By Tenisha Taylor
For decades, student movements have contributed to conversations around access, transformation, and institutional culture at Stellenbosch University (SU). Drawing on archives and interviews with SU lecturers, Die Matie revisited moments of student resistance and how they were reported in its newspaper.
‘People power’
Tamlyn February, a lecturer in Philosophy at SU, said to Die Matie resistance is “a means of challenging, contesting and countering particular discourses, material conditions, and power structures”. She explained that resistance “can be practised in various modes, such as protest, writing, thinking”, and said that it is “highly contextual” and “always tethered to the specific conditions of the society in which it takes place”.
February said that resistance becomes necessary “when people are forced into the margins of society, and they are forced to endure conditions that are not conducive to a decent human life”. She added that “the only options are to either endure or resist for the sake of transformation and a better life”.
Looking back on the role of resistance in democratic society, February said, “protests are integral to democratic practice. If democracy has some version of popular sovereignty, or ‘people power’, then the people must be able to exercise their power to come together and collectively call out injustice and demand change”.
Apartheid resistance
For much of its history, SU operated within South Africa’s apartheid higher education system, which was reinforced by the Extension of University Education Act of 1959. The Act formalised racially segregated higher education by requiring Black, Coloured and Indian students to attend separate universities, reinforcing SU’s status as a historically white institution.
Die Matie reported on several moments of student resistance during apartheid. On 5 September 1985, the newspaper covered an anti-apartheid march involving approximately 300 students protesting the detention of anti-apartheid activists during the State of Emergency. Students carried placards reading “Detain Apartheid Now” and sang freedom songs as they marched through campus.
Prof. Mike de Vries, Rector from 1976 to 1990, allowed the demonstration to continue, saying that the “peace march may continue”, while urging that there should be “no conflict” on campus, according to the 1985 article.
Open Stellenbosch
Three decades later, questions of transformation resurfaced through the Open Stellenbosch movement. In 2015 and 2016, students challenged the SU Language Policy, institutional culture and questions of belonging. According to a 17 November 2016 News24 article on the movement’s proposed language policy, Open Stellenbosch described its work as “the culmination of more than two decades of struggle for more equitable language practice at SU”.
The article argued that Open Stellenbosch’s proposal aimed to facilitate a “breakaway from the constraints of the historical injustices perpetuated by the institution and an image that has been characterised overwhelmingly by Afrikaner culture at the expense of inclusivity”. The movement called for English to become the primary language of instruction while advocating for a more inclusive university environment, according to the article.
Lwazi Phakade, former Open Stellenbosch leader, said to Die Matie, “Students resisted because they felt excluded despite gaining admission to the university.” During one of the movement’s most prominent protests in 2016, students occupied the university’s Administration B building before police enforced a court interdict and removed them from the building, according to Phakade. “Many of us were [choked], manhandled and brutalised after refusing to leave because we wanted our voices to be heard,” said Phakade.
Reflecting on the significance of the student protests in 2015 and 2016, February said they “mark an important shift in the history of South African universities”. She said that students “demanded a decolonisation of the university, in terms of access to higher education and its increasing unaffordability, more diverse and inclusive curriculums that speak to the African context”.
