South Africans need to start talking and stop the torching

It is hard to differentiate the mindlessness of torching two more schools in Limpopo with a threat by the previously and almost anonymous South African Further Education and Training Student Association (Safetsa) to launch a complete shutdown of 265 campuses under the umbrella of the country’s 50 technical and vocational education and training colleges.

Safetsa, which claims to support and stand in solidarity with the #FeesMustFall campaign, espouses a less incendiary approach than the wantonly mindless arson in the troubled village of Tshitale. And it is a moronic fait accompli that will doubtlessly have long-term effects on the futures of affected pupils – already locked into the socioeconomic handcuffs of this country’s rural educational failings.

And while the equally obscure Yonke Twani, president of Safetsa, launched a plea to leave the infrastructure on the targeted campuses unscathed during their national action to have the department of higher education and training address a long list of grievances, the organisation seems to have ignored very recent history: confrontation ignites the threat of escalating violence and discussion must be the preferred rallying point.

In this, we must all start talking, for as Martin Luther King observed: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

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