Mere anarchy
Images of students battling police and trashing property on University campuses have become commonplace and predictable. These mirror similar events which have been occurring all over the country (and globally) with seemingly increasing frequency, though the loss of life has diminished substantially from the bloody days of the early 1990's.
The popular media feeds off (and stokes) such sensational events. Hence, despite much passionate rhetoric there is remarkably little in the way of serious analysis of why this is occurring, what it portends and what, if anything, could have and still should be done to remedy it.
We live in a "small" country (indeed world) courtesy of the power and impact of modern communications technology and the media industry. This highly efficient but selective meme dissemination engine blankets the country tapping into historical and cultural divisions, tribal instincts, old and new identities, individual and collective frustrations and grievances and dominant, self-serving narratives created by the political-media axis.
In this environment, serious factual analysis hardly impacts the "meme space" in which political battles are conducted, in any significant way. For instance, despite the heavy news presence of the current "feesmustfall" movement (itself the offspring of "rhodesmustfall", which demonstrated the impotence of the Universities/State in the face of grievance backed by mob violence), how many of general population can answer simple questions concerning the central issue of fees within tertiary education.
In order to begin to understand and evaluate the legitimacy of student demands, the information required would minimally include university costs, what bursaries and other financial aids are available to deserving students, how many potential students are unfairly disadvantaged/blocked from a university education for economic reasons, how much/little exploitation of assisted education occurs now and what steps would be taken to ensure an "enhanced" system would not be exploited in the future... and so on. It would also include what representation in respect of fees have already been made and what kind of response ensued.