Outgoing Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela sympathised with students who have embarked on nationwide protests calling for free education
Outgoing Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela sympathised with students who have embarked on nationwide protests calling for free education
Madonsela was the featured speaker at Kingswood College on Wednesday for the Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture, just hours after pledging R15 000 for needy students at an event in Durban, where she called for corporates to put their hands in their pockets to support education.
During the lecture, she touched on social injustice, poverty and the much talked about fees must fall protest. Madonsela encouraged people to involve themselves in finding solutions to the crisis facing tertiary institutions. “If one of us would make a difference then with as little as R5 a person,” she said.
She said there are still people who do not go to school and young people who could never use a computer due to lack of funding.
“When they go to university, it will be the first time they touch a computer.” Madonsela expressed concern over the fact that there are still young people who will only have access to computers once they reach tertiary level. “They don’t have computers in this age where everything is internet related including knowing what assignment one is supposed to do for tomorrow. The university expects you to check it online,” she said.
“You hear people saying data must fall but many of them don’t even have access to that data because you don’t have access to the internet.”
Madonsela also revealed some of her personal experiences with regards to challenges faced by students at tertiary institutions. Madonsela told the packed hall that she was taken aback by a story that her daughter had told her two years ago regarding the hardships faced by some tertiary students.
“I was horrified two years ago when my daughter moved from Varsity College to go and study at the University of Pretoria for the first time, when she literally discovered young people sleeping in labs and on bathroom floors and they hang around the university for months because they cannot afford registration,” she said.
“These young people live on dry bread and water so that they could have an education”, Madonsela said.
“They have passed and got a place at university but they don’t have the means to move forward. Young people who have been allowed by the university to continue with education but finances have dried out and end up being excluded, hence we have the fees must fall protest.”
Madonsela said she even accommodated the student who was staying in the bathroom in her house, but added that was not a sustainable solution. “I asked her how do you do it, how do you keep your head high. She said to me Mama I can’t go home because the poverty back there is worse than sleeping in the bathroom,” Madonsela said.
Madonsela said as long as there is injustice somewhere, there will never be peace anywhere. “In Zulu we have a saying that says indlala ibanga ulaka, poverty causes anger, are we surprised that there are angry people around us? Anger leads to rage and there is a fine line between rage and madness. I am not justifying people’s actions but sometimes those people just want to be heard,” she said.
Speaking about the challenges faced by ordinary South African citizens currently, Madonsela said people were angry because of the persisting challenges they continue to face.
“Today one of the things people are angry about are persisting inequalities and persisting racism and racial disparities which are exacerbated by other social justice concerns. So racism in a protest level is already structural inequality expressing itself in racial terms,” she said.
Madonsela said there needs to be a solution to abolishing the high levels of poverty faced mostly by black South Africans.
“Poverty has a black face and I am not saying there aren’t any poor white people nor am I saying the answer is more white poor people but I am saying the answer is we just need to end poverty. We can do that by finding out what the story is and do something about it, that is why young ones found the slogan outsourcing must fall,” she said.
Madonsela said it is important for ordinary South Africans to work together to deal with the challenges that face the country. “It’s little drops in the sea that make up an ocean. Right now think of funding. If all of us could just give R5, those who can afford R5, it could alleviate some of the social injustices and although the state is tardy in terms of achieving social justice it can never be done by day.”
Madonsela appealed to young people to use their minds to come up with ideas on how to address their issues.
“My appeal to you young people is for you to use your minds to analyse society as it is and to come up with ideas on how do we make democracy work in this complex world and above all else how do we keep the constitutional dream alive.”
Gross disparities between the rich and poor were the reason why the world is unstable today, according to Madonsela.
“So it is our duty to end poverty and inequality to help the state and play our parts meaningfully in ending maladministration and introduce ethical governance. Embrace Section 237 of the Constitution, I honestly believe that if we raise this section then we would not be having a fees crisis because section 237 says that constitutional responsibilities should be given priority,” she said.
Madonsela said this section of the Constitution is key.
“That would have meant that in the last 22 years of democracy funding for higher education would not have declined but would have increased as the number of students would have increased. It would have put more resources to address the apartheid disparities, gender disparities but moaning in the darkness won’t help. Our job now is to make sure that we work together with government and business and get everyone involved.”
