OPINION - “Same old, same old.” That was the reaction from some Mossel Bay residents in the comments beneath our report on a student protest at South Cape College’s Essenhout Street campus in Heiderand last week. 

And perhaps that is precisely the problem: it is the same issue being protested over and over again, because for many students across South Africa, the issue has still not been resolved.

If students could afford tuition, accommodation, transportation, groceries and internet, they wouldn’t be among the hundreds of thousands of applicants the financial aid scheme receives each year, praying their applications are approved and they receive funding.

Systemic failures

A report released by the Public Protector in August states that Nsfas has failed to fulfill its mandate, resulting in inadequate access to tuition funding, delays in allowances, accommodation challenges and inefficiencies in the administration of financial aid. It says this directly affects students’ ability to properly participate in higher education - the very thing the Mossel Bay South Cape College students were protesting last week.

Instead, as Union Against Hunger reported on 28 August, several students are skipping meals to save money.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) reported that students are sleeping in campus libraries because of delays in securing accommodation or its unaffordability, highlighted by UCT students’ recent Scrap the Cap protest outside Nsfas’ offices in Cape Town.

We’ve heard these stories countless times over the years, directly from the students impacted.

If thousands of students are saying the same thing, having the same struggles when it comes to accessing equal education, surely something needs to change? 

Surely they cannot all be lazy and entitled, as many of those in the Advertiser’s Facebook comments have labelled them?

Unfulfilled promises

I’ve heard so many people - people who are not in the same situation these students are in, who are living comfortable lives, say that Nsfas beneficiaries - who, according to a 2022 Nsfas study, are majority black and brown - are entitled, ungrateful and always destroying the things they’ve been awarded. 

Is it so unreasonable to expect a promise to be fulfilled?

If their needs were properly met, these students would not feel the need to protest. Protesting is not something people engage in for fun; it is to make their voices heard loudly enough to enact change.

In recent history, the student-led #FeesMustFall protests against increased tuition fees at universities in 2015, and the #AmINext? movement, sparked by the rape and murder of a university student, Uyinene Mrwetyana, in 2019, made national headlines. 

These student protests led to a halt in fee increases, a revision of the Nsfas system and the government’s introduction of the National Strategic Plan Against Gender-Based Violence and the amendment of the Domestic Violence Act and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Act. 

An unequal society, decades later

Although legal barriers to accessing higher education and employment have been removed, the socio-economic consequences of apartheid remain evident in South Africa's persistent racial wealth and poverty disparities.

According to Dr Shanelle van der Berg, a senior researcher at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), socio-economic status has a direct impact on whether a person is able to access their constitutional rights, one of which is access to higher education.

“If we think about race and poverty intersecting, we can just look at the stats produced by StatsSA: 64% of black Africans remain poor, 40% of coloured people remain poor and then, on the other hand, 6% of Indians and Asians are poor, and only 1% of whites are poor,” said Van der Berg during a national SAHRC conference in 2021.

She went on to say that, owing to colonialism and apartheid, racism was in the architectural design of South African society, and it was not possible to separate race from social transformation.

Each month we read a new report about the price of petrol, food and rent increasing while our income stays the same. We complain about the strain it puts on our wallets, even those of us living in proper housing, earning a monthly salary, eating regularly and staying healthy.

If we are feeling the crushing weight of the cost-of-living crisis, what makes you think those who have little to nothing - including students just starting in the world - won’t experience it more severely? 

And what about the 47.4% of the youth who are currently unemployed, a figure announced by StatsSA as recently as last month?

Unforgiving and unfair comments

While I do not have all the answers, I do have empathy and compassion for students trying to improve their lives with what little they have been afforded.

I wish some of the Advertiser’s readers would think critically before leaving a comment dripping with disdain for the youth, with several of the comments coated with blatant racism - “the usual suspects”, “it is in their genes to protest”, and “useless freeloaders who are there for free money to buy designer clothes and wigs” are just a few examples.

I’ve seen similar comments appear under many publications’ reports on student protests, and the Advertiser is clearly no exception. However, it is still frustrating that these comments are made under our stories, seemingly with no shame or hesitation at all.

How would you feel when it’s your child on the front lines of a protest and you, as a tuition-paying parent, cannot afford the costs and no one answers your calls? 

Would you label the youth as entitled then?

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Group Editors and its publications. 

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