South Africa a Dismal Failure as Students Continue to Protest

There is chaos, rioting, protests and disgruntled students who are demanding answers from the African National Congress (ANC) and the failure of a government that is South Africa. The ANC will now have to resolve an extremely dismal situation. It is a moment for national social cohesion and reconciliation. The tensions are high, as stone throwing, clashes between students and police who retaliate with stun guns, and tear gas continue.

The university student protests nationwide are a genuine and legitimate educational matter about fees. No politician or political party has a right to grandstand and hijack the student revolution and make political statements. The students all around South Africa are united in their cause of demanding that education must be free. Students rejected Maimane, the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) official opposition party yesterday. The students will reject Shivhambu, a top leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). The students do not want any politician to hijack their revolution.

The ANC are set to join the protest at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, and, in doing so, would be protesting against the ruling party of South Africa. Talk about hypocrisy, anarchy and irony at its best – the ANC has joined the student protest to demonstrate against itself! The ANC are convinced its supporters are stupid and, to some extent, there is some truth in the stupidity of ANC followers. The current situation is now severe, and the president of South Africa never expected such an outcry by the born-free generation. Sadly, many will be like sheep and keep following the leader. The only way now is for all to stand up to all this unnecessary fear and rioting and get a government who cares about the country and all the people.

There are poor students who resort to prostitution, stealing, begging, and living in shacks because the ANC government ignores the feasibility report into free tertiary education. The government does not want to “open the doors of learning” as the Freedom Charter promised, because there are other priorities, such as nuclear power stations. Public servants and politicians are to receive R66 billion wage increase over the next three years, but the ANC does not want to invest in education – the most important investment any country could ever make.

The ANC was created to participate actively in the liberation of non-Caucasian South Africans. They did very well in that department, and many are grateful for the worthy contributions in that regard. The ANC was, however, never created to rule. They hijacked the opportunity and made a mockery of it by trying to fool the very people they helped liberate, hence the unfortunate state of the nation on many critical fronts, including education at all levels.

The quality of education in South Africa is inferior, and entrance level for higher education facilities are not suitable for all the young people. Offering free education will cause congestion within the system. The education system will fail, especially if youngsters enroll at a university just to be there and not really to learn. The repeat rate and drop-outs will become a huge burden and will cost the government. The government is dealing with a multi-layered problem, and there is no easy solution. President Jacob Zuma has announced that there will be no increase in fees for the next year.

There is no doubt the ANC has failed the youth of South Africa, and there is little time for damage control now. The government should not use the notion of autonomy of the university as an excuse for the failure of bad governance. It all goes to show that the ANC government undermines the intelligence of the black people and, in particular, at its constituencies, where someone has to die before the ANC responds.

Opinion by Laura Oneale

PUBLISHED ON THE GUARDIAN LV TODAY - HERE IS THE LINK

http://guardianlv.com/2015/10/south-africa-a-dismal-failure-as-students-continue-to-protest/

South Africa Informal Trading

Keeping the wheels of the SA economy turning. Informal trade at a suburban market. TV remotes, counterfeit CDs, empty buckets, fruit, farm fresh chicken, cow heads and much more. With the high unemployment rate, people try to make a living and at times find this frustrating. 

It's called a "basement market." It is crowded, and offered product items and product lines are similar in character and thus forcing them to compete on price and hence, threatening scale of profitability.

Therefore, reducing income per individual to a below-the-bread-line point. They got here by circumstance and not entirely entrepreneurial spirit. 

Survivalist sector. The hawkers avoid direct competition. Prices are therefore set by agreement. They recognize they are selling to the lower end of the market. Therefore, prices are rock bottom. You can get a quarter or half of everything, be it cabbage, melon, pumpkin or cell phone.

At times, the police arrest the hawkers and confiscate their goods on the pavements, and this is traumatic for these poor people trying to earn enough money to survive. Confiscating goods from vendors is devastating for them because they add very slim markups.

With thanks to Gauta Komane

South Africa - A house divided

Its not #feesmustfall or #ANCmustfall now it is all about #studentsmustfall. Watch the higher education minister laugh about a very serious situation in South Africa.  I guess the born free students know Blade is a selfish, inconsiderate and senseless man.  The house is divided and the government should realize the extreme urgency and calm the rioting students before the division becomes uncontrollable.

Watch the video here -

http://lifeissavage.com/2015/10/22/heres-blade-nzimande-saying-students-must-fall-and-laughing-video/

Gauta Komane  wrote -

The University Spring can go either of two ways. 1. So far, it is not an ideological project and is not aimed at overthrowing the government. It is a specific protest for a specific purpose, namely, to seek extra funding for universities. All Nene needs to do is to announce an adjustment budget. And Blade could stand surety for universities that apply for bank loans. Everything settles down and it is business as usual as the Guptas, Nkandla, the aeroplane, Hlaudi and other iconic phenomena live on to define our inexorable decline for a few more years before another major uprising.

2. Or, the protest could spill over into poor townships and villages where the most disaffected youth begin copycat and more uncontrolled and this time violent attacks on symbols of governmental power and inequality. This is, to borrow from John Vorster, too ghastly to contemplate

Riots Teargas and Rebellious Students

Will there be international condemnation for the current riots happening around South Africa? University students are protesting over fees and increases, they want free education. Government must do something, but what will the African National Congress (ANC) do about this unruly behavior.
Thousands of students gathered outside parliament today, chanting, singing and dancing, demanding that the minister of higher education address their concerns.  Police were called in to control the mob and tear gas and stun grenades were fired, sending students into a frenzy.  Sounds familiar does it not, remember the 1976 Soweto riots, when students marched and demanded better education, including freedom, teargas was fired and stones were thrown at the police who in turn opened up fire killing several hundred. The world condemned the apartheid government for the killing of students. it was a national outcry...... Now it is happening again, and this time it is the ANC who instigated the 1976 riots that will have to take appropriate action.  I wonder ...........................................

 On the morning of June 16 1976, an estimated 20,000 students from several Sowetan schools began a strike in the streets of Soweto. The protest was against the introduction of the Afrikaans language in local schools.
The black students protested against the forceful use of the Afrikaans and English language teaching. It was during 1975 that the Regional Director of Bantu Education announced the call of Afrikaans language usage for certain subjects including mathematics in schools. This new language launch was for students in 7th grade upwards, and informed that the natural indigenous languages used by the students would only be for religion, music and social lessons............ READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE - HERE IS THE LINK
 http://dillydee.blogspot.co.za/2013/06/remembering-soweto-uprising.html

SOURCE

http://www.msn.com/en-za/news/featured/chaos-as-protesting-students-force-their-way-into-parliamentary-precinct/ar-BBmhKqj?ocid=spartandhp

As Clifford T Smith said:
Higher education institutions currently receive only 12 percent of the government’s overall education budget, with the Department of Higher Education’s task team on university funding recently confirming that if they were to be funded at the world average, they would be receiving about R37bn instead of the R22bn they received in the last financial year.

That is right. Blade and his ANC comrades are short changing students to the tune of R15Billion per annum! That translates to full tuition fees for 375,000 students every year - almost 38% of all university students in South Africa..

Students must use their intelligence and realise that they and their parents have given control of the budget to ANC at the polling booth year after year since 1994. Now it is time to try a different tack and give control of the budget to other parties.

As the saying goes: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Students who boo DA and don't call the ANC to account are like battered wives who keep returning to their violent husband for another beating. Even though ANC disrespects them to the tune of R15 Billion per annum they still cannot wake up and smell the coffee. None so blind as those who refuse to see.

What a waste of money

Waste some more ANC ....
I suppose wasting will continue until there is nothing left to waste ....

Here lies R40 million Prasa locomotive for more than two months after a derailment, due to bad maintenance. That is a familiar story in South Africa.

It is amazing that the train has not been stripped and sold off as scrap.  What a waste of money.
The tender process and amount of money spent on these new trains could have build a new hospital or a school or both.