It is almost four (4) years now. In 2015, the South African higher education sector was shaken by protests across the country by primary stakeholders of the Universities. Protests began on 9 March at the University of Cape Town.  The main concern of these protests was a lack of institutional transformation, and the focal point was the statue of Cecil John Rhodes on campus.  The #Rhodesmustfall movement achieved its short-term aim of having the statue removed without selling out its activists, but deeper tension remained.  At the University of Stellenbosch, a similar movement, called Open Stellenbosch, emerged to counter the lack of transformation at that institution, and one of their focal points was the language issue (Afrikaans).  The movement consisted predominantly of black students and academics who resisted the slow rate of transformation.

On the 6 October 2015, protest action was initiated at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) when students were gobsmacked by exorbitant preposterous fee increment of 10.5% under the banner ‘Wits Fees Must Fall’. The number of students who gathered at the gates of the University in the early hours of the morning was small, but later as they marched across the campus other sympathetic students and academics who harbored similar sentiments joined their ranks.  At the height, about 5 000 joined the protest.  Shaeera Kalla (2015 Wits SRC President) explained that ‘they were upset after losing the vote on student fees at the Wits council meeting, and rejected the reasons provided for the agreed increase.’  However, the protests only gained momentum a week later.

The #FeesMustFall campaign took the country by storm, spreading first to other more privileged institutions (University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, Rhodes University) and then on to other institutions across the country. Dr Blade Nzimande then said fees should increase by no more than 6%. Students immediately rejected this proposal, protests escalated across the country, and students renewed their demand that #Feesmustfall and that there should be a 0% increment across all universities. On Wednesday 21 October 2015, protests reached a new height as students and workers joined in protest at Parliament in Cape Town, with protests bringing together demands for free education and the insourcing of workers. 

Parliament that day was scheduled to hear the Finance Minister, Nhlanhla Nene, deliver his medium-term budget speech. Students were demanding that more money be allocated to higher education to fund free education.  Police, armed with stun grenades and tear gas, gathered to try and block students from accessing the area.  Students and workers managed to reach the Parliament precinct, with calls for ‘Fees must fall’ and ‘End outsourcing’.  Students demanded that Nzimande address them.  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) delayed Nene’s speech inside Parliament, demanding that the issue of fee increase should be debated.  Students managed to enter Parliament’s grounds and police responded with stun grenades and tear gas.  After Nene’s speech, Nzimande tried to address the angry crowd, but was faced with calls for his resignation. 

The protest resulted in the arrest of 23 protestors and injury to others. This only led to further protests at campuses across the country. Students were demanding to study for free as stipulated by the freedom charter and what was deliberated by other prominent leaders. The fearless vanguard of young energetic students took it to the streets without fear to demand what was long promised to them. What triggered this young innocent people was nothing but the blueprint of the generation of 1976. None of them wanted to destroy public or private properties. This generation demanded answers to their difficult questions from the government of the day. But as always, the government responded violently, and this resulted in many unlawful arrests. The generation of 2015/16 continued to soldier on and kept the momentum as they were not taken serious by government until their narrative was shared across the country. The call escalated yonder the control of government and it felt intimidated, threatened by the propensity of young smart innocent people who wanted nothing but to study for free to advance themselves.

Nevertheless, this generation was the children of the working class who were mesmerized by exorbitant university fees. When we grew up, we are told that education is the only key to success but when we matriculate, we are subjected to exorbitant ever-increasing fees. How are we going to be successful when we cannot afford education because the government made it a commodity? In a society where education is not free and compulsory only the ones who are privileged will be entitled to succeed. In a gobbledygook administrative state, a fight for what you believe in is a fight against people in position of power. The generation of 2015/16 fought against the violent administration of University fee increment. Instead of the government to give students of the working-class free education they humiliated, brutalized and victimized them with whatchamacallit state machinery which deemed appropriate and capable to shut the advocacy of free education.

Fortunate enough popstars emerged on a paved way by the sweat, blood, lives and tears of their fellow cadres to parliament, public detection and other prominent high offices within legislature. While most of them have closed the chapter of #FeesMustFall, Kanya Cekeshe is the only #FeesMustFall activists languishing in prison and he is reminded of his participation in #FeesMustFall every day. In an abnormal situation like this, other #FeesMustFall activists are acting normal. To me #FeesMustFall movement turned out to be Judas Iscariot who sold out Khanya Cekeshe. I couldn’t join #FeesMustFall movement obviously not because of the “Bojwa syndrome” but of course of biological reasons. Today I am a proud registered first year student because people like Kanya Cekeshe who are selfless made it possible for us to be accommodated by the system that was never intended to serve us with pride.

In December 2017 Former President Jacob Zuma announced fee-free education which made it clear that Kanya Cekeshe was fighting for a genuine cause. Today students in approximately 322 campuses in 26 Universities across South Africa are benefitting from his participation in #FeesMustFall. He believed in free decolonized quality education for all. Kanya Cekeshe is not a criminal, he is an intellect who belongs to spaces of thinking. To be precise Kanya Cekeshe belongs in lecture rooms not Leeuwkop Prison. Through Former President Zuma the ANC believes that Kanya Cekeshe was right in his fight for #FeesMustFall. I am not surprised of why there is high unemployment of young people in this country. Young people are not taken serious by the government of the day. It is a must that Kanya Cekeshe should be freed. I want to believe that most young people harbor similar sentiment as myself to #FreeKanyaCekeshe. If the South African Government really serves the public interest particularly of young people Kanya Cekeshe cannot spend his third Christmas in prison. It is a MUST that he must be released. Kanya Cekeshe never raped anyone, he never killed anyone, and he didn’t still anything from anyone. His only high-profile crime was to fight for free decolonized quality education for all. Today Kanya Cekeshe is abandoned by his comrades who closed the chapter of #FeesMustFall on their way to parliament. If the  Economic  Freedom  Fighters (EFF) can delay  Nene’s speech  inside  Parliament,  demanding  that  the  issue  of  fee  increase  be  debated without the aid of any #FeesMustFall Activist, now that we have #FeesMustFall Activists in parliament what is stopping them to put aside any other businesses and debate the release of Kanya Cekeshe? I would rest my case and say we are not taken serious in this country as young people and, we don’t take ourselves seriously.    

The Rugby World Cup came to a close in Japan on Saturday, and South Africa, affectionately known as the Springboks ended the tournament as champions after an emphatic win against England. The victory reverberated around the country, in homes, pubs and braai’s, with a lot of euphoria, rightfully so as the sporting triumph was a moment of joy for many, which is commonly the effect of any victory across any sporting code.

I will admit that watching the game and as fan of rugby, I watched the final in awe of a brilliant Springbok defense, a dominating display by the forwards led by “Beast” Mtawarira and an inspiring performance by fan favorite Makazole Mapimpi, flanked by a selfless Lukhanyo Am to make the first ever try by South Africa in a rugby world cup final. Siya Kolisi undoubtedly led a determined side that deserved more than any other team to win that championship.

As I was watching I was unaware of the unfolding 1995 narrative reloaded being unloaded across social media and the media in general. True to recent form, South Africans found a socio-economic bone to pick with the narrative formulation surrounding the Springboks and I would say rightfully so. A piece by News 24 Editor in Chief Adrian Basson titled The Rainbow Nation Reloaded – let’s not mess it up again, preceded by a comment by Prince Harry of England in the Boks dressing room on how “desperately South Africa needed this win” confirmed my biggest fear. That is that South Africans were once again trying to find a shallow way to reach reconciliation, and making the same mistake again.

The mistake is one that has given South Africans an illusion of unity, by placing a band aid of sports on a festering wound of inequality and poverty. Comments ranged from that South Africa is more united than ever, to the suggestion by Basson that there is a unity that must not be foiled stemming from the rugby win. I find this extremely out of touch with reality but also a dangerous exaggeration.

I am more interested however in showing Basson, and those like-minded outraged rainbow nation philosophers exactly why it is that the narrative they have been attempting to roll out is receiving such resistance. It is not as they would like to make seem that the likes of the Economic Freedom Fighters are inherently against unity, it is not that social activists are opposed to the joy sports can bring and it is not a narrow obsession with racial division. It is simply that people do not want the same mistake of false unity to be made again. People are interested in a meaningful interrogation of what makes post-Apartheid South Africa and how to forge social cohesion, and not an opportunistic attempt to take advantage of the joy of sports to represent a broad consensus of social unity.

The first problem with the rainbow nation reloaded, which has used rugby as a trojan horse is that it is attempting to manufacture a national consciousness. By this I mean that the national unity, based on working hard together, across racial lines is not one that is rooted in an organic national reality. Perhaps differently put many rainbow nation philosophers have tried to turn their subjective beliefs into objective national reality. There is a presumption that there is a social unity that has been lost in the recent past, and the win on Saturday has revived this. It is simply not true, and is very much in sync with the recent “New Dawn” euphoria that has begun to die down.

South Africans who do not like to confront the crude reality of what creates inequality in South Africa tend to live in abstraction. That is, they enjoy poeticism, symbolism of things that no one is actually working to create. It is not that I do not believe in the possibilities of a national consciousness, but it takes concerted effort, it takes engaging people and social issues substantively and it requires honesty and structural change. A manufactured consciousness is not sustainable, it is fed to people outside of the conscious reality, it is created outside of consensus and give it a few years it will die and we will realize we have not done much to change South African reality.

The second problem of the revival of rainbow nationalism is that it is arrogantly opposed to resistance. This conceptual arrogance manifests itself in the following way.  A symbol has been created in the form of rugby, a sport that is supposed to represent an existing or aspired national consciousness, and rainbow nation proponents refuse for this symbol to be questioned or interrogated. It is ironic, as diversity is a core aspect of rainbow nation beliefs, but diversity on the concept itself, diverging views on rugby as a symbol of social cohesion are simply sinful.

There is a problem therefore that people who exist in such arrogant abstraction are bound to face and that is that they will begin to learn that symbols are sites of contestation. It is ridiculous to think that an institution that has historically been the bastion of Afrikaner volkdom, has been at the center of struggling efforts for transformation can suddenly be presented as an example of social cohesion and this will not be questioned. It is an undermining of the critical thinking abilities of South Africans. It is more undermining to think that South Africans will forget that this is the second attempt at doing this.

Rugby seems to be used as a ceasefire in moments of critical conversation around racial inequality and poverty in this country, and this time South Africans resisted.

We can demonize South Africans who were celebrating the black players within the South African rugby side all we want, we can even try and demonize those who rejected rugby all together, but the fact is they were doing this in response to very crude opportunism. That is an opportunism that tried to use momentary and innocent joy as a stepping stone to fix structural problems. It was a response to an attempt to claim that a symbol of a sport that is still far from being transformed, can rejuvenate collapsing state institutions, can alter a racially concentrated control of the economy and can aid crippling poverty and unemployment.

The most divisive narrative to come out of this weekend was not from the under fire EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, but rather it came from those who made a silly attempt at pacifying us from our social reality in 80 minutes.