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Renew Student Governance Now! By Lindokuhle Mponco

Student Governance in the current context of the system is the cornerstone of student politics. Political Organisations and Societies contest this arena with the sole aim of reshaping the politics in the sector of Higher Education and Training. When Student Governance reaches the state of ebb, we as revolutionary Marxists must be worried. We must be worried not because there is a decline in the content of politics, but our worry must be in the state of our organisations. In this article I will explain why we need to need to renew Student Governance, and how we can achieve this renewal.

Why do we need to renew Student Governance?

Student Governance in the current context of the Higher Education Act espouses a sector where the SRC is the supreme representative of the Students. However, the shortcoming lies in the fact that it doesn't make room for an accountability organ. Therefore, the current Higher Education Act is logically flawed when we factor in the principles of the current constitution in as far as governance is concerned. 

This sets up a situation whereby the SRC can rise above the very same students that vote for it, and ultimately mandate them. This not only creates that particular contradiction but also heightens the chance of having a student bureaucratic dictatorship. The Student Bureaucratic dictatorship takes form in the following sequence:

1. A Student politician is elected to serve in the SRC.

2. The Student politician is co-opted into the system through various measures (benefits, stipends, and other privileges) that render him/her/they into being another bureaucrat in the long line of bureacrats in the institution.

3. The Student politician submits himself/herself/they to the management, and then sells out the manadate. Anyone that seeks to expose this hypocrisy is suppressed.

This dictatorship is created through managements and councils exploiting this loophole of not having an accountability organ. When a Student-led accountability organ doesn't exist, the SRC accounts directly to the management. This means that the management can use their power to force the SRC to tow the line. Rhodes University is a typical example of a Student Bureaucratic dictatorship. 

The reason why many organisations have not seen this loophole is particularly because there is minimal engagement with the Act, coupled with the general lack of political education. Another factor that can be seen visibly is the lack of a reading culture in our Organisations due to the emphasis of practice over theory instead of a balance between the two as Lenin encouraged.

What is to be done?

The EFFSC must play a role in ensuring that we break down these dictatorships which seem to be spreading across our institutions, especially in this year whereby some institutions are going through constitutional reviews (University of Western Cape, University of Fort Hare, and PE TVET College). The EFFSC must first and foremost expose the current relationship between the SRC and Managements so that we can fully understand in the objective sense that our SRCs are beholden to the Management. This cannot be done without the full understanding and appreciation of the tools called dialectcal & historical materialism. 

We also need to analyse the Higher Education Act dialectially so that we can see the contradictions, and understand the historical development of the Act and the sector to have a full appreciation of how, and why Student Governance declined. We cannot lie to ourselves and purport an image of a fully functional Student Governance component in our country. The state of SAUS and SATVETSA are a typical example of this decline due to how they respond to student struggles. This is precisely why we need to renew Student Governance by creating a Student-led accountability organ; which shall consist of all Student Parliaments across the institutions of higher learning in South Africa.

The EFFSC needs to mobilise its branches to objectively analyse the situation in our sector, and link it with the broad struggle against capitalism. We must understand that the current reaction of management is influenced by the current neoliberal reaction led by the ANC. We must understand that Minister Blade Nzimande has no interest in developing Student Governance and renewing it due to the fear of another #FeesMustFall generation. It is not in the interest of the State to break these Student Bureaucratic dictatorships. In fact, it is in the interest of the State to have these type of dictatorships due to the current austerity plan. This is why the EFFSC must hasten the formation of the Governance Task Unit, with the sole aim of reshaping the type of governors the movement deploys to these components. The EFFSC must also zoom into the development of Student Parliaments across the institutions where the EFFSC is found. It must link that with the call to amend the Higher Education Act to include parliaments as the accountability organ. 

A democratic society or sector without seperation of powers is bound to find itself in sewer of dictatorship and tyranny. This is why the EFFSC, and the revolutionary Marxists who find themselves operating outside of the EFFSC need to unite under one banner of ensuring that Student Governance is renewed according to the terms of the students, and only the students.


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