"XYZ Must Fall" is about lawlessness, not about Rhodes or fees or anything else. In 2015, when Rhodes Must Fall started, I said it was about lawlessness and not about Rhodes. Later that year — after Rhodes was gone — the focus shifted to fees. Last week, a senior academic was held hostage, security guards were locked in a building that was set alight, and shops were looted. Now again some misguided individuals say the problem is poverty. Poverty is an impossible problem to solve except in a police state, because wealth and poverty are relative. The rioting students are nowhere near the bottom of the economic ladder. In fact, giving them free education would require taking money away from poorer people. These people are causing poverty by destroying the educational chances of others and destroying infrastructure. The naive Christians and liberals who blame such violence on poverty may get some psychologically soothing effect on their consciences, but it isn’t going to help solve the ...
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