Cut new path away from violence

I am writing from Cape Town where I have just had the opportunity to visit the University of Cape Town and interact with students.

I also visited Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and Rhodes universities last week.

At all of these campuses I found there were definitely students in dire need of assistance so that they can not only access but complete their higher education.

I also discovered, firsthand, that the majority of university students are desperate to resume their academic programmes.

These students know full well that the window of opportunity for completing this academic year is rapidly closing, but they are largely powerless against those who want universities to remain shut.

They reminded me of those who the 19th century philosopher and naturalist Henry Thoreau spoke of when he said “the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation”.

Indeed many of the students are quietly frantic.

Those fighting an unjust system which deprives many poor young people of the opportunity of tertiary education, are entirely convinced that their right to protest weighs more heavily than the right of the rest to study. But justice is an even line. It cannot be flexed or bent on account of someone’s personal cause or their material conditions.

So while the voices of the poor and the marginalised need to be heard, it cannot mean muzzling others or trampling on their right to go back to class.

I think the efforts to stop the violent protests are hampered by several factors.

First, the small group involved in the violence protest has become remarkably nimble.

The government rightly or wrongly claims “regime change agents” or agents provocateurs are complicit in stirring the havoc for political reasons.

That aside, the fact that the stance of those students seemingly bent on violence has hardened to the degree that it has suggests some of them have very little to lose.

Why is that?

Many in our society have sought to rationalise the violence as the consequential trajectory of frustration by a succession of governments – old and new – and therefore legitimate.

But while the initial element of students’ protests may have been necessary, and perhaps even cathartic, there is no disguising the fact that things are now completely out of hand.

Rocks, rubber bullets and stun grenades have become the order of the day.

A life has been lost and another is in the balance.

As I write, the accumulated damage to university property since violence entered the scene has escalated to an estimated R1-billion.

South African society generally is fixated with and convulsed by violence. But now it feels as if we have regressed to the days of apartheid where a small minority reduced the lives of the majority to a state of quiet desperation.

Somewhere, somehow we must find a way in which to draw the line. If we do not we will continue to go sliding into an abyss where a loud and active minority rules a silent and timid majority.

I like the statement from the Nelson Mandela Bay arm of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) offering solidarity to the students but simultaneously calling for a de-escalation of violence.

“It is now enough. No matter how just the cause, the loss of life, the destruction of property and the injury to students and others – unintentional as it may be – is a point at which we must draw the line,” said the SACC.

No matter what history might have done to us as a society, violence cannot continue to be the way we automatically react. While it may seem to have short term benefits, it always creates longer term problems.

It also shows a lack of creativity.

Zimbabweans for example, led by the vocal pastor, Evan Mawarire, recently showed us it is possible to virtually shut down a country without violence, destruction or intimidation and gain the attention of the world.

Yes, their struggle for reforms continues but it has not been with human life and wanton destruction as collateral damage.