Students vow to continue Madiba’s fight for free education

On Mandela Day, Friday, July 18, over 180 students gathered in the Tshwane metro, not just to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, but to confront the reality that many of his dreams for South Africa remain unfulfilled.

Hosted by the Office of the MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, in partnership with SRCs and youth leadership forums, the student colloquium offered a blend of history, dialogue, and activism.

Students were taken on tours of the Old Ou Raadsaal Building and the Palace of Justice, where the group of students could gain glimpses into pivotal moments in South African history.

The students saw the cell where the nine ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe leaders were held during the Rivonia Trial , the courtroom where they were sentenced in and even the original Freedom Charter written on the cell walls.

After the tours, the programme included keynote addresses from city officials and student leaders, as well as interactive panel discussions, and key resolutions aimed at transforming the student experience in Tshwane.

While many students felt Mandela Day should still be recognised, the South Africa he had envisioned however is a far cry from the reality that Tshwane students face today.

“Mandela is a very prominent figure to us because he fought for free education in this country. So, we as students must carry on that fight. We’re going to fight for free education, because to this day we have not seen that,” said Tandazo Seoko, TUT Pretoria Campus’s SRC President.

“All of us are still struggling with unemployment, and a lot of us are still struggling with student accommodation and funding. We must take our spears and fight these struggles. Mandela has fought, but it’s still up to us as the youth to carry on.

“As student activists, we are still struggling with funding. This is not even a TUT or Tshwane-specific thing; it’s all over. A majority of students are defunded and have no backing to pay for tuition fees. Till today, our students are struggling to find spaces in higher education, our government must implement plans to bring higher education to more students,” Seoko said.

Beshley Disoloane from TUT’s Soshanguve campus said the metro’s water woes are making life difficult for students and shared similar sentiments regarding the need for more funding.

“Water interruption affects the campus’s daily activities. Students now have to be at home because on campus, there’s no access to clean running water. We’re provided with mobile toilets, but they aren’t enough to accommodate the students. Additionally, there are only two JoJo tanks on campus, which are meant to accommodate over 1 000 students, and the maintenance is nonexistent, too. Safety is also another big issue, students get robbed daily.

“We want the City of Tshwane, especially, to consider that during these dialogues and commemoration. You can’t say that students get robbed and killed because we go to parties, when they know which are the hotspots where drug dealers and criminals operate in our area,” Disoloane said.

Disoloane said commemorating Mandela Day carries little meaning when students and young people are still subjected to economic inequality. He believes that until students are safe and can study for free, Madiba’s legacy won’t be fulfilled.

“Young people come to this province, come to this city, to study. The government must introduce measures to address the crime affecting students. We don’t trust our government; there’s no point. All political parties speak the same language, promising everything, but on the ground, nothing changes,” Disoloane said.

Teryl Mazwai said it’s still important to celebrate Mandela Day to know where we come from and never take the freedom we enjoy for granted.

“Decades have gone by, and people have forgotten how we got to the place we’re in now. So I think it’s really important to learn about the struggles that freedom fighters went through to enjoy what we have now,” Mazwai said.

Mazwai said she felt a deeper connection to the country’s history after the tour.

“One spot that really took me back was the holding cells. It was really dark, it’s a dark place, you could see that people who were kept in there were not okay. They were thinking about their families and wanted to be free. I think it’s a good thing that they preserved the walls because it’s good to see all the writings. The handprints also took me back because they show, at least for me, that they were going through a lot of mental torment,” Mazwai said.

She said tuition fees are a great hindrance in the pursuit of education for many students, especially as most come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

She said getting accepted alone is a feat, but maintaining fees and other expenses leave students destitute, and more governmental interventions are needed.

To honour Mandela Day, she said more initiatives such as the colloquium should be held to ensure the youth never forget the country’s history.

“I think more things like today are needed, more tours and educate us more on how we got to where we are now, let us not forget where we come from,” Mazawi said.

After holding panel discussions and addresses at Tshwane House, the day ended with a pledge wall signing.

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