Rampant campus anarchy shows up Zuma's leadership failure

It's been four months since the dispute over university tuition fees was supposed to have been resolved, but stability has yet to return to these institutions; instead the fight seems, in certain instances, to have escalated to a war of attrition between the authorities and a small band of students.

The feud took a turn for the worse this week when some malcontents at the Mafikeng campus of North-West University set a building on fire.

Most people had expected a swift conclusion when President Jacob Zuma, in October last year, stepped in to defuse the crisis. The highest office in the land had spoken, and the students had got what they wanted. So why are we where we are today? Why are universities burning?

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What started off as an issue of university affordability has escalated to a point where it's exposing the gaping fissures in society, threatening to rip its fragile fabric apart.

There were four critical days in October last year, in which a situation that had at first seemed to be descending into chaos was pulled back when cool heads prevailed.

On October 20, Blade Nzimande announced that it had been agreed at a meeting with vice-chancellors to cap fee increases at 6%. If the meeting had expected the students to heartily welcome the decision, it was clearly mistaken.

But students were not represented at the meeting and were rightly incensed at the temerity of it all. The compromise acted only as a prompt for bolder action. University heads were dragooned into meetings. The picture of Adam Habib sitting on the ground, almost like a supplicant, with a group of students springs to mind.

Nhlanhla Nene was delivering his medium-term budget policy statement the next day when students literally stormed the gates of parliament.

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Curiously, with the country's political leadership collected in one place, nobody was prepared to address the students, which seemed to forcefully illustrate the unrepresentative nature of our parliament. Nzimande was roused by taunts from the opposition to address them. But the megaphone refused to co-operate. He gave up and sauntered back to the house, with jeers ringing in his ear. The revolutionary was running away from the revolution.

In Johannesburg the following day, students marched on Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters, where they found Gwede Mantashe up on a ladder waiting for them. They forced him to come down to earth. But famously he refused to bend a knee. He wouldn't sit down as requested. They proceeded to remind him of an ANC resolution calling for free education. For once the raconteur was speechless.

Probably realising the situation was getting out of hand, Zuma convened a meeting of all affected parties in Pretoria. But not all the students descending on the Union Buildings had peaceful intentions. A small group went on the rampage, wrecking and burning property.

Zuma capitulated to the students' demands: there would be no fee increase. It was more appeasement than a planned or co-ordinated strategy to solve the problem. Nobody seemed to know how much the largesse would cost or where the money would come from.

But Zuma's intervention unfortunately didn't bring stability. Students simply went back to their different locations to rework their battle plans. Their leaders turned on each other, classes were cancelled and students were chased out of examination halls. Some students saw this victory as merely a taster for more and bigger fish to fry.

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It is a sorry state of affairs. Thugs have taken over our institutions of higher learning. What's even more worrying is that there are some among us cheering this violent conduct. Violence is unconscionable in a democratic society. It corrodes our values and imperils our democracy, which, by definition, should have the tools to address our grievances. Reason, not savagery or boorishness, should be reigning in tertiary institutions. But violence has unfortunately become ingrained in our society. It is the only language we seem to understand.

But the biggest casualty of the fracas is the people who run these institutions. Their authority has been undermined. The deal they struck with Nzimande was contemptuously rejected by the students who went over their heads to negotiate directly with the president.

The problem having purportedly been solved, they have struggled to restore stability in their institutions. Also, a cocktail of other grievances has been roped in, making it even more difficult to put the genie back in the bottle. Nzimande, too, seems not to have escaped unscathed.

The backdrop to all this is the looming local government elections. Parties are trying to exploit every issue to their benefit, especially when the country is bereft of a good leader who can not only give direction but douse fires in times of strife. The centre, unfortunately, can't hold.

It was interesting to note during the budget speech this week that Pravin Gordhan seemed to command more attention and respect from MPs than Zuma ever has. Even when they disagreed with him, they did so without rancour. No wonder Zuma wants to cut him down to size.