[YCLSA Discussion] Higher Education and the struggle

[Mduduzi H Vilakazi]

Cadres of the revolution!   Let us take a break and look at the way in which institutions of Higher Learning participated in the struggle for the emancipation of black people in general and Africans in particular. This input seek to take a swipe from the engagements as initiated by Cde Sive and Cde Dalton. The comparison on how the ANC assist institutions of higher learning should not arise.   The formation of NUSAS by white liberal students played a significant role in shaping the minds of students since 1924. In my limited knowledge, institutions of higher learning (particularly, disadvantaged universities, technikons and colleges) were at the forefront of the struggle. The group of the Mandelas and Mugabes in Fort Hare advocated for the establishment of the ANCYL. The SRCs were capable of assembling politically acclimatize cadres. Hence the formation of the now renowned ANCYL.   The group of Steve Biko, Terror Lekota and others advocated for the establishment of the student African Leadership organisation called SASO (after some developments, now SASCO). This group recognized their role in society hence the preamble of SASCO that says " We are members of the community before we are students". They ploughed back to the community through community work that included inter alia adult education, cultivation of land, fighting apartheid etc.   AZASO and subsequently SANSCO played a major role in the establishment of UDF. Its participation included the provision of accommodation to exile comrades who were tasked to execute certain tasks within the country. Universities became a haven of political discourse and most comrades found a perfect habour in this institutions. The SRCs even without major resources were able to act in a manner that assisted the ANC and other political parties in exile to be able to realize the dream of freedom.   The issue now is that political structures are dependent on the ANC with regard to manifestations and execution of programmes that seek to bring awareness to society in general. SASCO no longer advances the pillar of community work. Illiteracy is rife in the country. Society is generally not learned. Winter schools have faded and consciousness among the youth has declined at an exponential rate. The question as asked by Lenin "What must be done?" shall reemerge in our minds.   All of us are aware that we are living is a capitalist society where almost all activities have financial bearings. Can't we use other means like the SRC budgets that are mainly used to fund travelling of SRCs, buying flambouyant suits and making SRC Presidents and other lucky girlfriends to live large. In 1994, 1999 and 2000 elections SASCO was able to fund its election programmes from the resources it received from SRC budgets. Did we lose all that power? Why are we crying foul to the ANC? Are the demands for funds more such that SASCO branches cannot be able to fund programmes that are facilitated by NEC and PEC. Do we need funds to mobilize students to pack a hall for a political activity?   I think, there is dependence on the ANC to fund programmes that necessarily do not need cash to be executed. Doing door-to-door in the surrounding areas will only need volunteers of students and comrades from the surrounding areas no money involved. Let us not create a tendency of greed, selfishness and self-centredness to justify our actions of not contributing immensely to societal development. Ours is to request the limited available campaign machinery from the ANC offices (like T-Shirts, Placards and the assessment sheets) in order to carry out the work of the movement.   Let the dependency syndrome be minimized at all level and advance the spirit of selflessness and volunteerism. Amandla!!         Internal Auditor Dept of Public Works Mpumalanga Government Cell: 073 538 3973       : 083 357 4849 Tel: 013 766 8280 Fax: 086 544 3205 >>> Dalton Dan Gama <daltondan...@gmail.com> 09/03/2009 19:09 >>> We all have that wish cde sive of seeing the structure assist all young people within institutions of higher learning, like your pya structures however such is very much scarce. As young leaders i think that it is time we expose all those who are centralising the ANC to only a few so to be able to manage and manipulate them in terms of discussing and debating them in issues. Comrades for us to be able to that we therefore need to renew our membership in the ANC and state our veiws there, because even here in tswane university of technology we are strugling to get resources from our leadership of the motherboard of which is not clear as to why is that not happening. ri, Mar 6, 2009 at 2:32 PM, sive gumenge <sive.gume...@gmail.com> wrote: Greetings, The sad part here is that it is only UWC that will forever be assisted by ANC on issues like that as if in CPUT there are no young people. We would love to be like that as well but people know that there is a huge political battle there. The CPUT SRC issue has been a known factor for sometime now but it is kept underaps all the time. I think it is high time subscribers of YCLSA Dsicussion forum who are having details of what is happening at CPUT start bringing the issue for discussion. I might be on that SRC but im in the dark myself. What is going on? Who is the stumbling block to our progress? Let them be known. Viva ANC Viva. On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 11:26 PM, ASANDA SKOTI <2637...@uwc.ac.za> wrote: Comrades ANC is key;Ukhongolose mkhulu futhi ngiyamhlonipha!! by saying this I just want to share my happiness with all my fellow comrades and applaud the ANC for supporting us gun down the Shikota at uwc. We followed comrade M.Msekwana’s advice and hosted a big PYA right to vote campaign in our student centre & the event was big and successful. We realized that UWC students are clear and sober about who they want as their president and in government at large I’m saying this because they have been supporting us in every possible way.They attended our event in numbers .We were also honored by a visit from the former ANCYL president Comrade Malusi Gigaba and he delivered a very powerful message reminding students about the apartheid era emphasizing that ANC played a key role in bringing freedom & democracy in South Africa. Above all I would like to salute comrade Thandie Mahambehlala (ANCYL western province secretary) for organizing ( Jub-Jub, Dj Cindo & Dj Siyanda). Comrade Thandi is forever there for us she assist us in all our events, thank you very much comrade! I would also like to cast a vote of confidence to the ANC for paying all the expenses of the event, that has showed us that uKhongolose really value us as the uwc community! Phatha Msholozi phatha!! Long live ANC Long live!! VIVA ANCYL, VIVA YCL VIVA SASCO VIVA!! QINA SASCO QINA!! AMANDLA!!!! Bellville Campus Bellville 7535 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to yclsa-eom-forum@googlegroups.com or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email yclsa-eom-forum-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com . 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