EFF STUDENTS' COMMAND SIZOFUNDANGENKANI CAMPAIGN
03 January 2018
The year of students abruptly commences with the brutal exclusion of the poor of the poorest academically deserving students being excluded because of systematic financial exclusions by Universities South Africa.
Approximately 800 000 Matriculants sat for the 2017 year end exam and will be highly anticipating their academic fate tomorrow. Many of them from the rural areas where there still exist mud schools and under the tree learning, some hail from the concentration camps (Townships) where study material is never delivered, where statistically only 30% of the class attends as a result of poverty, illness and child labour.
On the other hand, 11 000 IEB students have already received their results recording a 98,76% pass rate before the Basic Education Minister ‘s public announcement. This entails that once again the elite minority will be guaranteed University entry beforehand, provisional accommodation, bursary allocation, University scholarship and registration allowances primarily.
South Africa remains an Apartheid state economically, where the rich are citizens and the poor are subordinates. The poor Blacks of this country come from a point of historical and current disadvantage wherein the application processes used neither by post or online application coupled with the need to attach an application fee to your application form. This system is by virtue of lack of computer facilities, data, computer literacy, burnt posts offices, unreliable post service, no proximity to banks and info heralds failure to apply on time.
The Universities with all the stats they have in their archives and surveys they do every year, they know the demographics of their applicants and therefore seek to maintain the status quo by even further implementing a cosmopolitan policy that will deliberately exclude the children of taxi drivers, cleaners, security guards, miners, cashiers and the township and rural dwellers.
The cosmopolitan policy aims at only accepting the rich economic sector runners and small business enterprises which are in the South African context White.
The reason why the Universities wanted autonomy was precisely to make sure that knowledge is reserved only for the elite and controllers of the country. Archives are as precious as minerals and to control knowledge is to control people their fate and existence. Every year the Department of Higher Education cannot accept the number of students produced by Basic education. If then only Jews, Afrikaners and other Whites with a few non-whites as an exception are guaranteed education due to their financial ability then it is fair to say that to exclude more than 800 000 young poor minds is to perpetuate an intellectual holocaust on the poor youth of this country and throw them in the harsh concentration camps of exploitative labour.
The financially excluded students at Universities then falls prey to bogus colleges that issue out useless diplomas and certificates that are not even recognised in the workplace. They fall prey to fly by nights that rob thousands of poor students their last grand mother's grant allowance and then vanish like smoke. Many students are left with no choice but to register with SETAs and other short term training institutions which have proven to be unreliable, inconsistent and inefficient. We are going to shut down all fly by nights and use the buildings for accommodation processes.
The unemployment rate for the youth below 25 years is a heart drenching 67.4% which before we can look at the workplace we must focus on their access to Quality Education. The youth is unemployed because it is not given access to study and get skills training demanded by the workplace, the lack of access to higher education and training for the purposes of producing graduates that will be job creators instead of job seekers, access to produce innovators, Black Actuarial Scientists, Economic policy developers, qualified Professors and Engineers. The access is also primarily scarce because of the failure of government and private sector to invest in the establishment of new Universities in rural provinces that defocus from commodifying education but seeks to teach and train for economic development of our country.
Sizofundangenkani Campaign aims at exposing the financial barrier placed to decampaign students from applying or even registering by shocking them with ridiculous registration fees e.g. R22000.00 expected before registration and still expected to pay R2000.00 for a space in accommodation. Some students do not apply because of fear of the amount they have to pay before learning even starts.
Sizofundangenkani Campaign aims at eradicating the financial borders created between South African students and other African students from our motherland. As an organisation that is in solidarity with all oppressed people of the world particularly our African brothers and sisters still facing neo-colonialism and imperialists education systems, we are greatly against the exclusive system of demanding a 75% payment upon registration and 75% payment of accommodation before receiving a room key. At the end of March, these students are expected to have settled the 25% otherwise they will face financial exclusions.
Our African brothers and sisters are expected to produce Visas and medical certificates before they are deemed as eligible humans to register at a South African Institution knowing very well the incompetency of the Department of Home Affairs and waiting period you spend before receiving your Visa in our country. The question to be asked is simple, where is our hospitality as a country towards our own who fought with us side by side, in solidarity with our struggle and became warm homes to our leaders and liberation armies in exile and training camps respectively, comrades who blew the winds of freedom to the south to awaken us from our slumber.
The Sizofundangenkani campaign aims at making sure that we do not recognise colonial borders imposed on us by neo- colonialists who are halting the decolonisation agenda of education. We say that for as long as they qualify and are from as far as Congo, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and other African countries they must be given the best hospitality without robbing them of their money at first glance through exorbitant means because that allows space for International students from Europe to misuse their advantage of economy and strength of their currency to register first and take the space that belonged to a fellow African who is smarter but excluded because they come from an African country with economic, political and social instability therefore cannot afford to pay such an amount upfront.
The Sizofundangenkani Campaign aims at academically uplifting our Black sisters who have for the past years been excluded from pursuing education because of the patriarchal capitalist system aimed at making them white maids, housewives, cashiers, cleaners, receptionists, kiosk and street vendors instead of them granted an opportunity to be engineers, Doctors, Scientists, Professors, Mathematicians and economists or financial strategists for their own economic independence in the political and social strata of South Africa.
The Campaign aims at opening doors for our sisters at higher education and training institutions through free registration as historically rationally we know that most families suffering from patriarchal cancer would rather pay money for a boy' studies than that of a girl even if the girls is passing and rather bully her to go search for a husband or stay at home. We want to eradicate that stereotype and ensure that every academically deserving student whether male or female is awarded a fair chance to register and pursue any career.
Sizofundangenkani Campaign aims at ensuring that returning students are not financially excluded due to lack of registration fee and academic transcript fee. Returning students who passed must be allowed to study because they are already halfway through and are a potential contributor to the economy thereafter, therefore must not be delayed by financial constraints.
The Sizofundangenkani Campaing encourages Walk-ins as a means of bridging the gap between those who have access to online and those who do not. We also encourage walk ins because we know the online application process usually takes time and has a lot of irregularities and cannot be trusted. Fighters will marshal students to different registration centres to avoid stampedes and long ques.
If TVETs are studying for free in 2018, surely Universities will study for free in 2018. Kubo!
Sizofundangenkani basically means we are at your service to ensure security of your future.
First year students must bring all necessary documents and must be aware that we will be in their respective schools on the 5th of January at their collection of certificates to remind them that Education is now for Free in South Africa and that they must not listen to USAf ‘s discouragement of this generational call as they are nothing but agents of neo colonialism and barriers of progress.
The Sizofundangenkani campaign officially begins today accross all student command branches in universties and TVET colleges. Fighters must also assist walk ins with food, sanitory towels and ensure safety and security for every student in and around campus.
Kubo!
Statement issued by EFFSC National Spokesperson Mangaliso Sambo, 3 January 2017
