Time for Change

"A dollar late and a day short" best describes the ANC government's belated reactive capitulation to student demand for a 0% hike in 2016 tuition fees.  If government believes it has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat it is badly mistaken.  Student  unrest is symptomatic of a myriad of socio-economic problems crippling the country.  Young people, the future leaders of the country, have at long last realized that the interests of the ANC government do not align with their basic expectations of opportunity, and birthright to quality education.  The fires of profound discontent have been ignited, and the government does not have the means or know-how to extinguish them. 

For students, the moratorium is a short term pyrrhic victory which pales against overwhelming odds confronting them.  These include, but are not limited to, oppressive tuition debt service, inadequate student housing, subsistence support, transformational obstacles, inferior basic education inadequately bridging the gap to tertiary level, and the prospect of unaffordable future tuition costs beyond 2016, assuming free education is a pipe dream . Then, after years of sacrifice in attaining a coveted degree for the promise of a better life, reality sets in - the terrifying spectre of unemployment. 

The protests are the embodiment of student frustration and anger for government's irreparable damage to tertiary education due to gross neglect and profligacy.  The die has been cast:  no longer will students be marginalised and forgotten, even if it means taking to the streets again.