“If the saying ‘out of nothing, nothing comes’ is true, then it must follow that the future is formed and derives its first impulse in the womb of the present.” Thabo Mbeki, Historical injustice, 1979
The South African society bears the birthmarks of an unjust society post the arrival of the Dutch East Indian Company (DEIC). The rise of capitalism and colonial expansion in South Africa and in many parts of the world brought with it a new form of learning that was premised on the separation of education for economic production and education for social and political survival.
The ANC led government post the Democratic breakthrough has managed to build strong institutions to wage a revolution though it is inherently capitalist. This is not the end in itself but the way towards the end.
As we aptly asserted in our SPOT document that our strategic objective is the destruction of capitalist relations of production and the state together with its education system and the creation of a socialist state which will ultimately lead us to a better society where education shall be free from the ideological stranglehold of any class but shall be for social, political and economic development of all society and shall be freely accessible to all. As a result, we are determined to reshape the nature and character of our education system as part of the process of contesting the hegemony of capitalist economic and ideological thought and values in our society.
Now more than ever the giant student movement must rise to contest space and shape the discourse. The state and revolution discussion that marks the centenary this year has erupted and enjoyed much ideological attention from the public space, we cannot be absent from this discussion. The Congress movement has much-heated monopoly capital discussion that to a certain extent lacks ideological reasoning. SASCO in its theoretical journal ( the “Red Spark”) that is due in September has the responsibility to respond to these and participate in the battle of ideas.
As we bid revolutionary farewell to comrade Lesego Racoco, we commit to his immediate family, the entire student movement in the country especially in Bokone Bophirima province that we shall continue with the struggle for exploration free society through which he envisaged.