The Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa;
The Provincial Executive Committee of the South African Student Congress;
Comrade and friends;
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am privileged to deliver this year’s South African Student Congress Walter Sisulu Annual Lecture.
Isithwalandwe Seaparankwe and a principled leader of our movement for decades, comrade Walter Sisulu is among the founding fathers of our democracy and an iconic figure in our historical landscape.
There can be no greater honour than employing his memory as a public platform to share ideas that advance society.
So this Lecture should serve the purpose of building on his legacy, which can be summarised as being about the building of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, just and prosperous society.
Bearing in mind the legacy of comrade Walter Sisulu, today I wish to focus on the issue of education in post-apartheid South Africa, as well as the need for SASCO as a progressive youth movement to acquire political education to be able to make a meaningful contribution to the world at a political level.
I chose to focus on these two topics because each is worthy of spending much of our valuable time so that we emerge with an even clearer understanding in our task of building a better country.
Education in itself is a key instrument with which to address our socio-economic needs as well as the underlying norms and values that reflect our common humanity.
Political education is indispensable to preclude some of the recurring errors in our history as well as being able to understand the essence of socio-political conditions and the results such conditions may lead to before such results even occur.
Programme Director;
There is no question about the need to sharpen our focus on education in the development of our country today. Indeed government has designated education an apex priority because of the context outlined above.
Education is the only proven source with the power to modernise our country by first reversing the historical damage of apartheid and secondly underwriting social cohesion through social transformation.
Social cohesion is made possible by numerous social dynamics but one would contend that among them education is the most important because its positive effects on social development is durable, so long as a good education system remains in place.
Furthermore, education is the basis of de-racialising class structure of society by broadening the scope of social privileges, drawing in those who had for a long time been excluded from the social mainstream and therefore representing the only possibility to break inter-generational poverty.
Not only that, through education some of the social pathologies embedded in human history can be eliminated for good. I am reminded in this regard of the intractable issue of gender inequality, which derives from primeval cultural consciousness manifested in macho, paternalistic practices.
Gender inequality has material base to the extent that women who have no independent economic means, as it was the case in the past, have to be adjuncts to men. In and of themselves these social relations freeze women in a social space of subjugation.
Modernity, however, expressed through progressive policies of a democratic government, enables women to access education with the result that they break the historical mould of gender inequalities.
In addition to equipping them with education to develop independent economic means, they also develop modernist impulse that enables them to reclaim their full humanity.
Education offers a critical breakthrough on another level. Part of the reality of our history is that social class has been virtually racialised, so that some sections of society are identified with working and under classes social locations while others are historically associated with privileged classes.
This in itself may be a counter-productive social perception that stands in the way the goal of social harmony, which is a pivotal facet of social cohesion. For as long as certain social segments are located in the working class for so long shall there be continued social resentment between South Africans of different racial backgrounds.
While this social reality is beginning to lose some of its effects because of the democratic government’s ongoing attempts at social change, the outlines of this history are still largely intact.
Consequently, we still have to contend with social barriers based on our socio-economic afflictions.
These examples cited above are living realities that define the post-apartheid social landscape. As keen observers of social phenomena you will be aware that social change in a nation such as ours will inevitably express itself through generational index.
In other words, all South Africans who come from humble beginnings will reap the benefits of social changes through their children, the next generation.
I assume that most of SASCO members are themselves from this depressed social background and would probably be the first or second generation to emerge out of under-class or working class conditions.
I would also make so bold as to conclude that in most cases these humble social origins would be the basis of political consciousness that enable most of SASCO members to throw their lot in with this progressive student movement.
If I am correct in this conclusion or assumption as I suspect I am, I would also like us to take this historical trajectory further to the broad responsibility we face beyond the physical frontiers of our education.
Collectively as cadres of SASCO and individually as conscious citizens of a post-apartheid South Africa, what is our responsibility in broadening the scope of possibilities for others who come from our background but did not have the opportunities we had?
What is our role at this point in history in reversing this legacy of apartheid that is continuing to present barriers to social cohesion?
More than that, how do we envision the future of our country in terms of the generation after ours?
Unlike the generation of comrade Walter Sisulu to whom the government of the day never intended to extend formal education, the current South African youth are living under a democratic government to whose policies they are able make a contribution.
Understanding that education is important for the future development of our country, our government has, within its limitations, placed education as an apex priority.
Education receives the largest portion of our national budget, with efforts being made to ensure that no student who has the willingness and ability to study will be excluded from getting education.
Various advances have been made in ensuring full and free access at the basic education level, including the provision of no-fee schools and providing nutrition programmes.
Admittedly, we have not moved fast enough in the sphere of high education but are making strides to promote further access.
As such you are privileged because the democratic government is investing in your future, understanding the role of education in social transformation.
This in turn places a huge responsibility on SASCO and the South African youth in general to seek knowledge and skills so that they can rise to the demands of their generation.
Being a progressive student movement in the current stage of our history comes with huge responsibilities in the above areas and many others that define the current conjuncture.
At the same time government remains fully committed to providing the ideal environment for education to take root in our country.
Conscious of the potential education has for helping to usher in a better life for all our people, government will leave nothing to chance in its determination to effectuate progress.
In this huge task was motivated by the words of former Secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, that:
‘Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundations rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.’
I would like to conclude this section by challenging you as members of SASCO to become vocal in the public sphere in terms of its contribution to the process of education of our people as the foundation upon which we can reconstruct and develop our country.
It is the duty of SASCO and the entire progressive youth movement of our country to acquire education to change our society for the better.
Comrades
The generation of comrade Walter Sisulu faced up to the challenges pertaining to their age. Today when we look back we may very easily take it for granted that they had to be involved in the struggle because there was overt political oppression in society.
Yet all these comrades were able to rise to the challenges of the day because they took the troubles to cultivate a political worldview that enabled them to understand the world, the continent of Africa and the political conditions facing South Africa.
During this time one was not just recruited into the fold of the struggle but was also educated into the purpose and nature of the struggle itself.
You needed to understand the struggle against oppression in South Africa as well as the history of the struggle as it unfolded on the African continent and the world at large.
This level of political education enabled comrades such as Moses Kotane, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Alex la Guma, Jimmy Gomas, Ruth First, Yusuf Dadoo, Monty Naicker and many others, to emerge and take up their rightful places in history. In this regard, ZK Matthews one of the key figures in the struggle contended that:
“The purpose of education is to train men and women for a full life in the community to which they belong. Such training involves not only the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills and techniques to enable the individuals to cope with his environment, both natural and social but also the cultivation of moral and spiritual values without which the life of man would be warped and dwarfed.” (ZK Matthews, “Christian Education in a Changing Africa,” The International Review of Missions Vol. LII (205) 1963, p.46.)
By the same token, a progressive student movement in South Africa today, who, in effect, is inheriting the legacy of the Sisulu generation, has the duty to develop its critical faculties first so that it understands the nature of the struggle our nation and the world are facing, along with the necessary means to bring about change.
The progressive youth today has to prepare itself politically, so that it can develop a deeper understanding of the socio-political make-up of society and the underlying cause of poverty and strife.
Formal education is critical for integrating oneself into the modern world by having a conventional understanding of the world and extricating oneself out of conditions of poverty
However, in addition to this level of education called formal education, a progressive student or youth movement need to acquire the critical knowledge in the form of political education, or what some call philosophical training, to have the necessary understanding of the world beyond appearances.
At the moment challenges abound at different levels of human existence. In all, I would say there are three categories of challenges with which progressive youth has to come to grips.
Think of it as three rings, with each within the other. The outer ring would be the world, the second one Africa and the last, smaller one would be South Africa, our country.
I am creating this image of rings not because the world is separate from each other but because it is a way of making my point clearer and easier.
A youth with political consciousness today would have to understand the inter-linked nature of these three rings, with each contributing to the overall balance.
When economic decisions are made in London today the effects of such decisions are felt in Johannesburg, Lusaka, and Harare.
So we cannot delink our country from the world we live in or indeed our continent. In the same way the economic system that defines our lives has ensured that the world is integrated.
When the communists manifesto was written by Karl Marx, it was written, "workers of the world unite you have nothing to lose hut your chains."
However, there are issues of fairness in world trade and world markets that need a deeper level understanding from our side as revolutionaries if we are to make a meaningful contribution to how the world is run.
At the same time, we need to understand how present world conditions affect our continent as well as our role in moving our continent forward, especially with regard to issues of development and integration of the African continent.
In addition, let us begin to gravitate towards a sharper state of consciousness in terms of our relations with the broader African continent.
As a student movement SASCO should finetune its knowledge about issues that impinge on the African condition. The best way of pulling off this huge task is to begin by forging closer ties with most other progressive youth formations across our continent.
At the national level, we need to understand the stage at which our history is at the moment. We have marched into the second decade of democracy and despite some intractable challenges the democratic government has made some notable strides in many key areas.
At some point in the future the current generation of youth will be the next to take up the reigns to lead our country. You can only be prepared for this historical task if you are armed with the necessary political faculties to know how to proceed.
Leadership is a difficult challenge that needs prepared minds and the necessary vision to guide society.
SASCO is the political nursery home to groom the next batch of leadership for the tasks outlined above. Is SASCO an ideal nursery home for this task? Do you produce the youth that are geared to selflessness as comrade Walter Sisulu was?
Will you be able to strike a balance between the material acquisitiveness that defines current society with the need to ascetic consciousness required of a selfless leader?
When your turn comes to provide leadership would you be able to connect to the rest of the African continent in the process of continental integration motivated by the emerging spirit of ‘continentalism’?
Programme Director;
In conclusion, as I tried to show earlier on education is among the catalysts for wholesale social change. Without education there is no hope of reversing the legacy of apartheid.
My understanding of comrade Walter Sisulu is that both these two key aspects of education I have tried to bring up today fell within his intellectual purview. He put much store by education as the means of lifting our people out of poverty as well as striving to steep cadres of the movement in political consciousness that enabled them to understand the challenges facing their world.
He was not only a freedom fighter for the liberation of South African but saw himself as another soldier in the broader moral universe of human freedom. For him education was a liberating force that lifted humanity out of the pit of ignorance.
He could challenge the behemoth of the colonial and apartheid systems because his state of critical consciousness could not allow him not to speak out or act against injustice.
This is one of his defining political traits; speaking out and acting against injustice!!!
Standing on the shoulders of giants like comrade Walter Sisulu enables us to see far into the distance. Distance, not in the spatial but temporal sense, is the future projected by the dead when alive.
So I want to remind you that your task of liberating humanity continues, and, as students, this means displaying critical consciousness in understanding the responsibilities of our age, remembering that, as George Orwell states:
‘During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act‘!!!!!
I thank you.
