A year ago, students were hailed as heroes when they fought for free education. With spirit, focus and a determination to pull together in a common cause, they won an important battle on the slopes of the Union Buildings to freeze university fee increases for 2016.
Fast forward 365 days and that victory is a fleeting memory overshadowed by 831 arrests  that represent a temporary truce that has been broken. This year, students radicalized. Violence escalated on campuses and out onto the streets. In Braamfontein, Johannesburg, students from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) switched from revolutionaries to petty criminals. In the name of free education, buses were set alight and shops were looted.
In Cape Town, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech was delivered to the thud of stun grenades outside Parliament. Students also began throwing petrol bombs and smashing police vehicles and library windows.
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It followed a police crackdown where students were placed under curfew, had their dorms raided and leaders arrested. It led to 831 arrests and 411 criminal cases, says South Africa’s Acting National Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Charles Phahlane.
“There are those who have bombarded us with calls to withdraw police officials from university campuses. We reiterate that it is the violence and criminal acts being committed on those campuses that have invited the presence of the SAPS,” says Phahlane
Former Wits SRC leader, Shaeera Kalla, was hit nine times in the back with rubber bullets while she stood with her hands raised while protesting on campus. Police maintain the crowd had, prior to this, interrupted a test and torn up papers.
Former Wits student leader, Mcebo Dlamini, was detained and held in prison for three weeks before successfully appealing and being released on R2,000 bail.
In light of the extreme nature of this year’s protests, public sympathy has waned. Phahlane maintains the police have reacted with minimal force even when “attacked and pelted with stones”.
Still, the cries of the students involved in the #FeesMustFall movement remain unchanged – free education for all.
“Conversations that were once relegated strictly to the humanities are spilling over into other departments, faculties and disciplines in ways that will hopefully consolidate them in the future, as repositioning and reconstructive efforts begin to take root,” says Brian Kamanzi, a writer and electrical engineering master’s student at the University of Cape Town.
“Currently, a Bachelor of Science program at the University of Cape Town could cost as much as R50,000 ($3,700), a steep price for education in a country where the average annual income is R88,000 ($6,600).”
“Over the years, enrolment in the country’s 26 higher education institutions has steadily grown and in 2017 it is expected to reach 1,053,420. While the intake of students considerably increased, the government’s contribution to universities’ income decreased by 18.4 percent, with the total state budget for public higher education accounting for only 0.74 percent of the gross domestic product.”
Kamanzi argues an overwhelming number of students need loans for education and are forced into debt cycles.
Concerns have also been raised that the students lack unity.
“This has been particularly disconcerting, as the discourse on inclusion of black radical feminism and representation of women and queer activists in leadership structures and media encounters has visibly given way to popular male figures and increasingly centralized leadership,” he says.
Kamanzi also defends the violent acts of students, saying that they were in retaliation.
“What followed was mass arrests, internal expulsions and court interdicts, including denial of bail in some cases; more than 830 protesters have been arrested since February. At the same time the media has not properly reported on the violence against student protesters, which has escalated to incidences of sexual assault by private security and the police.”
Amid all this, universities struggled to keep their doors open and complete the academic year. The country is also facing a $400-million graduate brain drain.
“Progress in negotiations across the campuses is difficult as many protesters are in jail, suspended or expelled. The success of the movement shall be determined, I believe, by its ability to move beyond the campuses and involve broader society,” says Kamanzi.
The question now is not how these protests will end, but if they will end.

The Valiant Cause Losing Its Way

It’s a cold winter day in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Chills run through the body like a quiet ghost, coming and going, making your hair stand on end. The cold has played a big part in Oyama Dyosiba’s journey to entrepreneurship. On this day, he is feeling a little under the weather; despite this his personality is like hot chocolate and marshmallows on a cold day.
As we meet, he sips hot water and feels the warmth of success born of years of struggle. The 31-year-old was one of GQ’s 2014 best-dressed men, is the founder of Oyama Management Agency; a social entrepreneur, and actor.
This is a world away from the cold and unwelcoming arrival in Johannesburg from East London in the Eastern Cape province. He was bewildered and penniless.
The problem was he had nowhere to go. So, it was a cold bench in Johannesburg’s Park Station.
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“I didn’t know anyone or where I was going. Every morning, I would sit on the benches and pretend as if I’m waiting for a bus. I would go to the bathroom, wash my face, brush my teeth and then go and look for a job. I wanted to be here so I had to be strong and resilient,” he says.
Dyosiba landed a call center job and moved into an apartment in Braamfontein. In the months following this breakthrough, he scored a full time job as a marketing manager for City Varsity, a media and art school.
After a few years, he lost motivation and was unhappy in the job.
“I started thinking that I didn’t want to work for anyone. If I can turn City Varsity to what it is today surely I can do something of my own. That’s when I decided to start my own business.”
There was soul searching and research. Out of it came Oyama Management Agency in 2010.
“Starting a business is not easy. There are a lot of struggles, hard work and effort needed in order to be successful,” he says.
Thinking he had made it was dangerous. A second tragedy struck and he found himself homeless for the second time in four years thanks to his new business venture.
“I lost my apartment because the business was not making money as often as I needed it to. Sometimes clients didn’t pay on time and I was in trouble.”
With nowhere to go again, he moved into a tiny storeroom and slept on boxes.
“It was difficult. I put my things in the small storeroom of a building I used to stay in. The building manager was kind enough to let me keep all my things there. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom at night. I was forced to hold it in, [urine] in a container or run to the roof of the building,” he says.
“People in Johannesburg only like people when things are well. I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me so I pretended as if everything was okay.”
The pressure of survival in the big city and the confines of a storeroom did not stifle his dream.
“No one ever knew I had no place to stay. I even hosted the launch for my company and I was hungry in the stomach but my brain was full of hope.”
“I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t about to stop.  I would go to a gym, close by, to bath every single day and no one knew. If you have a vision you have to keep going no matter what.”
Hard work prevailed and five years later he has swapped the storeroom for an apartment in Kyalami, north of Johannesburg.
Dyosiba not only hosts events packed tighter than two coats of paint but he is a businessman and TV actor. He has featured in TV shows such as ‘Tempy Pushas’ and ‘My Girl D’.
Oyama Management Agency has 37 fulltime employees and many more on contract.
When the agency first started, it concentrated on model and artist management. The company has grown over the years to include event planning and hosting events such as polo matches, brand activations, fashion shows and the music festivals.
He works with models such as Devon Muir and fashion designers who dress celebrities such as Weza Solange, Nomuzi Mabena and Dineo Moeketsi.
He knows the industry and is streetwise.
“I have turned down five clients this month alone because where there is no money there is no Oyama. In business you have to be strict. If you want the best job then you have to pay for it,” he says.
He counts Vodacom, Coca-Cola, MTN, beMOBILE and Peroni among clients.
“When clients trust you and know that you will deliver, it becomes easier because you get to a point where you don’t have to approach them and they approach you,” he says.
Fashion designer Quiteria Kekana of Quiteria&amp;George says Dyosiba is a shrewd businessman who never gives up.
“There are a lot of artists he works with. He also organizes a lot of events around Africa and they are always a success. He hosted a Fashion Without Borders event and people in the industry were all talking about it. It was a success, a big success.”
According to Kekana, Dyosiba’s models score big contracts and some of them appear on national TV.
If nothing, Dyosiba’s story proves that with a brain full of hope you can fill the stomach, no matter how cold it is on the bench.

Tag: Braamfontein

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Valiant Cause Losing Its Way

“I Was Hungry In My Stomach But My Brain Was Full Of Hope”