Fees Must Fall not a license for anarchy
11 September 2018
Students' need for access to higher education is legitimate. However, the violence and lawlessness that often accompanies campaigns, like Fees Must Fall, cannot be justified. Action must be taken against people who violate the law, regardless of the motivation behind their actions.
It is unacceptable that irreplaceable books, paintings and buildings are being destroyed during protest actions concerning free higher education. This kind of behaviour certainly does not contribute to realising the ideal of higher education, on the contrary, it is shattering that dream.
The damage that was done during these protests amounts to R800 million, which is enough money to help 8000 students obtain degrees. Parties like the EFF, however, do not seem to comprehend this. They are stuck in a revolution.
The EFF does not realise that the revolution is over. The country must now be rebuilt. And yet the EFF is only preaching destruction and demolition. Some people are so caught up, practically imprisoned, by their own ideological revolution that they do not realise this.
In South Africa, the desire to destroy is not only limited to the Fees Must Fall movement and it is not only the EFF that is preaching lawlessness and anarchy. The like-minded ANC government has done the same things for years.
When members of the ANC are unhappy with service delivery, they simply burn down and destroy everything that they can get their hands on. Such lawlessness surely does not contribute to building up the country and the economy nor does it ensure progress for South Africa.
What is even worse than the destructive students are people like Duduzane Zuma, and in particular Julius Malema who, along with former followers, was implicated in alleged corruption. Such abuses, coupled with the government's incompetence and corruption, makes free higher education basically impossible.
Mr Wessels was asked to leave the podium after he refused to retract his statement about Malema.
Issued by Wouter Wessels, FF Plus Member of Parliament, 11 September 2018
