Democratising South African universities: From activism to advocacy

The segregation enforced during apartheid has not only ensured widely disparate South African university landscapes, but also framed constructions of activism in historical discourses of racial disenfranchisement and marginalisation. As a result, activism is implicitly and explicitly associated with disadvantaged universities; with black students; and specifically directed at an apartheid government. If there were expectations – certainly on the side of government – that the transition to a democratic state would allay student activism, this was not the case. Instead, student activism – still manifested in a critical mass of black students – has not only intensified but has degenerated into disturbing displays of destruction and violence. The recent spate of student protests, which centred on matters of access, free education and decolonisation, and more recently, gender-based violence, has provoked defensive, and at times, antagonistic and discouraging responses from universities – placing students firmly in an opposing discourse. Seemingly, while the political climate has shifted, universities have yet to reconceptualise their institutional, academic and spatial environments into contexts conducive to open and mutual deliberation. Current impressions from university responses suggest that activism, as symbolised through student protests, is out of place in democratic spaces. In considering the relational positioning of universities to activism and, hence, to students, the interest of this article resides, firstly, in how notions of activism might be reimagined within democratic contexts and, secondly, in how universities might reposition themselves from being sites of activism, to being advocates of social, economic and ethical reform.