Student activists keep upping ante – “rolling demands” bemuse establishment
Those who pay attention to such details will have noticed that an extra R600m was set aside in the 2016 Budget for additional riot police. That sends a message of expectations within the ruling political party. Revolutions are messy. Especially those sparked in geographies where regime change appeared impossible. They are also driven, mostly, by the potent combination of student activism and religious indignation. After years of rumbling at misrule and plundering of the public purse, South African students are violently expressing their anger at a status quo. Ditto church bodies which were among the most powerful forces camped against the Apartheid regime. After seeing how easily President Jacob Zuma caved in to last year's #feesmustfall campaign, student leaders have returned emboldened, ever ratcheting up the ante. These young activists, whose leaders include the offspring of some respected public figures (Madonsela, Chikane, Maasdorp, etc), are frustrating the establishment with a "rolling set of demands" as the University of Pretoria's vice chancellor laments in the story below. Zuma expressed his surprise and anger that students would destroy expensive facilities created to help them. Funny that. We heard the same bemused statements from politicians during the Apartheid era. The genie has escaped. It will take an enormous effort to put it back into the bottle. Instead of jetting off to Burundi to lead an AU delegation's whitewash of a would-be President-for-Life's power grab, South Africa's embattled leader would do better to destroy good news filters that keep him so detached from realities at home. – Alec Hogg
By Karabo Ngoepe, News24