What did the student revolt of late 2015 to mid-2016 mean for governance in South Africa? How did it affect higher education and national government?

This book dissects the influence of the days of revolt that shook the government. Its voices are those of primary activists and scholars. The book's reflections represent a mere snapshot in time, and we reflect on only a segment of the overall revolt and its impact. The analysis for this volume ends in mid-2016, as disillusionment with the implementation of early gains sets in; as a second cycle of revolt unfolds; and as government and university managements work to persuade a diverse and still-angry student generation that more profound change is on the way.

The students’ renewed objections and challenges to the prevailing sociopolitical order – embodying tales of alienation, of anger and of rejection of much of the status quo ante – reverberate as this book goes to print. Our relatively early analysis covers the first months of the #FeesMustFall (#FMF) movement. The events of October 2015, along with the 2016 aftermath, deserve in-depth, contextualised consideration. Multiple controversies colour the ongoing developments – not all students, for example, agree on the extent of rejection of the preceding and prevailing orders, nor do all pursue the outstanding goals with equal fervour. We analyse a moving target. Our need for a deeper understanding prevails over the temptation to stall, in order to see what will happen next. ‘The next’ (and we are certain that there will be further developments) will be just as important to analyse. We hope to continue listening and interpreting.

In convening the voices to write this book, we at the Wits School of Governance (WSG), together with a handful of colleagues at other University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) sites and at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), concluded that we should not wait for the longer-term impacts to show themselves – while the early and illuminating trends congeal. The book itself is an implicit conversation between scholars and activists. We identify, dissect, contextualise and project the trends while offering the reader the opportunity to listen to the primary voices from the student movement, and weigh up the analyses against the primary narratives.