Welcome to the 6th Edition of our online publication. On this month of May, we will continue to publish weekly and we will shift to celebrate not only our forebears but equally celebrate the Africa month, we challenge you to write and bring about African solutions, for Africa’s development.
“The people are our strength in their service we shall face and conquer those who live on the backs of our people. In the history of mankind, it is a law of life that problems arise when the conditions are there for the solution” Walter Sisulu
The month of May in the student movement marks polar opposite sensations, it is the month that gave us our honorary President and yet again the month that robbed us of the same stalwart. Born on the 18th of May 1912 in Ngcobo, Walter Sisulu is a South African activist that stands firm of the beliefs of fighting for a just society and paid his own dues in fighting for the complete liberation of all oppressed South Africans in the country, forming part of the Rivonia trial and being sentenced to 25 years in Robben island is a reflection of the extent of his activism and why he had to be isolated from the people he stands alongside with firmly.
The 5th of May 2003, marked the end of a life well-lived as a servant of the people of the country, a life based on pure sacrifice for the values and principles he believed in wholeheartedly, he lived to see an image close enough to the pursuit of a just society. The student movement in this month celebrates the life and times of the honorary President Cde Walter Sisulu. In celebrating his life we posit that it is important to live our everyday activist life with the image of uTatu’Xhamela central to how we reach out and attempt to leave a positive imprint on people’s lives.
The lenses of societal observations used by Cde Walter Sisulu are the lenses that we have adopted as activists of SASCO, taught to roar the loudest at the sight of injustice is a lesson we hold dear and still use in status quo. It seems though massive regress in access to an institution of higher learning has morphed into a different animal, the doors of learning are closed through an attempt to digitalize education in the midst of a pandemic. Disguised as an attempt to save the academic calendar, the reality is that it’s an attempt to exclude the most marginalized in society and leave them at the bottom of the totem pole. The inequality in our country has reared its ugly head out and the downtrodden suffer the most.
The World is pegged back by the unforgiving pressure mounted on it by the invisible enemy, however on the brighter side history has taught us that post every pandemic, similar to the Spanish flu and the cholera outbreak, we have made it out even stronger and even more resilient in our need to safeguard the values central to humanity. The post-COVID-19 world must be a just world that looks beyond race, class and ethnicity, the new world must be humility and seeing ourselves as equal and compassionate beings.
On this edition we have the following articles for your indulgence:
– South African 2019 Electoral System and Its Political Impact ~ Jack Nkosana
– Online Education Does Not Cater for Language as a Reality ~ Sive Madala Gumenge
– E-learning and Marginalisation: The impact of COVID-19 on the Most Vulnerable Students ~ Zandile Tshabalala
– The impact of the Lockdown on Education in remote areas: Interventions Drawn from the SASCO SPOT ~ Ngobe Lali
We hope that they will spark continuing discussions and we hope to receive your submissions, but most importantly we hope you will enjoy.
[Views published here are those of the writer, not of the organization unless indicated otherwise]Buthanani Ngwane
Editor in Chief ~ Moithuti
Secretary General ~ SASCO sg@sasco.co.za