By: Khumbulani Mngadi
Universities lately are places of malice, arson, destruction and chaos. This is rather new and strange considering the historical context of our new South Africa.
Pre-democracy, universities were revered, cherished and well-protected for they were seen as beacons of hope for the hopeless, knowledge hubs for inquiring minds and generally places of research and insights. What went wrong? How did we get here?
This article tries to unpack the socio-political, sociocultural and socio-economic developments that have contributed towards what we see today as barbaric and deplorable on one hand, heroic and populist on the other. Hoodlumism is a new pandemic at universities.
Tracing the historical development of SA is a mixed bag of emotions, so many positive things have happened and equally so, too many horrible mishaps in the process. This creates a very gloomy picture if one attempts to look at these developments holistically. Perhaps I must first highlight the positives and then zoom into the negatives with an aim of encouraging introspection and self-correction. Pre- 1994 black communities did not have basic services such as water, shelter, electricity and decent roads.
They could not vote, isolated from the mainstream economy, disenfranchised in many respects. However, in the last 27 years these inhumane elements have been reversed significantly. Black communities have electricity, decent housing, clean water, access to job opportunities and all other forms of civic liberties. Indeed, there is significant progress one may say and it needs to be lauded.
Leaders from different political formations have pulled together to achieve this. The ruling party (ANC) led and the opposition parties played vanguard roles, ensuring that all that was promised was delivered. Naturally, there is no way that one can claim that all promises have been met, but a great deal of transformation can be seen.
It is up to the reader to deduce if the positives outweigh the negatives or vice versa. However, I will try my level best to navigate this space objectively.
The negatives, on the socio-political front, it seems to me as black communities in the main we missed that opportunity of debriefing at a socio-political level. The militancy that was used in all its forms to fight, delegitimize and destroy apartheid was not cleansed or dealt with at both social and political levels.
The language of dealing with an enemy (system) persisted beyond the defeat of an enemy. The political elites missed the opportunity to embark on a mass civic education post- 1994 to prepare black communities to govern.
This exercise was gravely missed, I opine. It could be because political power was the final arbiter or it was just a grave oversight on the part of the political leaders. Thus, generational militancy is showing its ugly head at universities.
We see unprecedented violence and burning of infrastructure that we witnessed when the apartheid system was an enemy of these communities. Could this be a generational curse or just juvenile delinquency? I think it is a generational curse that should be nipped in the butt.
There is no denying that the socio-economic situation of many youth in South Africa especially in black communities is very dire. This could be racially proportional in terms of percentages but it is really concerning. The youth of this country feels despondent, there are no jobs, no business opportunities even political opportunities for those in the political realm. How did we get here after achieving our hard-earned democracy in 1994?
Again, we need to look deep into what went wrong, me thinks poor political planning on the part of the political elites carries much of the blame. There should have been a solid racial free developmental plan for all these eventualities that come with taking power.
These sideshows we are now seeing are a result of linear thinking that over the years has worsened due to greed and corruption. Political leaders instead of helping the youth, use them to fight their political battles and factions as it has now become fashion. Youth on the other hand seem direction-less because the enemy is no longer visible and, in the process, they become violent and pyromaniacs.
To prove the political failure of our leaders, in an effort to curb youth despondence they opened university gates to everyone. Naturally, universities are not for everyone, that is an international phenomenon.
For example, there are people who are technically gifted, those are carefully identified for a different post-matric schooling system, those with innate talent are groomed differently. What did our government do? They lumped everyone into the same bucket and the results are dire.
The last aspect is that of the socio-cultural realm, South Africa is one of the most diverse countries in the world. It is not easy to develop a compact social fire that is sustainable.
At a particular point in our kids’ development they are lost in this boiling pot and become something else, they learn a plethora of habits -good or bad - in all these corners of our social strata.
In the end, we have a child with less social values, a child that is hard to control, difficult to discipline, basically a child with no moral compass. To make it worse, we have a significant number of kids from child-headed households who are living on government grants.
All these factors contribute to the militancy of our youth and out of confusion and anger they do despicable things. It is high time that we self-introspect as a people of this country - at all levels.
It is high time now that role players like churches, civil society, youth formations, society leaders and traditional leaders take up their rightful places in communities and bring hope to the youth, assist them to unlock their potential, and mentor them into becoming responsible citizens and adults.
The points highlighted above are not exhaustive, but they can help chart a way forward. Bearing these salient points in mind, in an ideal world, no universities would be burnt down instead, they would be cherished and revered as they were before 1994. Youth can be directed to follow careers befitting their aptitudes and attitudes. In the end, they can create their own job opportunities and assist to boost the economy instead of destroying it.
*Khumbulani Mngadi is an independent analyst based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.