South Africa has a proud tradition of student activism, with youths having played a critical role in expediting the collapse of apartheid.
Student protests and street clashes with security forces in the Seventies and Eighties marked the heyday of the youth movement in South Africa.
As the 27th anniversary of the Soweto uprising of June 16 1976 approaches, a change in attitude is apparent. Youth are no longer the politicised “lost generation” that dominated the landscape in the 1970s and 1980s, and instead dedicate their energies to searching for education opportunities and jobs.
These days you rarely witness large groups of students picketing for a cause beyond that of officials cutting funds for a bash — as happened at the University of the North last year — and June 16, now known as Youth Day, is regarded as an occasion for partying rather than commemoration.
It is often difficult for one-time youth protesters, now wisened politicians and state leaders, to understand that in peaceful times students do not always see the need to be involved in politics. At the beginning of 2000 President Thabo Mbeki worried aloud that South Africa’s youth had become kwaito-listening bums with no political interest. He was reacting to the poor turnout of young voters in the 1999 and 2000 elections.
Figures released by the Human Sciences Research Council show that only 25% of South Africa’s youth voted in the local government elections in 2000.
The establishment saw it as a slap in the face, but Rozina Munshi, a member of the students’ representative council of the University of the Witwatersrand, disagrees that young South Africans are becoming politically disconnected.
“Our elections on campus show that students will vote where they consider issues to be important. Though individual candidates drive the elections, a candidate will have more leverage with a political party’s backing. But, strictly, students will vote for the person who promises to address issues close to their hearts.”
Wits has long been a breeding ground for political leaders, but it hasn’t delivered its usual crop of young politicians in the past few years. It does, however, host the popular student website Get a Life, which makes satirical comments on political issues.
From humble beginnings the site has achieved broad success through clever games that comment on issues such as the Hansie Cronje scandal and the Zimbabwe crisis. New games, like “political floor crossing”, are generated for each issue. It seems the development of new technology creates other avenues for voicing dissent.
Many students agree that they now have non-traditional ways of expressing themselves and don’t see the need to picket. They feel that older politicians grew up in a time when it was necessary to campaign for change.
“We now live in a different era. Issues that were important for them are not important for us any more. Why do we have to apologise for being young and vivacious? We are not born old,” says a Wits student who identifies herself as Lindiwe.
Other students believe many young South Africans have simply lost interest in national politics.
James Donald, president of Wits’s student council, says students are concerned with issues that affect them directly. “If housing is a problem, they will vote for someone who promises to fix it,” he says.
Parties vying for young people’s votes in the next election would be well advised to engage in youth issues to lure youngsters to the polls.
Kholiwe Botha, another member of Wits’s student council, says the youth’s new struggle is against HIV/Aids. “It is everywhere you go, you cannot hide from it any more. The rate the disease is spreading is shocking. As a member of the student council I deal with it every day, and believe me when I say that it is a big issue on campus.
“It is our biggest concern both within and outside the university. All of us have friends who are affected by it. For us at the student council it is important to be involved in helping combat the disease,” Botha says.
She believes more has to be done to reach students. “Many of the students are sexually active. There is no reason to beat around the bush about that. The more the word is spread about HIV/Aids, the more these students can make better-informed choices.
Both Munshi and Botha believe that student leaders have a responsibility to speak out against HIV/Aids. “Silence is our biggest enemy,” says Botha.
Their willingness as student leaders to speak openly about the disease reflects that attitudes are changing among the youth. Research in South Africa shows that young people are far more aware of the risks of HIV/Aids than they were a few years ago.
In a survey by the Human Sciences Research Council in July last year, 89% of young people aged 18 to 24 indicated they were seriously concerned about the disease and felt it was the biggest threat to them. No fewer than 90,2% agreed with the statement: “There are many steps a person can take to avoid getting infected with HIV, which causes Aids.” Almost 60% believed that “people like themselves could get Aids”.
The survey showed that the younger generation would more readily use condoms because they were concerned about Aids. “That is wonderful news,” says Botha. “But so much more needs to be done. Each student has to be aware of his [/her] responsibility in fighting Aids.”
Botha says a positive feature among today’s students is their willingness to make friends across racial barriers.
“It is still a reality that when you walk around on campus you will see whites sitting with whites and black with blacks. But I believe we have come a long way to eradicating the suspicions surrounding other groups.”
Different racial groups also express different fears. The Wits campus is multiracial and reflects young South Africans’ collective qualms. Donald says Wits students are more concerned about Aids than about unemployment, but at Rand Afrikaans and Potchefstroom universities getting a job after graduation is a greater worry.
“We have a lot of university graduates approaching us to help them find a job,” says Dirk Herman, a spokesperson for the predominantly white workers’ union, Solidarity. “We even have engineering students that struggle owing to affirmative action.”
The former Potch student says many students simply leave South Africa if they do not find an appropriate job. “That is very disappointing because it contributes to the brain drain in our country.”
Many students leave South Africa for a gap year to broaden their horizons and pay off their expensive studies by earning money in strong currencies.
Botha says the Wits student council deals daily with students’ financial troubles. “Many young people truly want to study further and earn a degree, but studying is simply too expensive. I would rate that as a big problem on campus.”
But it is not all doom and gloom, Munshi says. “We may not be the politically sussed generation of 1976, but we are empowering ourselves through education. A young educated nation will always be a country’s biggest investment.”