There is a risk that because of fatigue, frustration and silencing the important moment created by South Africa’s student movements will pass by with no proper, long-term structural change.
Students have been agitating for an end to public university fees in South Africa.
Nic Bothma/EPA
Free public higher education is possible and necessary. It’s also realistic, if it’s based on thorough research, consultation and students giving back through community service after graduation.
Transforming the curriculum isn’t as simple as replacing some books with others.
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For law faculties, the transformative vision embodied in South Africa’s constitution provides a potent driver for change. So what does a transformed law faculty look like?
Supporters of the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
South African labour unions have shown themselves to be effective in translating the prescripts of the law into benefits for their members. This is particularly true in the public sector.
Crowds cheer as Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe arrives to address the country’s Independence Day celebrations in Harare.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
Namibia’s new elite has used “affirmative action” for self-enrichment, while the majority of the population remains excluded from its the wealth. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s socio-economic woes continue.
Universities can be alienating spaces, particularly for students from poorer backgrounds.
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Cuba’s National Capitol Building has been reclaimed as the seat of the National Assembly 54 years after it was abandoned by the new revolutionary government. There are lessons in this for others.
Nearly 20 million South Africans live in rural areas. Why are the country’s universities so dismissive of rurality?
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
South Africa’s educational policies and curricula tend to be biased against rural lifestyles - even though nearly 20 million people live in the country’s rural areas.
The shadows of a mother and child are cast on a shack in a township in South Africa. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko.
University students in South Africa tend to fall into a “single story” trap, ignoring other individuals’ experiences to construct an understanding of the country’s political realities.
Research in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, shows that many young, black and poor people do not recognise themselves or their communities in the stories they see, hear or read in mainstream media.
More South Africans are taking to the streets to hold government accountable.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
South Africans’ faith in the post-apartheid system of democracy is clearly slipping - and some even suggest that a return to apartheid would be a good thing.
Most young South Africans can’t afford tuition fees and are left out of the higher education system.
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
The student protests that rocked South Africa’s universities in 2015 are part of a class struggle as poor and marginalised people fight for their place in an unequal system.
Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). He has openly questioned Nelson Mandela’s economic policy legacy.
Reuters/Skyler Reid
South African opposition politician Julius Malema has blamed economic policies put in place during Nelson Mandela’s era for the country’s high levels of inequality. He may have a point.
Young South Africans are angry with the failure of the country to deal with racism.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The central thrust of Haffajee’s book is compelling. It argues that black South Africans, especially the new generation of young, black ‘born frees’ are obsessed with whiteness and white privilege.
Miners pray during the one-year anniversary commemoration of the killings of 34 striking miners by police outside Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The reporting of the Marikana massacre was characterised by embedded journalism, sensationalism and polarisation of views. The media became a loudspeaker for powerful political and economic interests.
Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State
South African Research Chair in Teacher Education; Director of Centre for International Teacher Education (CITE) & Professor of International Education and Development Policy (University of Sussex, UK), Cape Peninsula University of Technology