South Africa: Students are struggling
Three years on from the dramatic election win by
the ANC in South Africa's first parliamentary elections, the country
has been rocked by country-wide student protest against racism,
exclusion of the poor, and the government's plans to drastically cut
subsidies to the universities and technical colleges. The recently
announced budget cuts mean fee increases, fewer bursaries, more
financial exclusions and redundancies for staff and workers.
In the last few months students from the University of the North,
the University of the North West, Unisa, University of Zulu-land, the
University of Fort Hare, Natal Tech and Wits have taken up the battle
on their campuses. Students also united on a wider scale when the
South African Student Congress (SASCO) successfully held massive
marches in Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal against the budget cuts and
other issues.
This is not to say that there were no problems with these marches:
the Gauteng march called on big business to extend its "charity" to
help offset poor State spending, instead of openly criticising the
ANC. Many politicians and university administrators stated that they
believe students grievances are legitimate. But they showed no
compassion to protesters, and acted harshly against them. Four
universities were closed. Riot police were called on campuses like
University of the North and attacked students.
A few days before the final Budget was announced, the ANC
Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu retreated, stating that the budget
cuts would not be as drastic as those initially announced in December
1996. Many students viewed Bengu's reduction in the budget cuts as a
huge victory for their protests. However despite Bengu's claims that
this was an important concession, the new ANC budget figures will
still mean a cut in university funding.
Some universities budgets will be cut up to 5%. Bengu argues that
it is necessary to cut some of the Historically White Universities'
subsidies (HWUs) to redistribute funds to under-funded Historically
Black Universities (HBUs). Certain SASCO national leaders agreed with
this and cheered the cuts. But Bengu plan is a lie.
If Bengu and the government were really committed to
'redistribution', they would make more money available to those black
and working class students that attend the Historically White
Universities. If the budgets of these universities is cut, it is
these students who will face high residence and education fees. In
other words they will be excluded because they cannot pay.
This means that these Universities will remain dominated by white
or rich students. No transformation will take place!! If Bengu and
the government want to improve the financial situation of the
Historically Black Universities why do they insist that these
universities pay back crippling debts? Over the last few years HBUs
have had to increase their fees, lower their bursaries, and cut back
on spending on resources (books and equipment) just to pay back their
debts to the government!! To top it all, HBUs like University of the
Western Cape are also the targets of budget cuts.
It is clear that Bengu is not committed to the welfare of Black
working class students. While he talks of redistribution, he plans to
attack both Historically White and Historically Black tertiary
education in line with the government's free market "GEAR" policy.
Debt repayment and subsidy cuts stand in opposition to transformation
in universities and technical schools. They mean fees hikes, fewer
bursaries, financial exclusions, cuts in university resources and
retrenchment of workers. The effect will be to exclude the black
working class youth from higher learning.
This report is taken from the Workers Solidarity (Issue 3-2), the
paper of the
Workers
Solidarity Federation. The WSF can be contacted at PO Box 1717,
Rosettenville 2130, South Africa.
