The Spark

On the 18th of October 2023, the Students of the University of Fort Hare determined their course for the next 12 months. In the words of Marx & Engels, " All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind. "  Marx & Engels use this quote to highlight the power of a revolutionary transformation. This type of transformation is a sweeping one as it qualitatively and quantitatively transforms one society to another society. As Marx & Engels would say, 'it creates the world after its own image', therefore, the revolutionary transformation is not only a cosmetic change, but a thorough going process which fundamentally changes society from the marrow to the bone, to the skin. The 18th of October 2023 despite our sentimentalist views cannot be categorized in this orthodox Marxist understanding of how a revolution transforms society but c...

The Campus Students' Parliament is a primary accountability and policy development unit. It is the basic and nuclear unit of expression of students' aspirations politically and otherwise. It is important that as revolutionaries we begin the attempt to seize the CSP and make it a true arena of the masses at a campus level. The University of Fort Hare EL-Campus has displayed that there are still revolutionary elements within the campus during the fight against the Direct Payment System which was aborted by the ISRC and its vacillating leadership. It is of significant importance that this Organ of power is positioned in a manner that will make it a driver of Student Activism not only within the East London Campus but across the Institution. State of Activism in UFH-EL Campus The state of activism in UFH-EL Campus can be best described as the kicks of a dying horse. This CSP session is a make-or-break due to how it can either kill activism and sell students to the highest bidder or...

The first half of the 2023 academic year concluded with a fierce contest between student leadership, managers of institutions of higher learning, and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). This fierce fight was caused by the decision of the scheme to take over key operations, in relation to disbursement of allowances to students and accreditation of residences. This meant that these two important tasks which were previously carried out by institutions of higher learning with the help of external service providers, particularly for the former task, of disbursing allowances, will now be taken over by NSFAS. NSFAS announced that the task of disbursing allowances will now be outsourced to five external financial service providers. Our observation in relation to the response by the student movement in the country, suggests that it was this decision that agitated student leaders and made them reject the so-called direct payments method introduced by NSFAS. Hashtags li...

Ishumi Leminyaka – Consolidating the ground towards socialist power Progress in human development has always been achieved through a struggle against nature or against the tyranny of man. It falls upon each generation to develop the struggle in order to respond to the prevailing material conditions which are a major determinant of the motive forces.  In the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Founding Manifesto one of the stated goals of this generation is to raise the political consciousness of the masses in order to get to a critical mass which will play a decisive role in crushing neo-colonialism which currently underpins our economic, social and cultural structure. The challenge faced by the EFF is that the dawn of democracy in South Africa brought about a false consciousness of an illusion of freedom whereas we had only achieved limited political freedom. The result of this has been the high levels of apathy in society which has disengaged itself from active participation in the p...

  Revolutionary Greetings We scribe to  your office with the clarity of thought and mind when it comes to the direct payment system. Before we dwell on this matter, we would like to unequivocally reject this system and reject the companies that come with it. Why do we reject this? We reject this system because it is patently corrupt and seeks to benefit the four unknown companies, namely, Norraco, eZaga (Access Bank Nigeria), Coinvest Africa and Tenet Technology. Another reason why we reject this system is due to the reality that NSFAS has not developed the capacity to directly pay students. In a nutshell, this so-called direct payment is not direct payment but indirect payment not fundamentally different to the previous decentralized system. Another  fundamental reason why we reject this system is due to the fact that consultation was not done. In fact, NSFAS and you Minister Nzimande imposed this system when it was clear that SAUS was operating outside of the mandate ...

The direct payment policy has been a thorny issue in the sector of Higher Education due to many factors. The main factor has been the process of outsourcing this system and appointing unknown service providers who are not even recognized by the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA). Through countless inquiries on the origins of the companies and how they got the contract, it finally dawned on us that NSFAS would never approve such a scandalous method without cooperation from SAUS. The South African Union of Students (SAUS) is a key cog in the machinery that continues to exploit the children of the Working Class and the Peasantry. At the beginning of the year, NSFAS published the NSFAS Financial and Academic Eligibility Criteria for 2023. In the over 50-page document, NSFAS imposed the Direct Payment method and the Straight-to-Landlord policy. The SRCs from across the country rightfully rejected this due to NSFAS imposing a policy without maximum consultation. It was in one of the...

 At the beginning of 2023, we were ambushed with a decision that was adopted in the dingy corners of the sector of Higher Education by SAUS (South African Union of Students) and NSFAS. This decision was sanctified and blessed by the Godfather of the sector, Dr. Bonginkosi Emmanuel 'Blade' Nzimande. The decision is an opportunistic decision given the fact that the mechanism of direct payment is more expensive than the previous mechanism. The reason why this decision can be categorized as opportunistic is due to the timing and the implementation of the decision.  In student spaces, the question of direct payment has been one which has gripped the space after the #FeesMustFall was neutralized by the 'free education' announcement of the former President, Monsieur Jacob Zuma. This announcement created an opening for the neoliberal wing of government to implement policies that would increasingly centralize the disbursement process. This was also accompanied by reports of a ge...

The March 20th National Shutdown was a historical move in the epoch of post-apartheid South Africa. The National Shutdown demonstrated one thing and one thing only, the power of the EFFSC in the inner workings and organizational lifeblood of the EFF. This demonstration of the EFFSC being a fighting organ not only in the hands of students from working class and peasantry backgrounds, but also the working class and the peasantry in itself is a demonstration of the power of students in the class struggle in South Africa. Our history is filled with such realities; however, the exercise of this article is to assess the overall performance of the Organization and many other organizations that joined the shutdown. Results The EFF National Shutdown of March 20th was a shutdown like no other. For the first time in a long time, we saw the might of the South African Police Service (SAPS) on full display. The State reacted to a threat from a grouping of Socialist Organizations (EFF, Land Party, PA...

Reformism, Populism, and Revolutionary are the most commonly used terms in the political space in Higher Education institutions. This is being sparked by the increasing tide of reactionary and neoliberal politics in the country, and in particular the sector of Higher Education. These concepts grip our political imagination and reality not only because we are learning about them in lecture halls but because every single day in these institutions is a confrontation of either one of these three tendencies, all varying in their degrees. As a result, these tendencies end up gripping the organs of student power in institutions of higher learning and this also varies depending on the political tide objectively, and the reality on the ground in as far as leadership is concerned (which is a subjective matter). Objectively, we face a very violent system, but the question is do we have a subjective factor that is strong enough to withstand this objective reality? In this article we will answer t...

The society we live in has many problems. These problems are a result of the contradictions that emanate from the development of society and humanity. However, since the dawn of the state we have seen a tendency that has not only captured societies, but this tendency has led to chaos and anarchy that lead society to the bottomless pit of poverty, misery, and inequality. We have seen this tendency rise in our institution due to a political vacuum that normally pops up during the tenure of interim structures. In our institution we have seen tendencies of this nature rise, and in their rise, they have been directed to the SRC. This is not to say the SRC is an innocent organ that is spotless and holy. I have been accused of portraying the SRC as such; however, those who have accused me of such have failed to produce evidence of such. I want to state it clearly that my views are influenced by my commitment to Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian thought and the Party that adheres to this school of tho...

                                                                                                                                                        The ISP in the University of Fort Hare has been riddled with a lot of technical and administrative issues. This is due to the lack of concern for such matters. As a result, in the year of 2022 we did not have SRC Elections not because of extraordinary circumstances like 2020 (COVID-19) but because of administrative and technical issues. These technical issues have bogged down the struct...