UNIVERSITY of Zululand student political party formations engaged in a heated debate regarding challenges facing South Africa at the higher education level.
This debate was held on Friday at the Protea Hotel, Empangeni, as students representing SADESMO, SASCO and the Young Communist League gathered to discuss matters affecting their lives.
uThungulu District IEC representative Chris Mkhize acted as the facilitator and asked the students what they thought of policies governing education, and what their views were regarding capitalism, socialism, communism and organised protests which usually result in damage to property and injury of innocent people.
The inferior education given to an African child by the government became the centre of SADESMO’S criticism of the ANC.
They also criticised the South African Communist Party (SACP), saying there was no true communism in the SACP, citing an example of a Cabinet Minister who calls himself a communist, but would not take his sick child to a government hospital but a private one instead.
SASCO representatives accusing SADESMO of not understanding what true communism meant.
‘Communism is defined as when resources are shared by all – a good example being that of free basic education which the ANC government provides to underprivileged schools throughout the country,’ said ANC Youth League’s Njabulo Maphumulo.
He also elaborated on communal living practiced in the olden days by African society, saying ‘During those days people lived together and shared whatever little they had.’
On issues of violence, S’bonelo Mathenjwa of SADESMO said people resorted to violent strikes to voice their anger against the government’s poor service delivery.
‘It’s everybody’s constitutional right to embark on a strike, but that doesn’t mean they must damage public facilities in the process,’ said one SASCO representative.
