The class of 2016 should take a leaf out of the book of the triumphant class of 1986, writes Ernest Khosa.
Johannesburg - The campaign against exorbitant university fees should be welcomed by all those who care about access to and the quality of higher education in South Africa. Our students deserve a pat on the back not only for raising this issue, but also for demonstrating a considerable firmness in securing government intervention.
The fees’ issue does not only affect students, but society in general. Leaders of the #FeesMustMall movement must realise that they should involve the rest of society in pursuit of this goal. They should also take a leaf from history on running campaigns of this magnitude.
In this regard, some lessons may be learnt from the Turfloop class of 1986, which waged a national campaign against the occupation of Turfloop by the apartheid army. In 1986, the apartheid army invaded and occupied the Turfloop campus and some student leaders were thrown into prison for years, while others became fugitives from the law.
That it was General Magnus Malan, then minister of defence, who announced the occupation and claimed it was to ensure stability and the protection of students from radical elements whom he almost equated with anacondas was not insignificant.
It demonstrated the occupation was a national project and Turfloop was just an entry point. Thus began a curfew at the university for more than three years, with machine-gun-wielding soldiers entering classes, places of worship and sports grounds when they wished.
The objective was clear: to make the student community too nervous to be politically active on or off campus and so no one challenged the education system.
Student leaders at Turfloop couldn’t show the system who the real leaders were. As the police would say during interrogations: “You stick out your neck, we chop it.” The concept of a leaderless campaign, as evident in the #FeesMustFall campaign, was perfected. The tactic was not new. It was common in the late 1970s when even speakers at student mass meetings would be untraceable.
We employed unconventional ways to mobilise students, such as the use of Spear, a communique that would give direction on activities such as strike action and related forms of protest.
A campaign was initiated in 1988 which stood on the following legs: Public support, international support, collaboration with eminent personalities regardless of ideological differences, and an internal capacity to manage various acts of protest at the university which often included strike action.
We had countless strikes against the occupation. The underlying reason was often to draw the attention of society to the alarming situation of an army camping permanently on campus, something unheard of to date.
Not even during the deplorable repression in Chile under Augusto Pinochet when people disappeared was a permanent army deployed on a university campus.
Even under those conditions, we knew when to start a strike and when to end it. We knew the danger of allowing a strike action to be broken by our adversaries.
We were aware that strike action is never a goal but an objective.
No agent provocateurs were allowed to loot or engage in acts of random arson. As we were aware of our limitations, we approached eminent people to take up the matter with the authorities. We continued to engage in other forms of protest action to strengthen the hands of the team. The team included Helen Suzman, Allan Boesak, Jakes Gerwel, Zach de Beer, Van Zyl Slabbert, Saki Macozoma and Ihron Rensburg.
We had such a good media strategy that even the apartheid government’s defence of the occupation was like putting lipstick on a pig. In the end we won! The soldiers left the campus in shame.
The #FeesMustFall too should not fall. It must win! This cannot happen without the support of other sectors. The class of 2016 should learn from the class of 1986. The lesson is: in running this noble campaign do not alienate society! Do not make statements that suggest there is an agenda beyond fees and never allow incidents that suggest it is open season to loot and destroy property.
* Khosa is the author of the soon- to-be-released memoir: Studying Under the Barrel of a Gun. He’s also a former two-term president of the SRC at Turfloop University.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
The Sunday Independent