chucker who started the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, until July 19. It was, naturally, a “politically motivated” reprisal because, as Maxwele has pointed out, “decolonising is a painful process”. 

Being a towering force of reaction, UCT has naturally claimed that Maxwele’s suspension had nothing whatsoever to do with the protest actions of recent weeks but rather because he had allegedly “intimidated, harassed, threatened and racially abused a member of staff”.

Maxwele has accused the complainant, a woman, of trying to “victimise” him and prevent him from having a further role in in the transformation of the university. However, as he has stated, he will not be deterred.

To this end, the UCT SRC president, Ramabina Mahapa, has suggested that inspiration for the way forward may be drawn from elsewhere. He retweeted a tweet that read, “Maybe we should look at how Mao Zedong of China did it. Cultural revolution. It’s not pretty but it’s necessary,” and there followed some discussion on social media among students.

Mahapa, according to reports, was however quick to point out that he was “not in support of a cultural revolution like that (the Chinese one)”.

And that is understandable. Mahapa sometimes wears spectacles – a sure sign of bourgeois intellectualism. When the purges come, he too could be forced to kneel on broken glass and recite chunks of the Freedom Charter while members of the Red Guard beat him with sticks. 

But there we go, giving young people ideas again.

This article first appeared in the Weekend Argus.