WHILE many have the misconception that the #FeesMustFall campaign is a purely black struggle, a young white Musgrave student tells Berea Mail why it is a cause all young people should be fighting for.
Mike van Niekerk said last Thursday, he witnessed first-hand the church being present and engaged during the student protests. He said he watched while clergymen formed a barrier of protection between security forces and the demonstrating students.
“Whilst our brave students were being shot at with teargas and flash bangs by police at Howard College, there were Anglican, Methodist and Catholic priests standing in the midst of the students, serving as actual physical (and spiritual) buffers between the students and police,” he said.
On Friday when the same clergy had scheduled a prayer meeting with students, at Howard College’s Students’ Union Building, Mike was arrested.
“The prayer didn’t end up happening, because while students were calling others to come through, police shut it down and started shooting at us with rubber bullets and tear gas. We were not protesting, we were just supposed to pray. I was shot in the leg and arrested with my friend Lindo, while waiting for the prayer to start. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lindo was pushed into the van and I was asked to get someone to confirm that I was at the prayer meeting. When I questioned why Lindo had been pushed into the van, we were both arrested,” he said, adding that police had wanted to keep the students locked up over the weekend, but fortunately an Anglican priest had arrived at the police station and identified the two young men as been part of the prayer group.
“We were released with a warning,” he said.
“The perceived victory from last year’s #FeesMustFall struggle was just a “freeze,” but the movement was hijacked and since then there are still fees and increases. When government absolved themselves from the fees issue we realised we are really fighting for free education. The reality is that free education is a possibility, it is feasible. Our fellow black students are being broken by debt and that is a harsh reality of the apartheid past. The history and brokenness of the past has not been dealt with and students have lifted the lid on something that was going to explode – our deep wound of inequality and injustice,” he explained.
