Student politics worthless if parties just follow the mother ship

The student political landscape has shifted dramatically over the years and it’s a perplexing curiosity. Gone are the days when DASO had any relevance, SASCO was more than misspelled bread and VF+ actually commanded a standing on some campuses.

Yet the election maps are incredibly telling. Look at universities in major metros; the areas that typically come out for the DA and the ANC. If you check the IEC map by ward, I can nearly guarantee a little red mark around the campus in a sea of the surrounding legacy parties. And yet, the EFF didn’t resonate with the electorate this outing.

As we ramp up to SRC election season, we’ve seen the EFF take the Limpopo student leadership with some conviction but why bother? Typically, the kids get into the parties to climb the ranks but as the EFF is looking increasingly wasteful as a career path, what’s getting the kids all excited about them?

Moreover, if the kids are excited about the red berets, why aren’t they doing better in the adult elections?

You could believe the line that student associations are separate entities from the motherships but even with a South African grade 9 diploma, you could see the connections go beyond just sharing a name. What are the smart kids seeing in the EFF, and MK, that the broader electorate are not?

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Is the idea of something new and fresh so appealing and energising that the policy doesn’t matter or is the different policy just more appealing to the students? On that front, do they even know what the respective policies are or are they the moths to the rhetorical flame. Perhaps they’re merely useful idiots. Who knows, but the bigger question is who cares?

The “ownership” of a campus doesn’t really speak to anything in the big bad world yet so much emphasis is placed on which party is taking which campus.

What’s scarier is that this kind of association doesn’t do much for political exploration and discussion; taking on the same talking points from the same perspectives as the dinosaurs who set them before. Why the need for the association? Why aren’t there campus parties independent from national bodies that are serious contestants? Granted it’s easier to pull on the experience and resources of the established parties. If the appeal is just because it’s easier, isn’t it scary when one thinks of political understanding and creativity?

If the politicians of tomorrow are being moulded under the politicians of today as repeaters of their belief systems, there’s no wonder we’re having so many conversations lamenting the lack of political education.

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If the student politicians are too limited to establish and drive their own thing, then how good could they ever be in running the country? I wouldn’t dare suggest that we do away with mother body student political parties. It would just be grand if some collectives could find the gonads to take them on and develop a new brand of politics to be tried and tested in the microcosm of a university environment.

It’s not like convincing a couple of thousand students is tough with a long-term plan. But hey, who really has the time, capacity and infrastructure to build a name for themselves on a campus, run a couple of associations, show some successful leadership culminating in running an SRC? If anybody, it’s students with political ambition. They’re spending all that time sucking up to national politics. They may as well spend it driving actual leadership on their campus. Instead, they’ll take the easy road and ride the name of the parties we already know.

It’s a sad and repetitive state of affairs, but don’t say it’s not wildly apparent.