The 2018 first edition of Moithuti comes at a time of inevitable transition both in our country’s broader body politic and the higher education sector. From the fluctuation of the markets who seem too eager to respond to political changes in our country, to the unassuming use of terms like “market-friendly”, “market forces”, “jobless growth” and the controversial “managing the transition”.
A new dawn seems to have beset our country- a catalyst to this being the outcome of the 54th ANC National Congress which was from the onset set to reshape the domestic landscape of our politics. The 54th Congress was a stellar show of political dominance and the centrality of the ANC as the backdrop to our collective vision to emancipate our people from the clutches of poverty that have left them futile of the future that all should be entitled to.
It is a new dawn whose beneficiaries are yet to be discovered and clearly identified. So long as production and ownership patterns remain UN disturbed we cannot authoritatively and with confidence claim the dawn to be synonymous with our people and students in particular.
Amidst these interesting and dynamic times, we must always continually re-evaluate and analyse society in preparing ourselves to respond comprehensively to the contextual and concrete realities that beset our people on a daily basis.
Moithuti has always been a way for young intellectual revolutionaries of the student movement to apply their mind and give critical yet developmental analysis of the contextual realities that ordinary students and people are grappling with on a daily basis, this has been done as though executing their intellectual responsibility.
In this edition of Moithuti, our central focus is Free education and the implicit impacts that are emanating from the pronouncement made in the drive to broaden access to institutions of higher learning. We go further to making a critical analysis of the budget speech, which was widely expected to give the structural framework of how we would ensure the implementation of the pronouncement made by, now former, President JG Zuma. The budget seems to have left a bitter taste in the mouths of many progressives, including our young intellectuals, in relations to the impact that many of the pronouncements that were made in the budget would have on the poor and previously marginalized masses of our people. Another issue that seems to have been overlooked is that of student accommodation, which will be resultant of the influx to our institution as a result of the relaxation of the financial blockade that has kept the offspring of the poor and working class in abeyance.
We have three article in this edition, namely, “The next crisis is student accommodation” by Pedro Mzileni, “(SASCO) through the eye of an ordinary member- Free Education”, by Asemahle Gwala and ” Critique of the budget speech” by Bhekithemba Mbatha.
These are insightful articles that will surely get all yearning for more and spark more provocative ad critical debate and analysis regarding the status quo and the way forward.
We must use our pens as means to not only write about the pain of our reality but about the hope that stems from the tears that wet the pages of contending beliefs of a better tomorrow. Let’s allow the seed of intellectualism to grow, the vigour of critical analysis blossom and the dreams of a brighter future to be realized.
“Let a thousand thoughts contend.”
Lwando Majiza
Editor in chief, Moithuti
SASCO Secretary-General
adv.majiza@gmail.com
071 875 2221
Editorial Team:
Thandeka Tshabalala
Avela Mjajubana
Lebohang Ntuli
Buyile Matiwane
Jr Ackotia
Iviwe Mabona