So Many Questions: On #FeesMustFall in 2017

15 January 2017 - 02:00 By Chris Barron
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A funding model for poor students will be piloted this year but will not end protests, says Rhodes Scholar, Oxford graduate and University of Cape Town student Ntokozo Qwabe of #FeesMustFall. Chris Barron asked him . . .

Will protests continue this year?

Most definitely, because we still have not been able to obtain our demands.

What about the new funding model?

We have been very clear that we reject that model. It privileges white universities ...

What is your definition of a white university?

Let's not pretend we don't know the historical distinction between black and white universities.

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Does the distinction matter when we're talking about poor, mainly black students at whatever university?

It matters because the model is premised on a structure that white universities operate on. At these universities there are students who can pay, and they subsidise the others. This is not the situation at black universities.

Isn't the intention to implement this model at all universities?

It won't work at black universities because there won't be anyone to pay.

Isn't the intention to fund it from a variety of sources including the government and business?

Until we get a commitment from government to free education, any model that does not speak to free education is one that we will reject.

And deny thousands of poor students the chance of a university education through a model like this?

This model is not sustainable.

Do you have an alternative one?

There is a pamphlet that we have drawn up which sets out how we can fund free education. So the assumption that we haven't put on the table an alternative is not true.

Is it feasible?

What is feasible and what is not?

This model has been worked out by a team led by former FirstRand boss Sizwe Nxasana, who would know what is feasible, surely?

They're all there to serve the interests of the business class.

Not the interests of poor students?

No. If they were they'd commit to free education. Poor students have made it very clear that their demand is free education.

So there will be more class invasions, violence, intimidation and arson?

We will do whatever gets them to respond.

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Even if it destroys the universities in the process?

It will not, if those in power respond to our demands. The argument is that they can't afford to provide a fee-free education. It's a lie to say that there isn't money. It would only require about R50-billion.

Where it will come from?

Increasing corporate taxation ...

When the economic growth rate is barely 1%?

It's not about economic growth. There are enough resources, it's about how they are distributed.

Is there any point in free university education if there are no universities worth going to?

There is no reason to believe that will be the case.

You don't buy the argument that universities need fees to retain quality?

Their argument is that they need money. We are saying the burden of paying needs to move from students to universities.

They're saying that without fees they cannot maintain quality.

Universities need to join us in the fight for free education from the government. Then they won't have to worry about these things.

Your agenda is not really about poor students, is it?

Our agenda is free decolonised education.

What about the students whose futures you're destroying in the process?

We're not destroying their futures, we're making them. If you were to go to universities you will see we are doing work with black poor students ...

All I see you doing is ensuring that their education is totally disrupted.

You must ask poor students how they perceive us.

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The University of the Witwatersrand asked its students and 77% want an end to disruption.

If you asked them if they support free decolonised education they would tell you they do. Whether that is pursued through class disruptions is a different question.

What's the point of pursuing demands in a way that makes it impossible for poor students to graduate?

It's disingenuous to use "poor students" as if we are not ourselves poor students who are unable to attend classes. We have to finish our degrees so that we feed our families.

How can you say you want to attend classes when you're disrupting them?

We disrupt them because ...

How is that in the interests of poor students?

Because it is a fight for free decolonised education which will benefit them.

Has #FeesMustFall become anti-white racism?

What is anti-white racism?

When you write on Facebook about a white student you wish you'd 'whipped the white apartheid settler colonial entitlement out of the bastard'?

There can never be racism against white people.

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