On Professionalizing the Work of the ISP by Lindokuhle Mponco

                                                                                                                         

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 structure as an objective whole and has aided in shifting the momentum towards the forces of reaction and counter-revolution. The question of professionalizing the ISP has been a question the author has not tackled before, but in reality, this question goes hand in hand with the question of deepening the role ISP ought to play in the general body politic. If we are serious about reviving student activism, protecting and renewing student governance, and deepening the roots of the struggle for free, quality, well-resourced, and decolonized education then we need to zoom into the task of professionalizing the work of the ISP.

The need for professionalism

The ISP is a body which consists of societies, political organizations, and SRC in toto (this means including their sub-structures). To convene, coordinate, organize, and represent such a body one needs a Secretariat that will center the question of professionalizing the work of the ISP. This body is largely responsible for the policy and political framework that determines the posture of student activism. If this body is not professional, then student activism will collapse as we have seen in the recent years. This means that our Student Parliament has to be centered on the principle of organizing itself in a much more professional manner. It is no secret that the ISP has been bedeviled by the plague of bogusness. This bogusness has become the character of the ISP with the next Secretariat becoming more bogus than the other despite the subjective reasons one might give. Whether one wants to admit it or not, prior to the Legal Opinion that was offered by the Deputy Registrar: Legal & Governance, Ms. Ntibi Maepa, the ISP was bogus. The fact that the ISP Organizer, Cde. Godfrey Ganya, at the time used this for his own subjective and personal reasons does not negate the ultimate reality that he was also admitting that the legality of the Secretariat he served under was questionable if not outrightly contestable and invalid. However, the politics of the Institution resolved to remove the ISP Organizer who was elected at the time, Cde. Lona Mketsu, and the author of this article who served as ISP Finance Officer.

This back and forth, and the legal wrangling proved one thing and one thing only, the ISP was illegal until the legal opinion which ruled on the correction of the credentials and rerunning the impeachment process. It is necessary to say that this was done as per the recommendation of the legal opinion but because the politics of the Institution did not allow the autonomy of the ISP to be respected, the ruling was dubiously and unconstitutionally overruled in as far as the impeachment was concerned. It is also necessary for us to state that when we objectively look at the legal opinion itself, it was a legal opinion that was unconstitutional but became a necessary measure of resetting the administrative controls of the ISP. I must make it clear that the author of this article, and Cde. Lona Mketsu fought tooth and nail for constitutionalism to be restored. We cannot forget to mention other allies in this struggle like Cde. Aphelele Maliwa, Cde. Sanele Mngambi, Cde. Luyanda Ndlovu, and many other comrades in the Secretariat who fought tooth and nail for the protection of the constitution. We must mention the role Cde. Godfrey Ganya played in ensuring that the rule of capitalists in as far as administrating our elections is eradicated, and the IEC is constituted according to the guidelines of the SGC. However, one reality that the ISP as a body could not escape was the question of professionalism. This lack of professionalism and mistrust led to the ultimate collapse of the Secretariat and ultimately the ISP as a body. The question of professionalism will be the main question that will grip the incoming Secretariat, and it is important that the next Secretariat consists of individuals with institutional memory and revolutionary credentials. These will be important when dealing with the Student Affairs department.

The need for a revolutionary leadership to professionalize ISP.

The main question that has gripped members of the ISP in the years gone by has always been the question of a revolutionary leadership. This question has been simplified to the question of those who have sold out and those who have not sold out yet. The yet is very important because it has never escaped the minds of MPs and various leaders that most leaders go into governance positions claiming to be revolutionary only for them to end up being the opposite. However, it is only last year where we saw the question being posed clearly due to the resurrection of revolutionary politics in the institution, and the rise of a revolutionary bloc within the corridors of the ISP chambers. The resurrection of this question comes in the midst of what one would call a period of reaction which masquerades as a period of renewal. The infighting between Senior managers of this institution has given a certain bloc within the institution impetus and a cover for their aim to suppress student activism. However, this has not gone unnoticed and the challenge this bloc has been having is how to contain this revolutionary element, while protecting their interests and gaining mass support for their program. We must be honest with ourselves that this period of renewal cannot gain the necessary momentum it needs unless it centers itself with the struggle of the masses. The question of a revolutionary leadership comes in at this particular juncture. 

The Decade of Renewal cannot take off if the primary stakeholder (the student) is not involved, and in fact is a target of this renewal campaign. This is no different to Ramaphosa chanting a new dawn only to suppress the working class which is ironically the base of the ANC and the campaign for renewal and unity in the ANC. The same can be said to be true when it comes to the question of the University of Fort Hare. Prof. Buhlungu cannot implement his program of renewal unless the program is centered around students being the primary motive force of this program. The ISP in this regard will play a critical role in ensuring that it mobilizes the student populace behind this program without contradiction because it represents the aspirations of students and workers in the institution. Any anti-Student/anti-Worker method of implementing this program will fail and the Decade of Renewal will be a damp squib. The need for a revolutionary leadership to professionalize the ISP has become unavoidable due to how the ISP has failed to respond to the question of renewal and centering the students in this particular process. Instead, the ISP has become the center of political squabbles because there is no sense of professionalism to guide the work of the ISP. Instead, we have a large contingent of MPs that seek to use the ISP as an access card to Senior managers and resources for their own benefit. A professional ISP will be able to deal with all the revolutionary questions posed to it with an efficiency unparalleled. This efficiency can only be delivered by a revolutionary leadership!

What is to be done?

The EFFSC must begin the process of lobbying all progressive forces towards the position of professionalizing the ISP through identifying the revolutionaries who will be suitable for this task. However, the first task of the EFFSC is to give the upcoming Parliamentary sitting a political posture and sharpen the contestation of ideas for the upcoming sitting. It must draw lessons from the experience of 2021 and 2022 and develop guidelines which will ensure that every cadre is on board and understands the tasks that lay ahead. The EFFSC must begin the task of inducting all its MPs and potential MPs in the understanding of how a Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian organization must approach the question of Parliaments because in reality the ISP is a bourgeois parliament due to the capitalist character of the institution, and the system that governs it. The EFFSC must deepen its relationship with all like-minded political organizations and societies with the aim of bringing about a revolutionary outcome. It must also spearhead a mass agitation campaign to agitate and mobilize all the MPs towards this revolutionary position of professionalizing the work of the ISP and ensuring that this is done by a revolutionary leadership. We must continue the fight for a revolutionary parliament even though we understand the limitations of the system.

As revolutionaries that belong to the EFFSC, we must at all material times guard the revolution against tendencies that seek to use the organization as an accumulation tool and begin the campaign of revolutionizing the student activist space. It is our duty as Marxists to ensure that student activism is in the hands of students, and that our struggle is linked to that of the working class, and ultimately the broader struggle against capitalism.