Our universities are burning, and nobody has covered themselves in glory in the great fees impasse. However, it is government’s woeful performance, characterised by a vacuum of leadership, which has been the most disturbing aspect of all.This week, visual reminders of PW Botha’s apartheid-era security state hit our television screens when police opened fire on student protesters at Wits University with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas as the institution tried to re-open its doors. It could have been 1985, but it’s not an isolated incident. Many of our universities have seen similar clashes of late.It’s easy to get fixated on these violent clashes and the deeply concerning iron-fist approach of a government paralysed by a leadership that is seemingly more concerned with whether the Guptas have bank accounts than anything else.But to do so would be to miss the deeper problem: this wave of protests is of far greater significance than last year’s fees protests, with far more o...
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