Reflections from within the ruling petite

I ended a chapter of my life tonight. Quite unceremoniously and without much fanfare I walked out on four years of my life, approximately 20% of what I’ve done as a living creature thus far.

It was sad, not because of goodbyes and farewells, but because I had to prevent and restrain myself from plunging straight back into student governance and its structures. This, despite the growing realisation that I’ve outgrown it all. That it was time to move on.

Bitter-sweet, I guess, is how I’d describe my feelings in relation to student governance. Although I feel that I’ve made my contribution, that I’ve raised issues and pushed for explanations, I think student governance at the University of Pretoria — if not at all or most tertiary educations in South Africa — is a farce.

Primarily because, as much as we’ve tried to and pretended to move away from “student politics”, a leopard never changes its spots. Fair enough, I know people aren’t leopards and they, well most anyway, don’t have spots. Student governance, however, is still about petty politicking, petty personalities and petty issues that fail to grasp or adequately capture the many real and tangible issues that students at our tertiary institutions have to grapple with on an everyday basis.

This is further compounded by the illusion that student representative councils, student assemblies and other channels for exercising student governance — representing student interests — have substantial executive authority or influence over university policy. Top-level policy decisions are still made by councils and other bodies that are largely out of touch with the thousands of students at the institution with student governance only — in the grand scheme of things — fulfilling a consultative role.

As if it is not already a laughing stock and completely disregarded and distrusted by students, student governance lacks effective, clear and visible channels for holding representatives to account, demanding that their interests be represented and responded to. It’s not taken seriously and turnout for elections are rarely above 25% of the student population. Admittedly, I speak under correction because these facts are not readily available and I’ve had to rely on personal interactions with those in the know.

I’m not denying that SRCs, assemblies and other student governance structures actually do something, that is certainly not the case and is definitely not true of these structures at the University of Pretoria. Dedicated, passionate and committed individuals have sacrificed countless hours, sanity and limbs in pursuit of representing the students — the speaker of the 2009 Student Assembly at UP, Mr Marius Ellis, being a case in point (although I don’t feel at liberty to discuss his physical sacrifice in the form of two fingers here).

But I’ve often stood back, looked at it all, and wondered to myself: for what? Why are such sacrifices made? Why do we even bother?

The climax of this disillusionment with student governance and its discontent was adequately demonstrated recently when, due to protests and electoral intimidation (I would call it violent, but I might get sued), student assembly elections were indefinitely postponed. That’s fine, I understand the need for that, but the audacity of the university and its management in feeling the need to, and imagining the authority to, instruct the Independent Electoral Commission on what it should do poignantly illustrated the lack of authority and irrelevance of these puppet structures. But that, and the subsequent events, is a discussion on its own and best kept for a later date.

So, instead of confronting deep-seated and very real issues of academic exclusion, financial exclusion, residential exclusion, social exclusion and racial exclusion (issues rightly raised by the Progressive Youth Alliance, although I differ vehemently with their subsequent course of action), often self-appointed student representatives proceed to bitch and moan about structural deficiencies, and, yes, revert back to petty politicking, petty personalities and petty issues.

I don’t blame students for not taking their representatives seriously, and I don’t blame representatives for not taking their responsibilities seriously either. We claim “the students have spoken!” but what is said, the voice given to them, is watered down, censored, filtered, manipulated and controlled by them, you know, the man!

It is with the good and the bad times, the disappointments and the delights, in mind that I quietly slipped out of the year-end party and frivolity of the last official Student Assembly meeting of 2009. Naturally, I would be lying if I said I won’t miss the friends and the familiar faces, and the arrogance of a ruling petite bestowed with offices, telephones and uniforms.

It was time to, after four years, bid adieu to student governance. Being the political animal that I am, I hope to move on, one notch further, perhaps to another world of illusion and irrelevance: the world of youth politics. Although I sincerely hope my stay there won’t be longer than four years, unlike the forever young Malemas and Mbalulas of our day and age.