Student action around the country shows the rising frustration of the youth.
THE government is struggling to convince our youth that discussions with authorities are more effective in addressing their problems than the tried and tested method of mass action.
In the latest development, the Gauteng branch of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) is threatening mass action and boycotts to ”push the [education] department to make sure that township schools have resources”. So says Cosas Gauteng chairperson, Gift Vukela. ”If the MEC [Ignatius Jacobs] doesn’t understand our position, we’re going to take action and march to the department with a memorandum,” says Vukela. ”It would be during school hours. If then our demands are not considered we’re going to each and every school [in Gauteng] and we’re going to hold a boycott in each and every school.”
Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) representative Tsepo Mathodlana says the process of redress is underway, and argues that ”In the democratic dispensation that we’re in, Cosas should raise their concerns through the right channels.”
Relations between the National Department of Education and student organisations have also soured considerably in the wake of student violence in Alexandra, Gauteng, and what Minister of Education Kader Asmal has termed ”mindless gangsterism” in the ranks of Cosas and the Pan African Students Organisation (Paso) in Kwathema, Gauteng. The minister’s representative Bheki Khumalo says, ”Asmal is not prepared to talk to political organisations in Kwathema until such time as the situation improves.”
However, national president of Cosas, Lebogang Maile, insists that, ”There is no problem between ourselves and Paso, even in Kwathema. That problem has long been resolved. The problem is that gangsters are ganging up against student activists. The minister does not have an understanding of the real problem.”
A breakdown in communication is also evident more generally. While Khumalo insists that Cosas has failed to arrive at more than one meeting with the minister, Maile claims: ”We’ve tried to engage with Asmal, but he’s never availed himself for debate.” Maile adds that ”I think generally Asmal is a good comrade and minister, but he lacks two things: listening and understanding.”
No matter whose version is correct, at present the views of students and education officials are so far apart that they practically occupy different realities. And events in other parts of the country point to the fact that student bodies are yet to move on from the struggle tactics of their predecessors. One example of mass protest action recently being used successfully to meet student demands was in Mpumalanga, where students from Mayibuye High school marched to the circuit offices demanding 405 chairs. A representative for the students, Fana Maasina, was quoted in a press report as saying: ”This is the only language the government officials understand, especially those from the previous government, because they’re used to making empty promises.”
Khumalo’s view is that, ”We are not slaves anymore that we have to revolt. We must use the democratic structures that are there. We have to build a culture of democracy.”
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, July 24, 2000.
M&G Supplements