Exaggerated responses to student protest: Underlying historical, cultural and institutional practices in a historically white Afrikaans university

Abstract

In 2015, institutions of higher learning across South Africa were rocked by nationwide student protests demanding socio-economic and socio-political justice through a new language now commonly known as ‘Fallism’. Fallism was/is an ideological and political undertaking by mostly black students in post-colonial and post-Apartheid historically white universities, to bring about the ‘fall’ of the vestiges of white privilege lingering in the corridors of such higher education institutions in South Africa. Starting in April 2015 with the #RhodesMustFall student movement at the University of Cape Town, the language of “must fall” soon became a new way of organizing student activists across the country; and by the end of 2015, all higher education institutions witnessed the nation-wide #FeesMustFall protests pushing for a national shutdown in demand of free education.

The #FeesMustFall campaign are said to have gained momentum at Witwatersrand University on 14 of October 2015, following the institutions plans of a 10% tuition fee hike and subsequently resulted in a shutdown of the institution by the Student Representative Council. In days to follow, almost all institutions of higher learning had joined in a national shutdown, demanding a 0% increment on tuition and accommodation fees, alongside the longstanding demand for ‘free higher education’ and the slow pace of transformation in some of South Africa’s higher education universities.

Using ‘new’ decolonial frameworks to place today’s demand for social justice in institutions of higher learning, protesting students, however, came/come under fire for ‘infringing’ on the rights of other students, and the protests were/are often met with abrasive use of force by university authorities and the state. In some cases, the universities - often in collaboration with the state (police, courts etc.) would mete out ‘violence’ to clamp down on student protests, which they largely defined as ‘violent’. Any attempt to understand the above challenges across higher education institutions needs to take historical precedence into account by framing the discussion of South Africa’s higher education landscape against the backdrop of the entrenchment of inequality and exclusion in South Africa’s higher education system conceived and birthed out of colonialism and apartheid respectively