ActionSA condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the acts of destruction and vandalism that have taken place at the University of Fort Hare, one of South Africa’s most historic and respected institutions of higher learning.
The attack on Fort Hare is not just an attack on property; it is an assault on our shared history, our democracy, and the power of education to liberate a people.
ActionSA empathises deeply with the frustrations of students who continue to experience exclusion, delayed funding, poor accommodation, and administrative neglect. These are legitimate grievances that deserve urgent attention. However, violence and destruction cannot be the language through which justice is sought in a democratic society.
The University of Fort Hare stands as a sacred site in the struggle for freedom and equality, the intellectual birthplace of giants such as Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Oliver Tambo, and Seretse Khama. To see its facilities burnt and defaced is to desecrate the very soil on which Africa’s liberation movement was intellectually conceived.
Democracy offers many tools of pressure and persuasion, peaceful protest, strategic dialogue, civic mobilisation, and reasoned advocacy. These tools empower; destruction only diminishes. When we destroy, we silence our own power and erase the very platforms that were built for us to rise above injustice.
Education remains the most powerful weapon against oppression, as history itself has proven. It was through knowledge. Not chaos that the chains of apartheid were ultimately broken. The classroom, not the petrol bomb, is the true site of revolution.
ActionSA calls on government, university leadership, and student representatives to restore calm through honest engagement. The issues facing students are not new but the solutions must be grounded in partnership, accountability, and a shared commitment to protect the very institutions that secure our nation’s future.
The fight for justice must never come at the cost of destroying the instruments of freedom.
Education built this democracy. We must never allow despair or neglect to destroy it.
ActionSA Condemns the Destruction of Fort Hare and Calls for the Defence of Education and Democracy
ActionSA condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the acts of destruction and vandalism that have taken place at the University of Fort Hare, one of South Africa’s most historic and respected institutions of higher learning.
The attack on Fort Hare is not just an attack on property; it is an assault on our shared history, our democracy, and the power of education to liberate a people.
ActionSA empathises deeply with the frustrations of students who continue to experience exclusion, delayed funding, poor accommodation, and administrative neglect. These are legitimate grievances that deserve urgent attention. However, violence and destruction cannot be the language through which justice is sought in a democratic society.
The University of Fort Hare stands as a sacred site in the struggle for freedom and equality, the intellectual birthplace of giants such as Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Oliver Tambo, and Seretse Khama. To see its facilities burnt and defaced is to desecrate the very soil on which Africa’s liberation movement was intellectually conceived.
Democracy offers many tools of pressure and persuasion, peaceful protest, strategic dialogue, civic mobilisation, and reasoned advocacy. These tools empower; destruction only diminishes. When we destroy, we silence our own power and erase the very platforms that were built for us to rise above injustice.
Education remains the most powerful weapon against oppression, as history itself has proven. It was through knowledge. Not chaos that the chains of apartheid were ultimately broken. The classroom, not the petrol bomb, is the true site of revolution.
ActionSA calls on government, university leadership, and student representatives to restore calm through honest engagement. The issues facing students are not new but the solutions must be grounded in partnership, accountability, and a shared commitment to protect the very institutions that secure our nation’s future.
The fight for justice must never come at the cost of destroying the instruments of freedom.
Education built this democracy. We must never allow despair or neglect to destroy it.