Issue 3, Vol 2: 8 February 2011 *In this issue:*
- Commissar's Notes: Denialism is not going to solve but will exacerbate our problems<http://www.sasco.org.za/show.php?include=pubs/moithuti/2011/issue3.html#one> - Opinion: Education standing tall on its Head: Enriching the debate on transformation of college sector<http://www.sasco.org.za/show.php?include=pubs/moithuti/2011/issue3.html#two> [image: Commissar's Notes]Commissar's Notes Denialism is not going to solve but will exacerbate our problems COSATU with the support of the SACP has been correctly arguing in the past year that: crony capitalism, corruption and indeed Tenderpreneurship are the biggest threats to the struggle for a better life and could stall and jeopardize the cultivation of a better life for all. As SASCO we agree with this assertion unreservedly. Dismissive arguments such as those that COSATU should bring lists of "corrupt" people only act to avoid the issues rather than respond to them decisively. These arguments are purely unhelpful in building a better future for all. Anyone who is serious about lifting the great majority of our people from the jaws of poverty and unemployment has to accept that one of the biggest challenges that continues to face post-colonial states in Africa and elsewhere has been the shameless intersection between business and politics, which leads to conflicts and palace politics rather than collective development. South Africa is no exception. Crass materialism, Tenderpreneurship and javelin throwing economics (that of awarding a company tenders and later joining it) are already entrenched in our political milieu and have already begun to consume and erode even the appearance and pretence of revolutionary morality within our ranks. As a result of this malaise our movements continuously breed opportunists on a large scale rather than revolutionaries. In the past fifteen years, in our country, we have seen a black capitalist stratum composed of political leaders, their relatives, or associates rise on the back of government tenders and political connections rather than on its own entrepreneurial acumen and innovation. Of course, the black bourgeoisie has been marginalized by apartheid, but so has been the black working class, but little or no measures have been put to lift it out of the poverty bestowed unto it by apartheid. The contestation here is with the rise of elements of the black capitalist class that has sought to climb the accumulation ladder through corrupting peoples' organizations such as the ANC. Elements of the black capitalist strata use their positions within the liberation movement to gain undue advantage in their business dealings under the guise that they are not government officials, such that election to leadership positions consistently acts as front row seats in tender accumulation. This has been the root cause of the acrimonious contestations that we see towards ANC congresses. Leadership contestations about who will get a slice of the action rather than who are the most suitable people to lead the struggle for the emancipation of our people. Elements of the black capitalist stratum which occupies leadership positions in the ANC uses these positions to shift the ANC from its strategic priority, which is the emancipation of blacks in general and Africans in particular from political and economic bondage to the enrichment of a politically connected elite. Sections of these strata do not own businesses nor have business interests but accumulate through kickbacks generated from tenders they preside over. This is so much that the majority of outsourced government programs are overpriced in order to accommodate kickbacks demanded by this section. Instead of owning up to these conspicuous problems the ANC scolds and accuses COSATU of "veering towards opposition politics". Name-calling, labels and even gratuitous insults are the new tactics that the ANC uses to rebut anyone in society that really wants to put a stop to the accumulation regime underway. These dismissive antics are reminiscent of the painful ignorance paid to working class aspirations and concerns under the extra-ordinary arrogant leadership of Thabo Mbeki. Denialism rather than frank confrontation with problems facing our society caught up with the Mbeki administration. It surely will catch up with the current ANC leadership if it does not wake up and smell the coffee. Leaders should do well not to forget what is it that propelled them to the forefront of the struggle because forgetfulness is the only ingredient necessary to pull the plug on their positions of influence. Our movement in dealing with these tendencies must be brave and bold enough to deal with the constitution itself. Our constitution is not a sacred document. It is a product of struggle and negotiation. It was not drafted in heaven and faxed to earth for implementation. Neither was it constructed by angels with divine powers, but by politicians who had to conduct a balancing act. South Africans should never forget the fact that the constitution was constructed as a compromise between a democratic movement (the ANC) and an apartheid rightwing grouping that was hell-bent on preserving its economic benefits. The South African constitution was produced to negate a bloody and violent process of apartheid. As much as it an anti-thesis to apartheid, it is not necessarily a reflection of how South Africa must forever look like. It is within this context that we should dismiss all those who would want us to treat this important document of our democratic dispensation as a holy bible that needs nothing else other than implementation. The correctness of the constitution does not lie on the infallibility of personalities such as Mandela or De Klerk but on its capacity to recreate a coherent, united and prosperous South Africa. The poverty that ravages South Africa under the nose of this very constitution is not only a threat to stability but to the constitution itself. As poverty increases, crime and violence increase at a much rapid rate to the embarrassment of our modern day constitutionalists. As much as the constitution has assisted us in removing the political aspects of apartheid, it has not moved us a hairs split in removing its economic edifice. This is because of the existence of the property clause in our constitution. Liberals and capitalists stand to benefit more from the current constitution than our poor majority. The property clause is one major reason the liberal elite loves the constitution and has ensured that it has its "analysts" on round 15 pose ready to deliver a knockout punch. These "intellectuals" have been accorded unparalleled public space such as the show and columns enjoyed by Justice Malala. They have been arrogated the title of super-intellectuals whose opinions must be accepted as correct and equivalent to the word of the lord. It is in this context that although disappointing, it is not surprising that "intellectual" Justice Malala in his E-TV show chose to lampoon rather than engage SASCO's views on the property clause in the constitution. The cowardice of the liberal elite has led it to unprecedented levels of intolerance for those who dare raise discontent about the constitution. The ANC and the entire liberation movement owe it to society to tinker with documents such as the constitution in order to advance the lives of the poor and at the same time put lid on Tenderpreneurship and the New Tendency. *Lazola Ndamase is Secretary General of SASCO (South African Students Congress)* Opinion: Education standing tall on its Head: Enriching the debate on transformation of college sector *Introduction* Yes south Africa is a country at crossroads,[high rate of unemployment amongst the youth and shortage of skills and illiteracy].even though ironically south Africa is amongst the high income country ,but one should critically ask what are we rich from. Then the question is are South Africans rich or is the government having a high income. In engaging on the debate about education and transformation thereof; we must fix it in our minds that: The education system in the country in general but FET sector in particular the education system is the product of pseudo intellectuals who did not care about South African conditions before engaging in the wholesale change of the curriculum. The duration of the study for the NCV courses is quite appalling. How do you attend matric for a year but the equivalent programme to the same matric for three years? Don't learners who attend technical high schools not possess the same skills as those who are products of wakes-up everyday to attend a class in the FET sector? As said in the second edition of the red spark that *"the role of the student movement cannot therefore be to sit on our classroom chairs and critique the system without making any critical intervention. As students and the youth of the country in general we ought to make it our duty to critically analyze the situation and adopt practical programmes to rescue the country."* As part of analyzing both the situation and the system in general we need to critically take note of the following points: 1. Pre- tertiary curriculum 2. Who benefits from the system? 3. Can we together with the government achieve the challenge in hand [unemployment rate, shortage of skills and illiteracy? 4. Fundamentally whose class interest are those persuaded by the FET sector and its NCV programme *How the sytem operates?* We will start these complex phenomena from the basic education point of view. When a learner is in grade 9 downwards he/she does things such as EMS [economics and management science] HSS ETC,which according to departmental curriculum specialists is a mixture of accouting,economics and business studies, which they believe the learner will be able to diagnose which stream of studies he/she would be suitable for him/her. But practically ask yourself that if we put orange, mango and apple juices in one glass and ask you to diagnose which one you like most will you be able to answer such a tough question? Is as rear as hens teeth for such to happen. Nevertheless the funny part of this theory one should critically check if this joke (disguised as skills development curricula) was created internationally and be imposed to the unsuspecting Africans just like the way the former president of the ANC cde Thabo Mbeki argued his dissident view on aids in the book called (titled) "THE DREAM DEFERRED" by saying ( that) "reverting to a racist image of Africans as being unable to control their sexuality, the world wanted to dump expensive and toxic medications on UNSUSPECTING Africans while ignoring the real causes of AIDS: Africa's ongoing poverty and underdevelopment."By so saying we are analytically trying to spot the systematic similarity and the advantage of the current capitalist system on Africans because of the unsuspecting character [attitude]we have towards the imperialists. We all understand that class cannot be defined by race but we further note that class can be expressed in terms of race hence race is in the forefront of complicating the societal class contradictions we have in our education system. Continuing with the system in basic education we now critically consider matric.First and foremost are it helpful for our government to measure the quality of education in the country by matric is really the curriculum content of matric so thick to an extent that it carries the quality of the whole country's education. *Who benefits from the system?* This is a very complex matter because it consists of many contradictions in general but class in particular. I am afraid this might need us to first answer the question of who is at helm of the capitalist system and how it interrelate with this issue at hand now. We will come back to this question later. For now let's turn our focus to education post apartheid when in December 1995 cde Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela said" this is the challenge am posing to student movement to come with a policy of RDE[reconstruction and development of education]".this means that there is a historically reference to the current crisis. Despite the continuous leadership change in government in general but education in particular, they all seem to be representing the same class interest even one of our latest communist[cde blade nzimande] who seem to be transformed by the system he seeks to transform. Lets defocus a bit from all this noisy quarrels it looks like the same minority that benefited the most from apartheid are still the most beneficiaries now not using the colour of their skin but maybe through globalization of some sought, because in considering the very same RDE we seem to have long ignored the reconstruction part because you only reconstruct something that exist meaning we should instead of always coming with new systems but construct the existing one even if we inherited it from the reactionary forces of apartheid for everything is born and derives its first impulse in the womb of the presence. Negation of the already existent system requires the appreciation of those that might be helpful and discarding of those that are not desirable. Thus how the society develops, the logic which our revolutionary movement refuse to accept. To put in two ministries of education just because apartheid system had one single co-ordinated structure of department of education, therefore we want to look different from them. There is no point in not looking like a devil while you are a direct opponent of god because you push the same agenda with devil. So going black masses and the working class in general *Can we together with the government achieve the challenge in hand [unemployment rate, shortage of skills and illiteracy*? Yes together we can achieve more but that will depend on our theoretical analysis and understanding of the strategic document called the national democratic revolution (that will depend on our understanding of the NDR as a process of struggle to fight three interrelated contradictions i.e class, race and gender). First and foremost we will also look at the current government and its class position. Our government is led by the liberation movement which pronounce itself a multiclass organisation. But interestingly enough ANC went further in "the green book" to say "There is no doubt about the socialist future". One can conclude that that is just a lip expression because if the current educational policies is anything to go by, then we in a capitalist state that claims to be biased to the working class and the poor. So as a student organisation we can conclude that there is a need for a radical change in the state in general but education in particular. Coming to the issue of shortage of skills we have a lot of infrastructure in the country but the challenge seems to be that we do not understand what type of skill is needed. Because the economic policies of this country seem not to correspond with the educational policies of the country. *Fundamentally who is class interest are those persuaded by the FET sector and its NCV programme*? First and foremost the issue of class is being articulated already in the document but because there is a thin line between class and education because we are not in a classless society in South Africa, one should bear in mind that South Africa is the most unequal society in Africa. So in terms of capitalists system we are in good standing hence a lot of international investors from western countries. The very same system of education failed dismisallies in some European countries but because the system does not care whether the poor and working class are benefitting it continued to try the system to our unsuspecting Africans. How on earth can a system fail in a developed country but be expected to pass in a developing state perhaps the country should again visit the most complex phenomena of sustainable development together with its policies in place. *Conclusion* As a student's structure we cannot at any point sit on class room chairs and fold our looking at our state titanic facing an iceberg like this. We therefore have to demand a radical change of the system they have already failed to produce what is needed, therefore why are we continuing such kind of a system to prove my point, one can check how many students enrol at FET and complete their courses it just a drop in the ocean. The matter raised in the last edition of the red spark that the organisation pay little attention to the sector is indeed true but the reasons articulated that is" because most of our leaders are from universities "is unthinkable and unaccepted because in my analysis it says our leaders use the own personal experience to direct the organisation. If that point is anything to go by ,then we seriously have to consider the issue of organisational renewal before attempting to address policy issues of the state because we stand to believe that our leaders are there to transform education in general not certain areas of the own choice nevertheless the matter shall be fully articulated in the congress. *Joel Mamabolo is the branch chairperson of SASCO PTC branch* -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. 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