
South Africa's 'fees must fall' protests are about more than tuition costs - Mz
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/27/africa/fees-must-fall-student-protest-south-africa-explainer/index.html
======
BenoitEssiambre
It's refreshing to see the development and activism cropping up in Africa
after decades of mostly war, misery and poverty.

I don't know if it's because of their young demographic but I find there is a
vibe reminiscent of North America's 70s.

See for example some of their online publications:

[http://trueafrica.co/](http://trueafrica.co/) (Notice the startup focused
section:
[http://trueafrica.co/category/innovators/](http://trueafrica.co/category/innovators/)
)

[http://mg.co.za/](http://mg.co.za/)

Industry and manufacturing seems to be picking up too. I notice more "made in
<african country>" labels here in Canada. For example I recently bough shoes
that came from Ethiopia ( from
[https://www.oliberte.com/](https://www.oliberte.com/) )

~~~
_djo_
That's a condescending argument based on a lack of understanding of the huge
diversity that exists between African countries in economic performance and
activism.

South Africa has not had 'decades of mostly war, misery and poverty', it's the
most developed country in Africa, has consistently been one of the continent's
wealthiest and aside from some brief political violence during the transition
from Apartheid it has been entirely peaceful.

This means your conclusion is flawed: South African industry and manufacturing
has declined significantly over the past ten years as a result of flawed
government economic and labour policies policies, not increased. The country's
growth rate has stalled to just 1.5% of GDP and unemployment has increased to
25% under the standard definition and over 40% under the expanded definition.
The mining sector, once a big part of the South African economy, is
collapsing.

At the same time, the ANC has more than doubled the number of civil servants
and paid them inflated salaries, resulting in a state wage bill that takes up
a whopping 45-50% of the entire government's budget. That's one reason why
government subsidies for universities have been steadily decreasing over the
past decade, forcing universities to increase fees to make up the difference.
What's worse is that the universities are facing higher-than-inflation cost
increases of their own, thanks to a severe shortage of academics, the decline
of the Rand against the US Dollar and big increases in the price of
electricity.

There is a state entity that's supposed to aid poor students with student
loans, called NSFAS, but it's extremely dysfunctional, riddled with corruption
and effectively bankrupt so it only supports a relatively small number of
students.

There simply isn't enough available money remaining to increase those
subsidies either, given that the Treasury's contingency reserve for the next
three years was swallowed up by a R60 billion increase in civil servant
salaries and VAT, personal and business taxes are all comparatively high
already.

Thus what we're seeing now is born of frustration on the part of students, who
are facing 10-12% increases in student fees, insufficient bursaries or loans
and an uncertain future where most will probably be unable to find employment
even if they beat the odds and become one of the 30% or so of students who
actually finish their degrees. The level of political organisation and
dynamism shown by the students may indeed be a positive thing over the long
term, it's too soon to tell just yet, but at the moment it shares more in
common with the boiling over seen during the Arab Spring than anything else.

As an aside, you mentioned mg.co.za. That's the site of the Mail & Guardian
which is 30 year old weekly newspaper, not new online publication. Their
website was created in 1995, but the paper itself dates from 1985 when staff
of the closing Rand Daily Mail and Sunday Express (founded in 1902 and 1934
respectively) got together to form it. Sadly it, too, is going bankrupt, in
part thanks to a government decision that all state job and tender advertising
only be channeled through newspapers that are considered 'friendly'.

In short, these protests are a symptom of South Africa's economic and
political stagnation and mismanagement, especially over the past few years
under the leadership of Jacob Zuma. It's not a new dynamism in a swiftly-
growing country.

~~~
tim333
Sub Saharan Africa in general is doing well "the region is expected to pick up
to an average of 4.4 percent and 4.8 percent [growth] in 2016 and 2017
respectively"

South Africa is a bit of a special case having moved from the white European-
style government running the place in a European style to the new one running
it in an African style but I think they'll muddle through.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
South Africa is indeed a special case, and quite far from the stereotype of
"mostly war". The late 1980s in SA before the transition from "the white
European-style government" were ... troubled, but not actually in civil war.

The last time there was an actual shooting war inside South Africa was the
Anglo-Boer war, which ended in 1902.

