The Management of the Violent Students' Protests at South African Universities

Abstract

The apartheid establishments’ draconian, brutal, and unjust laws on the entire social and economic life of the black population in South Africa had left a legacy of violent protest against any formal institutional establishment. This is also true in the lives and times of university students. South Africans used violent protest and the armed struggle to fight against apartheid rule for their hard-won democracy. The problem is that the culture of violent protest continues unabated under the new democratic dispensation.
The culture of peaceful or violent protest against the apartheid regime in South Africa was regarded as a standard way of fighting the apartheid regime. They were regarded as tools towards the attainment of freedom by the marginalised population, which mainly were Blacks, Indians and Coloureds. The types of protesting against apartheid included boycotting, buying from specific establishments, work boycotts, burning of apartheid establishments, and the bombing and maiming of the supporters and the enablers of apartheid.
The above-mentioned culture was also present at South African Higher education institutions. Peaceful and violent resistance against apartheid was also normalised at South African universities. Academics and students were part of the resistance forces within the higher education sector. The boycott of classes, apartheid establishments, and the burning of infrastructure that included police vans, university buildings and public establishments.
Despite the attainment of democracy in South Africa in 1994, there has been an increase in destructive and violent protests that threaten university and public property and human limbs. The high level of violence has been noticed and recorded during the 2016 and 2017 #FeesMustFall movement, including the #RhodesMustFall movement. The destructive protests in the higher education sector have continued unabated until recently.