EFF Students Command’s first Student Central Command Team and Declaration of the National Students Assembly

19 June 2015

The Economic Freedom Fighters Students’ Command (EFFSC) held its First National Students Assembly under the theme of  “Building Students’ Power for Economic Freedom” and the following are the first ever elected leadership collective of the EFFSC coming out of the assembly:

1. President Mpho Morolane

2. Deputy President Mpoletsang Montshosi

3. Secretary General Phiwaba Madokwe

4. Deputy Secretary General Rendani Nematswerani

5.Treasure General Thandi Mashele

Additional Members

1. Dingaan Nkoana

2. Tumelo Thulo

3. Palesa Mcophela

4. Luxolo Jacobs

5. Zwelithini Malope

6. Anikie Phoshoko

7. Nasiphi Picane

8. Peter Keetse

9. Keoarabile Sebaeng

10. Sihle Dikaneng

11. Khutso Matlaila

12. Solomon Mocumi

13. Naledi Chirwa

14. Mbali Masuku

15. Sharon Letlape

16. Itumeleng Molefe

Declaration of the National Students Assembly follows below:

Declaration of the First Economic Freedom Fighters National Students Assembly

16 June 2015

We the delegates to the historic 1st National Students Assembly gathered at the University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus between the 14th to the 16th of June 2015 to officially establish the EFF Students' Command enacted in Section 17 of the EFF Constitution.

We all carry a definite and unequivocal mandate from students and workers of all Higher Education institutions of South Africa to build a sound policy framework of the EFFSC and elect a Student Central Command Team that will cherish revolutionary cultural values and create conditions for total political and economic emancipation, prosperity and equitable rights for all students and workers in Higher Education institutions.

We the delegates of the first EFFSC National Students Assembly commit ourselves to fill the void in student politics and give the true meaning to what a student movement is and should be.

We commit ourselves to building a student movement that will advocate for radical higher education transformation for economic freedom.

We are building a student movement that will partake in serious community political and ideological struggles, and subsequently influence the whole of society.

We are building a student movement that will set a national and even international discourse on key issues and areas of interest.

We draw our inspiration from the 1960s students’ movements which  conceptualised a political struggle, defined the methods of struggle, and mobilised virtually all sections of society behind the struggle for freedom amidst heavy suppression and intimidation.

We draw inspiration from the Steve Biko, Onkgopotse Tiro and Tsietsi Mashinini generation.

We draw inspiration from all freedom fighters across the globe who we able to significantly influence the political discourse of the oppressed in their home countries and abroad despite their age, the likes of Che Guevara, Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Assata Shakur.

We also draw inspiration from developing countries such as Brazil, Lybia, Mauritius and Cuba who have been providing free education to their people including Chile that has committed itself to provide free tertiary education by 2016.

The  EFFSC  takes  socialism  as  the  theoretical  basis  guiding  its  thinking and development of the political line and in this respect identifies itself as a Marxist, Leninist, and Fanonian organisation.

Amongst other things, what Marxism and Leninism offer is method in every aspect of thinking and in every aspect of work in revolution?

Learning the basics of this method will firmly place us in a position to produce systematic and thorough investigation and study of the environment we will be working in.

You cannot go to a war you plan to win and never fight again without fully understanding every aspect of your battle ground.

Fanon speaks to the lived experience of black people that only black people can relate to.

Fanon also speaks to raising significantly the political consciousness of the black majority so that our people are able at all times to consolidate and defend the gains of the revolution.

The 1976 June 16th uprisings were sparked by an unjust and unequal education system and a government that disregarded the needs of the majority.

The actions of the class of 1976, 39 years ago on this day influenced the resistance against the apartheid regime in other parts of the country and forced the racist, capitalist apartheid regime to listen to the cries of the oppressed black majority, today as the EFFSC, we are taking the baton from them.

We are also the generation of 2012 August 16th Marikana Massacre, a tragic event in our history where the ruling party affirmed its disregard of black workers in favour of white monopoly capital. It is on this basis that the EFFSC commits itself to the workers' struggles across all Higher Education institutions.

It is also for this reason that we as the delegates of the EFFSC National Assembly condemn the use of ICC to persecute African leaders only and further call for the AU or an African forum to prosecute Zuma for his government massacred workers in Marikana.

As the EFFSC we note that what happened post-1994 was not the deepening of our democracy but the consolidation of white supremacy.

This is evident in how twenty one years into democracy, the ANC's policies continue reproducing and maintaining apartheid's legacy of significant inequalities.

This is evident in every aspect of our society including Higher Education where:

- access to education is along capitalist profit maximising lines where the poor are closed out.

- transformation of previously white institutions has not happened

- our universities' intake only caters for 30% of learners who pass matric

- graduates are under prepared for the work environment.

We the delegates commit ourselves to the 7 cardinal pillars for economic freedom in our lifetime and the 7 Non-negotiable Founding Principles of the EFF Students’ Command, which are

1. Mobilising students behind the struggle for economic freedom, embodied in the EFF Founding Manifesto.

2. Pursuit of radical higher education transformation with the aim towards free, quality education.

3. Championing the interests of students and all workers in institutions of higher learning.

4. Building a dynamic relationship between students and community struggles and campaigns.

5. Participating in progressive international campaigns and programmes.

6. Promoting academic and research excellence and progress.

7. Contributing to intellectual and ideological discourse in a manner that seeks to promote the struggle for economic freedom.

Our immediate programme will include:

- ensuring there is an EFFSC branch in all learning institutions of South Africa.

- ensuring that the EFFSC is affiliated in all Higher Education institutions of South Africa.

- ensuring the EFFSC contests and wins elections in all Higher Education institutions of South Africa.

- campaign for the banning of financial exclusions for academically deserving students in all institutions of higher learning. We believe that in a South Africa with poverty and low income for many people, it can never be morally justifiable to financially exclude students.

- campaign for the transformation of predominantly white racist institutions of Higher Education.

- ensure that all statues representative of colonial apartheid white supremacy are taken done by any revolutionary means necessary.

In championing the interests of students, the EFF will ensure that following define all students in institutions of higher learning:

All students should have funding for their studies.

All students should have adequate learning, teaching and research materials, including access to computer labs with consistent internet connection.

All students should have food.

All students should have residence and accommodation.

All students should be safe and secured in the University and residences.