The new student leader aims to introduce a code of conduct that will clean up campuses, reports Joshua Amupadhi
THE new president of South Africa’s leading student body is determined to end the widespread perception of his organisation as a trasher of campuses.
Andile Sihlahla, elected last week to lead the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco), said in an interview with the Mail & Guardian that a code of conduct will aim at halting looting and hostage-taking by students on campuses. It will be followed by a drive against crime to end car thefts and rapes of students.
Sihlahla (32) is a student at the University of Fort Hare. He is entering the final year of an LLB degree.
“Sasco has declared 1997 as the year of higher education, and it is in this context that the code of conduct must be viewed,” he pointed out.
Sasco was formed in 1991 out of a merger between the black South African National Students’ Congress (Sansco) and the white National Union of South African Students (Nusas). It has 60 000 members, and it controls 75% of the student representative councils at 150 tertiary institutions.
Sihlahla said the view of Sasco as a trasher of campuses in its crusade for transformation was advanced by its detractors in order to stifle legitimate protests at tertiary institutions.
He believes, for example, that the court inderdict sought in October to deal with protests at the University of Pretoria took advantage of students’ behaviour to stall change.
The negative image of Sasco, he added, was reinforced by students with “a hidden agenda” who misbehaved during protests in order to dirty the organisation’s name.
The Sasco executive was finalising the code of conduct for tertiary institutions, he said, and will implement it at the beginning of next year.
“Our view is that any member of Sasco engaged in such [violent] activities should be dealt with according to Sasco’s constitution and code of conduct.
“We in Sasco have said clearly we do not associate with them: hostage-taking, for example, ransacking of universities and other criminal activities.”
But blame should be laid squarely at the doors of management at some of the institutions, said Sihlahla. He singled out Afrikaans institutions, accusing them of “intransigence” and inadequate transformation efforts.
“I’m not justifying what the students are doing, but all the demands [being made] are demands that were there in the ’80s and ’70s. Most Afrikaans institutions are still arrogant. And they are using the Afrikaans language as a barrier to deny us access.”
Sasco called for transformation that will “enable people from the disadvantaged communities to gain access to the liberal and Afrikaner institutions”.
Sihlahla said the code of conduct should not be seen as way to police students, but it is necessary for making the institutions truly academic.
The code of conduct will be followed by an anti-crime campaign, targeting “organised crime”. Said the soft-spoken yet tough- talking Sihlahla: “Rapists must be arrested, and if needs be they must leave the particular institution … because we want to create a very conducive climate for education. We can’t live with criminals.”
The right atmosphere for studying should be brought about systematically, step by step, he said.
Sihlahla, born in Queenstown, became an activist during the 1976 uprising. While at high school he served on the local branch leadership of the Congress of South African Students.
In 1983 he dropped out of school while in standard eight and worked for Congress of South African Trade Unions affiliates. Seven years later he returned to school to complete his matric and then went on to university and obtained a BJuris degree.
Sasco’s congress last week decided the African National Congress should lead a “popular movement for transformation”. It also suggested the formation of a body called the Progressive Youth Alliance.
The organisation declared it would enhance its involvement in policy formation, including legislation on higher education. According to Sasco, if media reports that the state will cut down on social spending – health, education and housing – were true, these would be resisted.