The Spark

  INTRODUCTION The recent announcement by NSFAS to temporarily halt the Direct Payment System has been received by revolutionary students with a warm reception. However, this major victory in the broad scheme of things sets the stage for an even bigger victory, the fall of neoliberalism in the sector of Higher Education. The time is ripe; however, the subjective conditions still play a role in the ebb and flow of the revolution. It has been proven from time to time in the history of South Africa that revolutionary swings start in centres of education be it in high schools (Soweto uprisings) or in institutions of higher learning (#RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall). The objective conditions in the sector favour mass uprisings due to the objective failure of the NSFAS Accommodation Pilot Project and the looming introduction of a SANTACO-NSFAS shuttle service. The objective reality is that the freshly minted GNU will continue to maintain the neoliberal character of the system, while ...

Introduction The South African parliamentary outcomes have been concluded with a grand coalition consisting of the ANC, DA, IFP, Patriotic Alliance, and Freedom Front Plus, and many other smaller neoliberal parties. Those smaller centre-right and right-wing parties voted with the grand coalition due to sharing the same class interests. Indeed, Lenin was correct when he said there are decades where nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen. What has happened is the completion of a three-decade long process of the consolidation right-wing forces within the ANC, and the total annihilation of left within the ANC, and in the broader alliance. Furthermore, the ANC has unmasked itself as an outright bourgeois-capitalist party which subscribes to the neoclassic liberal approach to economics, politics, and the society in general. The outcome confirms that the right-wing forces have openly re-consolidated and continue to get votes from the working class and peasantry in large numbers. Howe...

Introduction In Marxist literature, a People's government has come to mean a government of the majority in terms of class and in terms of aspirations of a government. A people's government centres the core needs of a society, and centres the majority contributors, and ultimately everyone in the process of making, implementing, and analysing the decisions made by the government which not only represent the interests of the majority, but the interests of ensuring we have an equal and equitable society. A generalised summary of all Marxist literature sees a People's government being a government that represents the interests of those that provide labour without a profit returning to them in a form of shares or dividends. It represents those that do not own the means of production. This means that a People's government according to the Marxist methodology of analysis is a government of the toiling masses (all tiers of the working class both in the rural areas and in the u...

  Introduction South Africa was faced with the reality of either shifting to the left or to the right. On the left, the most distinguishable parties are the EFF, and PAC. The entry of Umkhonto WeSizwe Party throws a spanner in the works since MKP doesn’t have a distinguishable ideological base. Thus, leading one to the conclusion that MKP has a similar ideological base as the ANC, broad church, with the dominant tendency being centre-left conservative.  On the right, we have DA, FF+, Action SA, BOSA, PA, IFP and Rise Mzansi, which is much more centre-right than they are full blown right wing. The South African voter is confronted with that blunt reality. The ANC of course stands at the centre of it all, while ideologically it tilts to the right, slowly but surely shifting away from its centre right position. Thus, the South African voter was confronted with choosing between a leftist alternative which is characteristically socialist, or the current status quo, which is ...

The stone-cold reality we must face is that in as much as the Accommodation Plan of NSFAS is inherently prone to the pitfalls of Neoliberalism, it remains a much better option than the unregulated and unguarded system which year in and year out would lead to students suffering at the hands of landlords. This does not mean the current system has not made that reality dwindle into the realm of obscurity, but rather has accelerated the realization that we have a national accommodation crisis. It has affected other institutions worse than others, however, at University of Fort Hare, East London Campus the crisis has been minimal. The number of students that are affected is negligible, even though there is a populist and unrealistic demand made by a minority of the student populace of a proposal for deviation to NSFAS; given the character of the East London Campus. This cohort of students in this regard have conveniently forgotten that in any case, the University of Fort Hare was going to a...

  SIZOFUNDA NGENKANI CAMPAGIN IN A YEAR OF ELECTIONS By MAB Shongwe and Yiva Makrwede In the year 2024, South Africa will be marking a milestone in its constitutional and electoral democracy, as it will be celebrating thirty years of its democratic dispensation and a seventh national elections, respectively. These milestones, historic as they are, they are preceded by an economy that is growing in the negative, an economy that is unable to create jobs, particularly for its most productive and educated strata, the youth, it is similarly preceded by collapsing state-owned entities, particularly the power utility Eskom, which has exacerbated the economic crisis, and further deepened poverty, unemployment, and inequality, as emerging and established businesses had to either close down or reduce their workforce due to reduced productivity caused by the perpetual blackouts. These milestones are preceded by deepening social quagmires like violent crimes, particularly violence agai...

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...