Black Student Politics, Higher Education & Apartheid pptx

BLACK STUDENT POLITICS, HIGHER EDUCATION

AND APARTHEID

FROM SASO TO SANSCO, 1968-1990

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BLACK STUDENT POLITICS, HIGHER

EDUCATION AND APARTHEID

FROM SASO TO SANSCO, 1968-1990

M. SALEEM BADAT

Human Sciences Research Council

Pretoria

1999

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# Human Sciences Research Council, 1999

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval

system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 0-7969-1896-1

HSRC Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Badat M. Saleem

Black student politics, higher education and apartheid : from SASO

to SANSCO, 1968-1999 / M. Saleem Badat.–1999.

402p. – 115 x 210 mm

Bibliography references

ISBN 0-7969-7969-1896-1

Cover design: Glenn Basson

Layout and design: Susan Smith

Published by:

HSRC Publishers

Private Bag X41

Pretoria 0001

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For

Shireen, Hussein and Faizal

and

in memory of

Harold Wolpe: mentor, colleague, comrade and friend

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I

n both scholarly and popular literature, black students in South

Africa have tended to be treated in two ways. In accounts of

educational conditions they have frequently been characterised

simply as victims of apartheid. In writings on political opposition to

apartheid, although their campaigns and activities, and their roles as

catalysts and detonators of educational and political struggles have been

noted frequently, these have seldom been analysed. Few scholars have

shown an interest in analysing either the remarkable continuity of

student activism and militancy over almost two decades, or the historical

development, ideological and political character, role, contribution and

significance of the organisations to which black students belonged.

The book aims to rectify this dearth of analysis by examining two

black higher education organisations that span the period 1968 to 1990.

One is the South African National Students’ Congress (SANSCO),

which was previously called the Azanian Students’ Organisation

(AZASO). The other is the South African Students’ Organisation

(SASO), popularly associated with the person of Steve Biko and Black

Consciousness. Ianalyse the ideological and political orientations and

internal organisational features of SASO and SANSCO and their

intellectual, political and social determinants. Ialso analyse their role in

the educational, political and other spheres and the factors that shaped

their activities. Finally, Iassess their salient contributions to the popular

struggle against apartheid education and race, class and gender

oppression and the extent to which and ways their activities reproduced

and/or undermined and/or transformed apartheid and capitalist social

relations, institutions and practices.

To these ends Idraw on recent social movement theory and the

international literature on student politics. Ialso emphasise the need to

Preface

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analyse SASO and SANSCO in relation to the distinct historical

conditions under which they operated, and argue that the character and

significance of either organisation cannot be read simply from an

examination of their ideological and political dispositions and member￾ship. An analysis of their practices and effect on the terrain in which

they moved is also required.

My essential argument is that SASO and SANSCO were

revolutionary national student political organisations that constituted

black students as an organised social force within the national liberation

movement, functioned as catalysts of collective action and schools of

political formation, and contributed to the erosion of the apartheid social

order, as well as to social transformation in South Africa. Black students

were not just victims of apartheid but were also thinkers, conscious

actors and historical agents. In the face of an authoritarian political order

and intense repression, they displayed bravery and an indomitable spirit

of courage and defiance, activated anti-apartheid opposition, and

contributed immensely to the struggle for national liberation and

transformation of education.

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I

t is a pleasure to acknowledge gratefully all those who made this

book possible. My partner, Shireen, and my two boys, Hussein and

Faizal, have over many years borne with tremendous patience the

demands made by research and writing on my time and energy. Iam

immensely thankful for the sacrifices they have made, their deep loyalty

and their love. Dr Anne Akeroyd provided invaluable support and

guidance during my stays in York, England. At different points, Ialso

received helpful comments from Elaine Unterhalter, Harold Wolpe and

Philip Altbach. Iam especially indebted to Harold Wolpe for his pivotal

contribution to my intellectual development and for my commitment to

critical scholarship. My close friends Yusuf, Sigamoney and Cathy,

other friends, and various colleagues at the University of the Western

Cape provided much encouragement and Ithank them all for their

wonderful friendship and support.

Various people assisted with research materials and facilitated my

work. Adam Small made available an impressive collection of SASO

documents. Librarians at the universities of Cape Town, the Western

Cape, Boston, London and York provided much courteous assistance.

Numerous ex-SANSCO activists generously made time available for

interviews. My partner, Shireen, spent many backbreaking hours

transcribing the interviews with her normal efficiency. Finally, the

Sociology Department at the University of York provided an office and

facilities, which contributed enormously to my productivity.

Finally, Ithank my parents, parents-in-law, and brothers and sisters

for their love, friendship, and various kinds of support.

Acknowledgements

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AC Annual Congress

ANC African National Congress

ANCYL African National Congress Youth League

ASA African Students’ Association

ASUSA African Students’ Union of South Africa

AUT Association of University Teachers

AZAPO Azanian Peoples’ Organisation

AZASM Azanian Students’ Movement

BC Black Consciousness

BCM Black Consciousness Movement

BCP Black Community Programmes

BPC Black Peoples’ Convention

BSM Black Students’ Manifesto

BSS Black Students’ Society

BWP Black Workers’ Project

CATE College of Advanced Technical Education

CIChristian Institute

CIIR Catholic Institute of International Relations

COSAS Congress of South African Students

COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions

CST Colonialism of a Special Type

DET Department of Education and Training

EC Education Charter

ECC Education Charter Campaign

FOSATU Federation of South African Trade Unions

FUS Free University Scheme

GSC General Students’ Council

GST General Sales Tax

IC Interim Committee

JMC Joint Management Committee

MDM Mass Democratic Movement

MEDUNSA Medical University of Southern Africa

MK Mkhonto we Sizwe

NEC National Executive Committee

NECC National Education Crisis Committee

NEUSA National Education Union of South Africa

Abbreviations used

in the Text

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NIC Natal Indian Congress

NP National Party

NSMS National Security Management System

NUSAS National Union of South African Students

OFS Orange Free State

PAC Pan Africanist Congress

PROBEAT Promotion of Black Educational Advancement Trust

RAU Rand Afrikaans University

ROAPE Review of African Political Economy

RSA Republic of South Africa

SAAWU South African Allied Workers Union

SACOS South African Council on Sport

SACP South African Communist Party

SAIRR South African Institute of Race Relations

SANSCO South African National Students’ Congress

SAS South African Statistics

SASCO South African Students’ Congress

SASM South African Students’ Movement

SASO South African Students’ Organisation

SASPU South African Students’ Press Union

SCM Students’ Christian Movement

SOYA Students of Young Azania

SPM South African Students’ Organisation Policy Manifesto

SRC Students’ Representative Council

SSC State Security Council

UCM University Christian Movement

UCT University of Cape Town

UDF United Democratic Front

UDUSA Union of Democratic University Staff Associations

UDW University of Durban-Westville

UF Urban Foundation

UFH University of Fort Hare

UN University of Natal

UNIN University of the North

UNISA University of South Africa

UNITRA University of Transkei

UNIZUL University of Zululand

UNMS University of Natal Medical School

UOFS University of the Orange Free State

UPE University of Port Elizabeth

UPRE University of Pretoria

UPS University of Potchefstroom

US University of Stellenbosch

UWC University of Western Cape

Wits University of Witwatersrand

WUS World University Service

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Introduction 1

1 Interpreting the Character, Role and Significance of 19

SASO and SANSCO: A Conceptual Framework

PART ONE ‘‘Black man, you are on your own’’: The

South African Students’Organisation,

1968 to 1977

2 From Crisis to Stability to Crisis: The Apartheid Social 47

Order and Black Higher Education, 1960 to 1976-1977

3 SASO: The Ideology and Politics of Black Consciousness 77

4 ‘‘SASO on the Attack’’: Organisation, Mobilisation and 105

Collective Action

5 The Character, Role and Significance of SASO 139

PART TWO‘‘The Freedom Charter is our Beacon’’: The

South African National Students’ Congress,

1976/1977 to 1990

6 Reform, Repression and Mass Resistance: South Africa, 175

1976-1977 to 1990

7 SANSCO: The Ideology and Politics of Non-Racialism, 209

the Freedom Charter and National Liberation

8 ‘‘Creative Organisers’’ rather than ‘‘Powerful Speakers’’: 241

Education as a Site of Struggle

9 People’s Education and People’s Power: Mobilisation 277

and Collective Action

10 The Character, Role and Significance of SANSCO 307

Conclusion

Appendix 1: SASO Policy Manifesto 377

Appendix 2: SANSCO Constitution and Policy Document 379

Endnotes 383

Bibliography 389

Contents

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I

t is generally recognised that mass popular struggles during the

1970s and 1980s played a pivotal role in eroding apartheid and

creating the conditions for the transition to democracy in South

Africa. However, few works on political resistance to apartheid and

capitalism during this period have provided a detailed analysis of a

specific movement or organisation – its historical development, social

base, ideological and political character, role and contribution, immediate

and more long-term significance, the specificity of the particular social

sphere and terrain it occupied, and its movement and activities on this

terrain.

Even if the movements and organisations of particular social groups

like black South African workers and the more nebulous and amorphous

‘‘people’’ have not been extensively analysed, blackworkers and the

‘‘people’’ have at least featured prominently in narratives of resistance

politics. The same, however, cannot be said for other social groups, one

of which is students. Of course, in accounts of political opposition to

apartheid and capitalism during the late 1970s and 1980s, the

campaigns and activities of blacksecondary and higher education

students and their militancy and role as catalysts and detonators of anti￾apartheid political struggles has been noted frequently. Yet – despite

massive and continuous social conflict around education, the remarkable

continuity of student activism and militancy over more than two

decades, the persistence of national student organisations through

intense repression and their salient contribution to the winning of

democracy – student politics in South Africa has been analysed little.

Given this, it is not surprising that the analysis of student movements or

specific student organisations is also virtually non-existent.

Introduction

1

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Matona has suggested that one reason that mass organisations have

not received much attention is that analyses of political resistance in

South Africa ‘‘have over-emphasised the spontaneity of the popular

struggles’’ with the result that formal organisations have been ‘‘largely

treated as incidental’’ (1992:1). The purpose of this bookis to contribute

to rectifying the dearth of analysis of mass democratic anti-apartheid

organisations in South Africa by examining two blackhigher education

organisations that span over two decades between 1968 and 1990.

One is the South African National Students’ Congress (SAN￾SCO), which between 1979 and 1986 went by the name of the

Azanian Student’’. Organisation (AZASO).1

Established in 1979 and

the largest and most influential of the national organisations representing

blackhigher education students in the 1980s, SANSCO was an

important and integral component of the broad mass democratic

movement in South Africa. The other is the South African Student’’.

Organisation (SASO), formed in 1968 and popularly associated with

the person of Steve Biko. SASO gave birth to the Black Consciousness

movement in South Africa, was the leading formation within this

movement, and did much to revitalise blackopposition politics during

the 1970s before it was banned by the apartheid government in 1977.

The focus on SASO and SANSCO is of fivefold importance. First,

1998 represented the thirtieth anniversary of the formation of SASO

and the twenty-first anniversary of its banning, while 1999 marks the

twentieth anniversary of the formation of SANSCO. This makes it an

opportune moment to reflect on the historical contribution of the two

organisations. With regard to SASO it is especially crucial to be

reminded that the doctrine that it developed, BlackConsciousness, was a

response to particular institutional conditions and experiences. In the

current context of calls to ‘‘forget the past and embrace the future’’ and

the rhetoric of democratic South Africa as a ‘‘rainbow nation’’ and non￾racial society it is all too easy to neglect to examine the extent to which

the previous institutional conditions have indeed been fundamentally

transformed. Such an omission could mean failure to grasp the possible

relationship between institutional conditions and, if no longer Black

Consciousness, the emerging notion of an ‘‘African renaissance’’. In

relation to continued debate around issues of ‘‘race’’ and identity, the

2

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bookhopefully highlights the point that approaches such as Black

Consciousness, concerns with identity and certain exclusivist forms of

organisation need not be retrogressive. On the contrary, they can be

progressive and make an important contribution to true non-racialism

and national culture. In today’s parlance, to recognise ‘‘difference’’ and

attempt to deal with it is not necessarily to elevate and ossify difference.

Nor is it to succumb to a ‘‘politics of difference’’ and to turn one’s backon

a ‘‘politics of equal recognition’’. Indeed, it may be that genuinely ‘‘equal

recognition’’ will only be possible when, with great honesty and

patience, we learn to workthrough the issue of ‘‘difference’’.

Second, we live in a period where there is a danger of critical

historical and sociological workbeing obliterated on the altar of

‘‘relevance’’ and ‘‘immediatism’’, of knowledge, techniques and quick-fix

solutions to fuel economic growth and accommodate new forms of

social regulation. This could have grave consequences for the intellectual

life of our country, and a humane, environmentally sustainable social

development path for it. Instead, I concur with Tosh who writes that

‘‘historical knowledge can have important practical implications [but

that] the kind of enquiry whose sole object is to re-create a particular

conjuncture in the past remains valid and important in its own right’’

(1984:128).

Third, despite an authoritarian and repressive political order and an

array of coercive and ideological instruments to maintain national

oppression and class domination, the apartheid government ultimately

failed to eradicate dissent and crush political opposition in South Africa.

While not without failings and weaknesses, the mass student

organisations and student militants played a vital and dynamic role in

the winning of democracy. It is appropriate that, in accounts of popular

resistance in South Africa, the contribution of students and their

organisations – and their often indomitable spirit and selfless bravery

and courage – be recognised and acknowledged.

Fourth, each successive generation of student activists in South

Africa appears to be ever more poorly informed about the history of

student struggles and activism and the history, role and contribution of

its own and other student organisations. While accounts of past

organisations, struggles and experiences may not necessarily provide

3

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answers to contemporary and immediate questions, for student activists

a knowledge of the history of student politics and student organisations

is always a useful reminder of their own location in the stream of history

and may also be suggestive in other ways. Finally, South Africa is a

country with a particularly rich history of student activism and militancy,

yet this is hardly obvious when one examines the literature on student

activism. Thus, there is a need for research and analysis around student

politics, as well as student movements and organisations, and a need to

share the South African experience with activists and scholars in other

parts of the world.

The aim of this bookis not to provide an account of the entire

spectrum of blackstudent political activism within South Africa. Neither

is it to deliver a comprehensive history of SASO and SANSCO. Rather,

its purpose is a sensitive historical sociological analysis of the key

national blackhigher education student political organisations during the

period 1968 to 1990. More specifically, the principal aims are to

understand

1 the ideological, political and organisational constitution, identity,

qualities and features of ASSO and SANSCO, and their

intellectual, political and social determinants;

2 the role played by the two organisations in the educational, political

and other spheres and the factors that shaped their role; and

3 in relation to the particular structural and conjunctural conditions

under which SASO and SANSCO operated, their salient

contributions to the popular struggle against apartheid education

and race, class and gender oppression, and their significance in the

struggle for education transformation, national liberation and

democracy in South Africa.

Beyond this, a further aim is to compare and contrast SASO and

SANSCO with respect to their character, role and significance and to

attempt to account for their similarities and differences.

To interpret and understand the character, role and significance of

SASO and SANSCO it is necessary first to establish an appropriate

conceptual, empirical and analytical foundation. This entails

4

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