SASCO has nothing to celebrate as far as human rights are concerned. The majority of South African Students remain homeless, some go to bed with hungry stomachs and majority wait with fear not knowing if their NSFAS allowances will be allocated. This is but the few of young South African youth who have accessed higher education while some young people are turned back at the gates of higher institutions of learning at every attempt of accessing them.
As the Country, It is significant that we appreciate the history of our beloved country, athrobbing history that is a product of the struggle by our predecessors, who were enforced by patriotism and
circumstances to sacrifice their personal lives for the benefit of the nation and its children. The country
really needs to celebrate this history in cognizance that human rights struggle was an occurrence of a revolutionary phase in a broader struggle of economic freedom. Therefore, this
celebration should be characterized by conscientization of the people about our broader struggle and that this is not a celebration of victory but a recognition of the fallen soldiers in the Sharpeville massacre, also that this generation needs to take the truncheon and continue with the fight.
The assertion that “Education is a birthright not a privilege by virtue of being born you have a right to proper education”. As the South African Student Congress every beginning of an academic year, we embark on the Right to Learn Campaign rebelling against the bottleneck system that seeks to exclude students based on the financial status or academic performance neglecting the root cause of their current predicament. Such should be declared as a crime against human rights which were
attained through bloodshed.
The shelter is a basic need for human dignity, the conditions of residence in the TVET sector to be precise where students are residing is a high level of inhumanity and is a serious disdain of
human rights. Such conditions are also experienced in some of the Universities and there is a scarcity of student accommodation hence, some students are sleeping in classrooms and toilets. SASCO still has a pending march to union building to raise this attack against human rights by institutions of higher learning to the President of the Republic of South Africa.
SASCO, as guided by SPOT document, is still fighting against institutional autonomy,
untransformed education and unpatriotic academics who are vice-chancellors, who are in the frontline in defending the oppressive system to students of South Africa, offspring of the
working class in particular and black in the majority. The struggle for Free Quality Education shall continue, “let the be unity for democracy in education”
Thabo Sukanazo Sheme is the Former Provincial Deputy Chairperson KZN, he writes in his personal capacity