On the Victimisation of Leaders at North
West University, Vaal Triangle Campus
“Education
either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration
of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity
or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal
critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the
transformation of their world”.
These
are the words of Paulo Freire that come to mind when one thinks of the
disturbing situation of North West University Vaal campus.
The
South African post-schooling sector is besieged by many challenges that require
the attention of the public. The Vaal Triangle campus of North West University
is an example of the dire need for transformation that still has to happen in
South Africa despite some progress since the 1994 breakthrough.
NWU
Vaal, which is basically former Potchefstroom University, epitomises what is
wrong in our universities at large. Students at the university have over the
years, among many other things, complained about the following:
i.
Undermining the Student Representative
Council (SRC)
ii.
Racism
iii.
Imposition of unnecessary fees on students
iv.
Poor infrastructure and services
v.
Lack of access to academic buildings
vi.
Refusal of NWU to avail funds for poor
students
In
view of the above problems, it is clear that the status quo is really not good
and therefore requires change. Integration or conformity to the status quo
would be the free sale of the struggle for transformation. The little education
that we have should be used “critically and creatively” to significantly change
the reality of the education terrain. This is what the progressive forces of
change at NWU Vaal Triangle campus had sought to do when they raised their
concerns and propositions to the management of the institution. However, the
management stubbornly refused to give in to legitimate feelings of unease they
felt and suggestions to resolve the problems.
When
the students of NWU Vaal Triangle Campus, due to the clear display of arrogance
and resistance of management, decided to march for the address of these issues
they were met by the might of iron fist response from the institution’s
authorities. This march happened in 20 May 2013. Instead of responding and
addressing the issues raised by the student body the institution elected to
cruelly isolate and harshly deal with student leadership and ‘make an example
out of them’ by instituting unnecessary and ill-conceived disciplinary action against them. You raise
issues, you are charged. What is that? Injustice! Victimisation!
For
the reason that the student leaders do not sing praise songs for the
management, they are victimised because they ‘cause problems’ and ‘disturb the
peace’ by raising issues that are uncomfortable for those tasked with managing
the institutions of learning. These managers and administrators seem to be
deliberately ignorant of the obvious need to transform the institutions of
education. They equate and therefore limit transformation to allowing black
students to register and having a black Campus Rector from the difficult to
change University of Pretoria in the form of Prof. Thanyani Mariba.
The
undermining of decisions and the work of the SRC by the NWU Vaal through its senate
is not only wrong but downright illegal. The SRC and student body decisions in
general are not respected according to leaders at NWU Vaal. This is despite the
SRC being a compulsory statutory body in institutions of education as reflected
in the Higher Education Act and the statutes of all universities in SA. The
university wasted no time in proving this assertion by unfairly rejecting the
amendments made to the student governance constitution by the Student Summit
that sat in April 2013. How do we begin
to explain and justify the insult of rubbishing of the governing structure of
the primary stakeholders? We cannot, honestly.
All
these injustices and strangling of transformation at NWU Vaal Triangle Campus
happen despite the celebrated presence of the first black Campus Rector. This
is undoubtedly another vivid example that the amount of pigmentation in one’s
skin is not proportional to one’s commitment, or at least approval of the need
for progressive transformation of not only education but society in general. It
is now clear that as and when we appoint black people and/or women as per the
affirmative action guidelines we need to look beyond or, perhaps, deeper than
the skin colour and biological make up.
Leaders
of the student movement are vulnerable because the issues of transformation
have been almost exclusively left to them by other stakeholders of the NWU Vaal
Triangle Campus. There is lack of coordinated and thus consolidated action by
stakeholders within our institutions. Consolidation and strengthening of
relations among the campus stakeholders is crucial, especially between students
and workers. I have argued elsewhere that: “Students and working class
alliances have proven to be a necessary revolutionary concoction that is
crucial in any progressive struggle. South African liberation history, for
example, cannot be honestly told without mention of the revolutionary role of
students and organised labour. Many community struggles were led and championed
by students and workers”. Student-worker alliances were a significant force in
the struggle against apartheid machinery. Students and workers worked together
in transport boycotts, fighting high food prices, in leading strikes against
apartheid injustices and many other burning issues of the time. The students
and workers at North West University and all other universities should not only
learn from the past but must also take action that is informed by that
learning. It is through implementation of our learning from the past that we
shall make a difference.
One
of the dominant student organisations in the post-schooling sector, the South
African Students Congress (SASCO), in a document named the Strategic
Perspective on Transformation (SPOT), claim that one of the four pillars on
which the struggle for the transformation of our institutions and society
should be community work. This observation is in line with the adage of the
revolutionary Steve Biko’s generation of student activists who said “we are
members of the community before we are students”. It follows from this that the
students of the NWU need to realise that their struggles are part of and are
attached to those of the communities around them.
Close
inspection of our society reveals a very serious detachment between communities
and institutions of education in the post-schooling sector. Indeed, this is
also a case with the Vaal Triangle working-class communities like Sharpeville,
Boipatong, Sebokeng, Evaton and others. Therefore, there needs to be an
intensive mobilisation of communities to participate in the transformation of
the institutions so that there can be necessary accountability. These
communities should demand that the remnants of the colonial and apartheid past
which are still intact at the institution are removed and the university
contributes positively to their development.
An
intensive mobilisation of communities should rise beyond partisanship and must
be aimed strictly at making certain that the transformation agenda is achieved.
Currently, the PYA which is the alliance of SASCO, ANCYL and YCLSA seem to be
overburdened with the task of transforming the university. Hence it is not
surprising that the brunt of the university’s iron fist and disciplinary
hearings are directed to PYA due to the realisation by the institution that
once this alliance is weakened so will be the transformation agenda. Leaders of
these structures will look like agitators who are set on a mission of causing
perpetual trouble till such time all motive forces, stakeholders who stand to
benefit most, come together.
Where
is the media? What and how has the media reported on this matter? Why have the
issues and the plight of students at NWU not known and understood beyond the
fence bordering the institution around SA? There has been little from the part
of the so-called mainstream media in reporting the real issues that are in the
public interest from this institution, especially this relatively small yet
significant campus. The media must know that besides the political scandals
there are other scandalous stories to report like the injustices faced by
student leaders at NWU Vaal Triangle Campus. The leaders are now living in fear
because they unfairly lost the disciplinary case and maybe dealt with once and
for all should they err now. Where is our ‘patriotic’ media?
Real
transformation necessitates a radical overhaul of the terrain of education
through dealing with the sites of education like the problematic NWU Vaal
Triangle Campus. Campuses should be transformed and turned into people’s
institutions working toward the service of society at large. This cannot happen without the unity of all
stakeholders who stand to benefit from the transformation of NWU Vaal Triangle
Campus and the institution in its totality. Students, parents, community organisations,
trade unions etc have to unite. The unity of these stakeholders will go a long
way in shielding students from vitriolic wrath of liberal management and
therefore allow transformation to happen. As the cliché goes, unity is
strength.
Universities
should not be permitted to hide behind institutional autonomy for the purposes
of derailing transformation. We need to be careful of some ‘reasonable’
arguments against the ‘cutting too deep’ by Dr Blade Nzimande as alleged by
University of Cape Town (UCT) Vice Chancellor and chairperson of council. As
UCT raises this argument they are busy trying to do away with affirmative
action policy despite the reality of inequality being persistent. This clearly
indicates that powers bestowed upon Dr. Blade Nzimande, through legislation to
intervene in institutions was and remains correct. The Department of Higher
Education and Training (DHET) has no other choice but to ‘cut deep’ and make
certain that universities like NWU and UCT together with others, do not
strangle, or most unpleasantly, reverse the transformation of the education
terrain.
The
education of the children of the working class is sacrosanct. It is through
education that we can transform our unsurpassed society as far as inequality is
concerned. For our education to address the problems of society it needs to be
transformed first and that transformation requires the participation of all
motive forces i.e. students, organised labour, churches, professionals,
community organisations, youth etc.
North
West University needs to transform and our leaders need protection. Let us
unite for the transformation of North West University.
Education
must become the practice of freedom!
Dinileminyanya Sandile Latha is the
Board Member of Epilepsy SA, Eastern Cape and former student leader. He writes
in his own personal capacity.
