The kids are not alright. At least not at the University of South Africa (UNISA), where students, appropriating a phrase from the 1980s anti-apartheid struggle, are promising to make UNISA “ungovernable” in a campaign to drive out university vice-chancellor Barney Pityana.
The students claim that Pityana is incompetent, unresponsive to the needs of students and workers, and that he lacks vision for the institution. But there is a political subtext. Pityana was one of the high-profile defectors from the African National Congress (ANC) to the Congress of the People (COPE) while his chief critics are from the unions and the South African Communist Party. This is not to deny (or to bolster) the merits of the students’ case, but let us not be naive and pretend that there is no connection between Pityana’s university governance and the larger political context within which he operates.
For his part Pityana insists that he is not going anywhere. Whether his stance represents whistling past the graveyard, stubbornness, a denial of reality, or a simple statement of fact remains to be seen. But my experience is that when these sorts of things come to a head, the situation tends to veer toward the untenable rather quickly. I would be surprised if Pityana is still in his post three months from now.
The ANC appears not to be dealing with the opposition especially graciously. The party should probably be a bit more aware of appearing to be fulfilling the most dire prophecies that the opposition has laid out for it. To the victor goes the spoils, to be sure. But there is more to governing and leadership than capturing spoils. Nelson Mandela always knew this. It remains to be seen if the current incarnation of the ANC is quite so self-aware.
