the history of student politics in sa

The history of student politics in South Africa dates back as far as 1924. This year marked the emergence of student politics, when a group of all Afrikaans and English institution met at Grey College to form a student movement. This structure was then called the National Union of South African Student's (NUSAS). At its first conference NUSAS then resoluted that the structure will coordinate the Student Representative Councils. NUSAS was dominated by white students and as a result black students felt that they were marginalized and they wanted to express their voices. In 1969 Steve Biko, Barney Pityana, Aubrey Mokoena, Patrick Lekota, Saths Cooper and countless others led a breakaway and formed what was called the South African Students Organisation. SASO mobilised students across the country for protests through community activities. However in 1977 SASO was banned as part of the national state of emergency post the events of the 1976 youth upraising.

After the formation and banning of SASO the trend then followed through. In 1981 the Azanian Students Organisation was formed and this was to fill the space left by the banned SASO. AZASO brought together the SRC’s of all black campuses. AZASO was directly aligned to the Azanian People’s Organisation, which represented the Black Consciousness Movement. Later AZASO became increasingly remote from its Black Consciousness origins and sought to reflect the ditching of this baggage by changing its name to the more representative South African National Students Congress (SANSCO) to also reflect its complete adherence to the Freedom Charter and the congress movement lead by the African National Congress which was still banned. SANSCO identified closely with community organizations it was an active affiliate of the United Democratic Front. From there onward other influential student movements emerged such as the merger of SANSCO and NUSAS and the most recent the formation of the South African Student Congress.

Post the apardheid era we have seen a dramatic in the fight for student issues, amongst many of the challenges identified were transformation in institutions of higher learning, the strengthening of resources, th reduction of fees, calls to increase the number of student accommodation and most recently free education advocated by sasco and its progressive youth alliances. Student activists continue to advocate for better learning conditions. However we are currently faced with a challenge of certain groups who are not selfless in fighting for the above mentioned issues that are necessary in creating conducive learning environments. The contestation of src is even becoming more democratic as new and emerging student wings are introduced and these include the democratic alliance student organization (da),  South African Democratic Students Movement (ifp), COPE Student Movement (cope), The National Freedom Party student wing and independent candidates.