Cde Programme directors
Members of the immediate and extended Mabuza family
The first remark which is observed from this hall is that the people know their leaders!
Receive revolutionary greetings on behalf of the 21st National Executive Committee (NEC) of the South African Students’ Congress (SASCO). Gathered here is comrades, friends and family that have come to remember the life and times of comrade President Mandla KaMabuza and begin a process of bidding farewell to this intellectual giant. Special greetings to the whole SASCO family comrade President Mandla belonged to and described as “a family of ideas where things are not taken in life as given, but are subjected to scrutiny, dialogue, interrogation, debate, and discussion.”
Those who knew President Mandla, a student of public policy, a student activist, an internationalist and intellectual of his statue would know that this task of paying tribute to him as the current generation of SASCO activists would not be an easy task. A person who has contributed immensely to the progressive policy shift of our movement and that of our post-1994 democratic South Africa, a leader who has contributed to the intellectual development of many of our cadres who have come mourn him today. Among them, some are justifiably asking, is this generation of SASCO fit to speak about President Mabuza? Some are asking, who is this guy, can he and his generation speak about such a giant of public policy?
President Mabuza, at this moment of our premature painful parting, let us proceed to perform my duties to let your soul rest in peace. We want to first stand here and make a bold proclamation that your entire life was an embodiment of the very existence of SASCO. Your ideas and actions were constantly aimed at addressing our historical injustices, you constantly strived to develop yourself, a towering giant of public policy (both developing and critiquing policies) and maintained international relations. This reflected the pillars and principles of SASCO being, lifelong learning and academic excellence, international solidarity, and policy work.
Fellow mourners, we have learnt with great sadness that our 7th President of SASCO has ceased to breath and think!
The student movement honors its former President for having committed his life to the transformation of post schooling and education sector throughout his youthful days. The generation of President Mabuza became one of the first generations of post-1994 democratic breakthrough to transform from being stone throwers to being stone collectors for the purpose of nation building.
In so far as the context of transformation
Their generation and preceding generations of SASCO confronted a grossly unequal, racialized and patriarchal education system that was inherited by the ANC-led government. Of course, as President Thabo Mbeki amply puts it that, “All societies therefore necessarily bear the imprint, birth-marks of their own past. Whether to a greater or lesser extent must depend on a whole concatenation of factors, both internal and external to each particular society.”
Having inherited a higher education ‘system’ profoundly shaped by social, political and economic inequalities of a class, race, gender, institutional and spatial nature, the SASCO of President Mandla committed themselves to transforming higher education as well as the inherited apartheid social and economic structure and institutionalizing a new social order.
This means that the generation of 1999, two years after the adoption of higher education act 101 of 1997, in their daily struggles confronted the very same challenges of the apartheid state. This required a special breed of activists ideologically grounded and intellectually astute cadres.
Comrade fellow mourners, the size and shape discussion and the mergers (demergers) and corporations of institutions of higher in our country more than a decade later remains one discussion to be had today. We must ask, how successful have these mergers been? Have they achieved what they were desired to achieve? With an exception of University of Johannesburg (UJ), we stand fully convinced that these mergers must be revisited with the same vigor of the generation of President Mabuza and be closely monitored.
In so far as transformation of higher education in South Africa is concerned, we would like to bring the following three observations.
First, all our institutions were greatly shaped by apartheid planning and by the respective functions assigned to them in relation to the reproduction oof the apartheid social order. It was fundamental differences in allocated roles that distinguished the historically white and historically black institutions and constituted the key differentiation and the principal basis of inequalities between them. Unfortunately for our generation of SASCO NEC, the advent of the noble corona virus pandemic brought this glaring historical fact bare to our country for everyone to see that the patterns of advantage and disadvantage are not only historical. They continue to condition the current capacities of institutions to pursue excellence. For an example when our universities were migrating towards online learning our disadvantaged predominantly black universities were left behind and the historically advantaged easily migrated with less challenges.
Second, research and teaching were extensively shaped by the socio-economic and political priorities of the apartheid separate development programme. Consistent with the SASCO mantra that we are members of society before we are students and that higher education institutions are a microcosm of society, the post-1994 higher education has been called to upon to address and respond to developmental needs of a democratic South Africa. The education white paper of 3 of 1997 calls on higher education to contribute South Africa achieving ‘political democratization, economic reconstruction and development, and redistributive social policies aimed at equity’.
Third, the struggle to transform higher education occurs within the context of a formidable overall challenge of pursuing economic freedom, social equity and the extension and deepening of democracy.
While there has been progress in transformative programmes in higher education a lot remains unchanged since adoption of higher education act quarter of a century ago.
Disturbingly the state of higher education in South Africa is not so different from what it was 25 years ago. Whereas there has been relative quantitative growth in terms of access of the previously marginalized groups, including the black working class and women. Not much has been registered in terms of quality of graduates from these groups. This is arguable attributed to the political economic system of capitalism and the historical injustice of South Africa’s education system.
Enrolments in professional degrees are still preserved for whites and males, patriarchal patterns in enrolments are still evident, with women enrolling mostly for social sciences, education and nursing. Educators and most professors are old white reactionary males, black academics are marginalized and shoved out of the system. Historically black/disadvantaged institutions are still underfunded, lack resources and infrastructure and are unattractive. Capital affords less value to qualifications from these institutions thereby making their graduates unemployable and uncompetitive. Councils of historically white institutions are still dominated by whites. The curriculum content we learn is still the same as was in 1990. The IMF and World Bank influence the economics we are taught, when Marx wrote on economics. The literature and history we are taught preserves white superiority and embraces western values without an iota of indigenous ingredient, we ought to ask ourselves as to why do review panels and publishers remain largely untransformed. Workers’ wages are differentiated in terms of race. This is a rough sketch of the state of our higher education.
The 2015/2016 discussions by our generation of activists around colonial symbols, transformation, feesmustfall, an end to rape culture in our institutions, outsourcingmustfall, the response of society and government have evidently shaken capital and those in ivory towers, the discourse has been met with hostilities and resistance from the beneficiaries and instigators of colonialism. The captains of the industry are shaken. The biggest question is why? Why wouldn’t such these noble course be supported by all and sundry? Is it because they eat at the heart of their privilege?
We need to rewrite our own history. A history of transformation, a history of total liberation and emancipation of our people. For this to be achieved we will need a renewed sense of activism. We will have to develop a cadreship core that understands and comprehends fully the challenges confronting us. We are a generation that is of realizing the gradual implementation of fee free quality education for the poor, needy and deserving students. For the attainment and sustenance of this mission we will have to revitalize and redefine our approach to student activism.
Our generation of activists faces an alarming decline in political participation, appeal to the minority groups, absence of solidarity amongst students and weak mobilization capacity. We are a generation confronted with the worst forms of revolutionary consciousness and ideological clarity. The overwhelming appetite for money, sex and power amongst our comrades has weakened our fighting capacity. We are an organization which does not epitomize the very founding principles upon which we were formed including the principles of democracy and non-sexism. We are a generation that always wants to receive but not willing to suffer, serve and sacrifice
The 19th NEC of SASCO left us having launched a political school and adopted a syllabus which we must implement to respond to the above-mentioned challenges threatening the existence of SASCO in our campuses.
Mandla KaMabuza political school
Since we learnt of the untimely departure of comrade President Mandla our National Working Committee has resolved that our Secretary General Buthanani Thobela leads a delegation of comrades with convocation to go engage the Mabuza family to get its approval to name its political academy after President Mandla KaMabuza.
The NEC will identify some of its convocation and progressive intellectuals to lead this this school to restore the culture of reading and writing within the organization. The school will also offer the following;
1. Cadre development
2. Forum for policy development and critique
3. Will release quarterly public policy comments and,
4. Conduct surveys and future studies
We believe this will serve as means produce many other Mandla KaMabuza’s for he did not die but will multiply into a million ideas. The ideas that will rebuild the African city Cartage!