South Africa’s local government elections this year showed a mass disaffection with the ruling African National Congress. Nevertheless, there seems to be little positive support for the myriad of uninspiring opposition parties. Black youth themselves, especially students, seem to have become a new force in South African politics. The #FeesMustFall campaign, made internationally famous with its #RhodesMustFall protests, spread from the University of Witwatersrand to the University of Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg and even – perhaps ironically – to Rhodes. Are young people a force for change as they were in the past? What is the future for South Africa in the wake of the ANC’s decline?
Filmed at the Battle of Ideas, speakers include: Sharmini Brookes, freelance writer and blogger based in Johannesburg, contributor Artslink and spiked; Lindsay Johns, writer and broadcaster, (non-residential) Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African-American Research at Harvard University; Matthew Kruger, PhD law student, formerly, legal researcher, Helen Suzman Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa. The chair is Dr Jennifer Cunningham, recently retired paediatrician, author, The end of apartheid?