The teargas has swallowed the air and wrapped itself around each lung. Enveloped by smoke, the fog continues to carry the sounds of chaotic screaming from bodies that exist amongst these very ruins.
Crowds disperse at the launching of surprise attacks. Concealed by the fumes, they collapse. They crumble. They rise. “It was moments like this when we felt held up by our spirit of solidarity,” said Stellenbosch student activist Zizipho Doda (21).
As the crowd comes undone, stripped of bearings and breath, they remain rooted in their profound declaration of defiance and activism as they rise as pioneers of awareness, cause and transformation.
Student participating in Fees Must Fall. PHOTO: Tony Maake
“Students from across the country were mobilised, fighting for the same cause,” Fees Must Fall (FMF) leader, Lwazi Pakade (23), said. The atmosphere was different – it was resilient, argumentative and concerned. It consumed the masses and demanded public attention.
The vineyard horizons of Stellenbosch University (SU) quickly became the backdrop of a sensory experience; this all-consuming energy that engulfed the town – the proficient art of protesting. “The need for political reform is a recurring theme in political life,” said author of Reforming the Political System, José Moroni.
The strong sense of displacement and political powerlessness often become a shared concern for future student protests at SU. “We no longer wanted to remain numb to the mental shackles that had been imposed on us,” said former African National Congress Youth League member, Noncedo Sanda.
“The 2015 Fees Must Fall, for black students, was a revolution… We took to the streets to shut down universities in the name of free education,” said Pakade.
There was a collective drive and energy aimed at creating an effective counter strategy. Sanda added that students were creating platforms in which their voices could be heard and unified agendas could be carried out.
Spurred by international media and local reporting, scenes of wreckage and desolation dominated coverage. According to Doda, “the media failed to effectively cover the protest from the perspective of the students; it was a very removed and skewed narrative.”
The protest was rooted in the fight against the 8% rising of tertiary education fees, 9.2% student accommodation increase, and the 8% increase in resident meal quotas. The intensity and significance of the movement was seen in the 0% fee increase in 2016.
Students challenge the university’s language policy. PHOTO: Open Stellenbosch Facebook
The Open Stellenbosch movement saw the establishment of a defiant campaign that immersed itself in ideas of inclusivity for all students. Protesters refused to accept the university’s pace of transformation, placing particular emphasis on culture and language. “In order to build towards a foundation that ensures progression one needs to allow comfort of expression, which language affords,” said SU student, Jerobiam Julies (24).
The protest challenged barriers to understanding that saw non-Afrikaans learners feel marginalised by the university’s language policy. The challenging of the SU language policy was rooted in the belief that the current language policy disregarded transformative proposals. According to an Open Stellenbosch YouTube video, Luister, students questioned the dominance of Afrikaans in lectures.
SU students participate in the SLUT Walk. PHOTO: Wilné van Rooyen
Last year the streets erupted again with chants including “No means no!” and “My dress is not a yes!” Over 150 protesters gathered on campus to fight against issues of rape culture and the objectifying of female bodies at the Start Letting Us Talk (SLUT) Walk.
“This protest was about removing ourselves from passive activism and taking a proper stance on issues that women face on a daily basis,” said SLUT Walk participant, Rozanne Mouton (22). “We were saying that it’s enough. We don’t feel safe when we are alone, you constantly feel harassed by the ogling of males around you,” said protester, Carmon de Beer (21).
The SLUT Walk highlighted the ability for women to gain control of a narrative and discourse to which they find themselves. According to professor of law at Uganda’s Makerere University, Sylvia Tamale, in an online piece, the protest asserted that “naked bodies have the capacity to disrupt and, in a spectacular way, turn vulnerability into empowerment.”
The prominence of these protests highlight the establishment of student activism at SU. According to SU student Wilné van Rooyen, these protests were about “giving a voice to the voiceless, fighting for those who needed protection. It was about giving to causes greater than ourselves.”