The 2021 academic year opened with a host of challenges for students. Government’s insistence to effectively cut funding for higher education, in addition to problems with accommodation, have led to uncertainty for masses of students. At Wits for example, two thirds of students rely on financial assistance from the state. However, due to the limits introduced this year many students will not receive financial assistance from government.Â
Strict regulations around who is eligible to receive assistance have been put in place. Wits has financially excluded students with a historical debt above R120 000. Tens of thousands of students who rely on NSFAS were deemed unfit for funding this year, leading to mass financial exclusions nationally. At UNISA alone 20 000 first year students were denied funding. Blade Nzimande announced that new students cannot be funded at all. Additionally, across the country, universities including UJ, University of Fort Hare and Wits turned away more than 300 000 applicants due to reduced intakes. All this has rightfully led to uproar among students. The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) and the Socialist Youth Movement (SYM) stand in solidarity with all youth and students fighting for access to education for all.
The effects of the pandemic are revealing instabilities at the core of South African capitalism. Policies are currently based on capitalist logic, which values profit above all else. As a consequence, policy makers ignore the realities faced by students from working class backgrounds as well as their needs. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the difficulties faced by the working class. The brutal lockdown, mass job cuts and unstable economic conditions made it clear that there are problems with the system. Even before the pandemic, communities protested against unlawful evictions, xenophobia and corruption; workers mobilized to defend the right to strike; young people have protested at schools against racist uniform and school rules, crumbling infrastructure, lack of sanitation, sexism; and students protested against the ever-increasing cost of education. Student protests and mobilizations have been taking place before and after #FeesMustFall. Unfortunately, many struggles go unnoticed in mainstream media.
Neoliberal policies fueled by budget cuts have been the bedrock of the ANC government, and have led to increasing inequality in the country. 27 years into the ANC’s attack on the working class and the poor, South Africa is now regarded as one of the most unequal countries in the world. The high number of students requiring financial assistance is evidence of the poverty trap that most of the population is locked in. As a result of the pandemic, most of the academic program has been shifted to online platforms. However, the struggle for all students to get sufficient data, adequate devices for online learning, and access to proper learning/study facilities continues.
This is the direct result of the neoliberal policies and austerity budget of the pro-capitalist ANC government. The struggle to end this education system based around profit maximization must continue and must be expanded to the struggle for a socialist society. An end to the capitalist system remains the only solution to ending the cycle of poverty and inequality. Ultimately, capitalism is the cause for the crisis faced by students and the youth, as well as the deepening crisis faced by the working class as a whole.
The argument that there is just “no money” for free higher education is a myth. We must fight to nationalise the commanding heights of the economy – the banks, mines, commercial farms, big business – and put it under democratic control. The resources of the country can then be used to pay for all levels of education, as well as other social needs like quality healthcare, decent public housing, free childcare, and more.
Across the world young people have been at the forefront of the struggles for gender, racial and climate justice. More and more the oppressed layers of the world are drawing the conclusion that capitalism is a rotten, sick, international system that threatens our very existence. The struggle to abolish it therefore requires unity of all oppressed people on an international scale. Students must join this struggle by organizing into a socialist youth movement in order to defeat the attacks waged by the ruling class.
All sections of the working class including students, youth, workers and communities must unite to wage a battle against capitalism and fight for a socialist society where the needs of all can be met.
Free higher education for all!
