#Hashtag An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Editor: Malose Langa Contributors: Sandile Ndelu, Yingi Edwin, Musawenkosi Malabela, Marcia Vilakazi, Oliver Meth, Godfrey Maringira, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation Simbarashe Gukurume and Muneinazvo Kujeke. Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation Johannesburg Office: 33 Hoofd Street, Braampark Forum 5, 3rd Floor Johannesburg, 2001, South Africa P O Box 30778, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017, South Africa Tel: +27 (11) 403-5650 Fax: +27 (11) 339-6785 e-mail: [email protected] Cape Town Office: 501 Premier Centre, 451 Main Road, Observatory, 7925 Tel: +27 (21) 447-2470 e-mail: [email protected] #Hashtag: An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Table of Contents Acknowledgements 2 Acronyms and abbreviations 3 Notes of contributors: 4 Researching the #FeesMustFall movement. 6 ‘A Rebellion of the Poor’: Fallism at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 13 ‘Being Black’ in #FeesMustFall and #FreeDecolonisedEducation: Student Protests at the University of the Western Cape 33 Tshwane University of Technology: Soshanguve Campus Protests Cannot Be Reduced to #FeesMustFall 49 ‘Liberation Is a Falsehood’: Fallism at the University of Cape Town 58 Violence and the #FeesMustFall Movement at the University of KwaZulu-Natal 83 #FeesMustFall at Rhodes University: Exploring the dynamics of student protests and manifestations of violence 97 We are already enjoying free education: Protests at the University of Limpopo (Turfloop) 108 South African higher education at a crossroads: The Unizulu case study 121 We are not violent but just demanding free decolonized education: University of the Witwatersrand 132 1 # #Hashtag: An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Acknowledgements This research was undertaken following students’ protests in 2015 and 2016 in various universities in South Africa. This study was commissioned in order to gain more insight from students themselves on how they made sense of their involvement in the protests. The researchers involved in the project were Sandile Ndelu, Yingi Edwin, Musawenkosi Malabela, Marcia Vilakazi, Oliver Meth, Godfrey Maringira, and Muneinazvo Kujeke. We wish to express our appreciation to these researchers for their hard work and dedication in completing this research project. We also wish to express our appreciation to all the key informants who agreed to be interviewed and share their insight about the protests that took place in our universities in 2015 and 2016. Our reviewers David Bruce, Themba Masuku, Chandre Gould, Marinda Kotze, Nohlanhla Sibanda, Karl von Holdt, Catherine Moat, Adele Kirsten, Dominique Dix- Peek, Crispen Chinguno, Peace Kiguwa, Hlengiwe Ndlovu, Mondli Hlatshwayo, Masana Ndinga, and Hugo van der Merwe, deserve a special mention for the critical comments on the first drafts of the chapters published in the report. Your feedback has really helped researchers refine and enrich some of their arguments in the research. Special thanks to Lee Smith for her rigorous editing of all the chapters in the report. Your ability to pick up each and every word has helped to clarify a lot of points in the report. Thanks to Carol Cole for your creativity for the layout and design for this report. Images supplied by: Kierran Allen – [email protected] Francois Swanepoel– [email protected] Shaun Swingler – [email protected] Paul Saad – www.flickr.com/photos/kartaba Special thanks to CSVR staff for the support in this project, namely Melissa Hunter, Patience Mazwi, and Jabulile Mahlaba. Thanks to Nomfundo Mogapi as the Executive Director for this support of this project as well as Themba Masuku as the Research Manager. And finally a very big thank you to the donors - The Raith Foundation and Sigrid Rausing Trust for your financial support of this project and without you this research would not have been possible. # 2 #Hashtag: An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Acronyms and abbreviations ANC African National Congress ANCYL African National Congress Youth League BAC Black Academic Caucus BSM Black Students’ Movement CGE Commission for Gender Equality CPUT Cape Peninsula University of Technology DASO Democratic Alliance Student Organisation DHET Department of Higher Education and Training EFF Economic Freedom Fighters EFFSC Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command NEHAWU National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union NSFAS National Student Financial Aid Scheme PASMA Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania PMB Pietermaritzburg PYA Progressive Youth Alliance SASCO South African Student Congress SCA Supreme Court of Appeal SCO Students’ Christian Organisation SERI Socio-Economic Rights Institute SETT special executive task team SRC Student Representative Council TNG Technikon Northern Gauteng TRC truth and reconciliation commission TUT Tshwane University of Technology TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training UCT University of Cape Town UKZN University of KwaZulu-Natal UL University of Limpopo Unizulu University of Zululand UWC University of the Western Cape Wits University of the Witwatersrand YCL Young Communists League 3 # #Hashtag: An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Notes of contributors Godfrey Maringira is a VolkswagenStiftung Postdoctoral Fellow based at the University of the Western Cape. His areas of research include the ethnography of war, soldiers and the environment, and army desertions in post-colonial Africa. Malose Langa is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Community and Human Development, Department of Psychology, at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and Associate Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Recompilation (CSVR). His research interests include risk-taking behaviours amongst the youth and their role in politics, substance abuse and addiction, trauma of collective violence and the psychology of men (masculinity) in post-apartheid South Africa. Marcia Vilakazi has a BA Hons in Medical Anthropology from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is currently studying an MA in Public Health researching changing families, care giving and community responses at Wits University. Musawenkosi Malabela holds a Master’s degrees in Political Sociology and an Industrial Sociology both from the University of Witwatersrand. He worked as a researcher at the National Labour and Economic Institute (NALEDI) and the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions’ (COSATU) research institute which works on labour issues. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Industrial Sociology at the University of Witwatersrand and a PhD fellow at Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP). His research interest includes internal democracy in organizations, trade unions, local government politics and broader issues around social cohesion and work. Muneinazvo Kujeke is a Ph.D candidate in Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal with particular research interests in conflict resolution and collective security in Africa. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Pretoria and a Master’s degree in Peace and Governance from Africa University. Prior to her doctoral studies, Muneinazvo was part of the African Union Commission/African Capacity Building Foundation team working on the Capacity Needs Assessment for the AUC Agenda 2063. She enjoys writing on African Affairs and has recently published an article on women’s rights in Liberia. For the 2016-17 academic year, she is attached to the Peace Operations and Peace Building Division at the Institute for Security Studies working on South-South Cooperation for Peace Building. # 4 #Hashtag: An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Oliver Meth is an Anthropology postgraduate student at the University of the Witwatersrand, a Journalist and filmmaker - with a particular focus on environmental rights, public participation, HIV and AIDS, marginalisation and poverty. Oliver has published and researched on a range of development issues, contributed to a number of international journals and media outlets and has rapporteur for local government and higher education institutes at major conferences. Sandile Ndelu has a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from the University of Cape Town and is currently completing her postgraduate LLB degree at the same institution. When she is not stressing out the white supremacist, capitalism, patriarchy, she is reading literature from the subaltern or daydreaming about what she plans to do with the land. She describes herself as a raging black, poor, and queer Trans radical feminist. She is invested in what has become known as ‘fallist’ student activism and together with other Trans* students, founded and runs the UCT: Trans* Collective. The Trans Collective aims to nuance the nationwide discussion about decolonisation by including ‘degendering’ and ‘decisgendering’ as necessary elements of the decolonial project. Simbarashe Gukurume is a doctoral fellow at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA), University of Cape Town. His research interests focuses on the Anthropology of money, Youth and violence, Pentecostalism and Livelihoods. Yingi Edwin is a PhD candidate with the University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus. He holds a Masters in Peace and Governance from Bindura University of Science Education in Zimbabwe. His