Student Protest Movements in Post-apartheid South Africa

Belated Transformation and Unfinished Decolonization

Abstract

One of the key markers of the new millennium was a rapid rise of new social movements in South Africa representing expressions of popular anger. Many of them were directed at local government, responding to “poor service delivery.” Recently, social unrest  extended beyond specific local issues to encompass much broader antagonisms, namely, the discontent over the character and pace of transformation from apartheid. This paper focuses on the recent proliferation of student protest movements triggered by the #Rhodes must fall movement at the University of Cape Town in 2015. The protest actors demand the fundamental social reconstruction of contemporary South Africa based on “real” decolonization. Focusing on the wider context of the student protest movements, the paper analyzes their background, dynamics, and significance. It attempts to examine the discourses embedded in Africanization, which form the backbone of the strategies the protesters deploy. It aims to answer these questions: What are the causes of the student protest movements organized by the so called born-free generation? Which issues do the protesters address? With which discourses and which outcomes? What are the implications of the movements for democracy in South Africa?