This article focuses on the #FeesMustFall (FMF) movement and the question of a human rights culture. It provides evidence from the specific context of FMF at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, which exposes human rights abuses and violence to the dignity of protesting students. To advance a human rights culture within the higher education sector in the context of FMF, the article highlights the role of theology – ‘indecent theology’ (as espoused by Marcella Althaus-Reid) – in revealing the problem and promise of higher education institutions in the quest for a more liberating and responsible society. It is only through interrogating the narratives that sustain the current university structures – and continue to oppress the poor and the marginalised – that South Africa will be able to begin to construct a society that is respective of the rights of all.
Human rights are universal to all people; however, while legislation may provide for the protection of rights, it does not guarantee that these rights are experienced by all people. Instead, what is needed is the development of a culture that is protective and respective of the human rights of all. The recently published
Ishay (
human rights are rights held by individuals simply because they are part of the human species. They are rights shared equally by everyone regardless of sex, race, nationality, and economic background, they are universal in content. (p. 2)
The idea of human rights is one that recognises the individual moral agency of each person as well as showing concern for their vulnerability (Palm
However, while human rights are enshrined within legislation such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, simply legalising rights is not enough to ensure that they become part of the lived reality of all people (Gibson
Despite having extensive and sophisticated legislature providing protection for all people, South Africans are still experiencing violations of their human rights on an everyday basis (Palm
The responsibility for building a human rights culture is one that lies with all, including civil society organisations and universities. The recent
The declaration opens by stating that ‘we believe that higher education institutions exist to serve and to foster relationships with the society and communities of which they are a part’ (Talloires Network
In the recent FMF protests, this has not been evident in institutional culture. The fees protests have predominantly comprised of students, with some concerned staff and community members, who have been calling for free, decolonised, Afrocentric, quality tertiary education for all. The movement also includes in its aims an end to rape culture and an end to the outsourcing of university workers. Booysen (
In light of this, there have been some creative attempts to fulfil the responsibility of creating universities as spaces respective of human rights culture. However, these attempts have been initiated by civil society groups and theologians, and not the university institutions per se, in an attempt to support the students’ call for advancing a human rights culture on university campuses. One such attempt was a theological study document entitled
Drawing on the South African theological praxis tradition of ‘kairos theology’,
The document was made available in October 2016, after the first wave of protests that took place at the beginning of 2016, and in the midst of the second wave of protests taking place in the second semester of the year. In the document, we can see the FMF protests framed in theological language that attempts to speak prophetically into the midst of the higher education crisis in South Africa. The document comprises five sections. The first section, ‘We acknowledge’, states what has happened, noting the pain, frustration and anger of black students as well as acknowledging the systems that have caused this pain (The Callists
Furthermore, the intention of the authors is for the document to be circulated widely and endorsed by members of the theological community within and beyond the higher education sector around the country and the world. In doing this, the document becomes part of the public discourse. It was made publically available for download,
A theologian who is helpful in highlighting the importance of developing a human rights culture, as well as demonstrating the results should it not happen, is Marcella Althaus-Reid in her work,
Furthermore, this theology is attempting to strip away the layers of mythology that sustain the constructions of what is decent and what is indecent. Althaus-Reid (
Indecent Theology is the opposite to a sexual canonical theology, concerned with the regulation of amatory practices justified as normative by economic infrastructural models where anything outside hegemonic patriarchal heterosexuality is devalued and spiritually alienated. (p. 9)
It attempts to give voice to, and tell the stories of, those on the margins of society while reflecting critically on issues of faith from this perspective. Her argument is that every theology, regardless of its parameters, will consciously or unconsciously project a sexual praxis that codifies acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in society (Althaus-Reid
Moving from but also beyond her immediate sexuality frame, Althaus-Reid (
The work of Althaus-Reid in interrogating established narratives and recreating alternate ones will provide valuable insight into ways of interrogating the already established fees narrative. Furthermore, her work will inform the creation of new narratives that, instead of representing powerful voices, can represent the voices of the marginalised who in this case are the students. In order to explore this, themes will be drawn out of Althaus-Reid’s
Throughout her work, Althaus-Reid (
Furthermore, Althaus-Reid (
Another theme that can be drawn out of the work of Althaus-Reid (
As a result, she concludes that the inclusion of a body dimension in theology is important in the act of theological analysis (Althaus-Reid
In light of the theological work of Marcella Althaus-Reid (
Jane Duncan (
The report also offers opinion on the use of force in protests. It says that ‘force shall not be used unless it is strictly unavoidable, and if applied it must be done in accordance with international human rights law’ (Human Rights Council
The constitutional law scholar, Pierre De Vos (
Pillay (
The moral construction of this narrative is then that the university is in the right, while the protestors are in the wrong. In light of an interdict, all protest that happens after the legislation is attained is then illegal and therefore wrong – at least inside the university premises. Furthermore, this type of narrative constructs a dialogue that implies that if all protest that takes place when there is an interdict is wrong, then the protest and what is being protested must be wrong too. If it is wrong, then the protestors no longer need to be listened to and any means used to prevent them protesting is justified. The court interdict gives birth to the creation of a grand narrative that frames the university as having the moral power to suppress, and silence, illegal protests. This narrative is created as a binary with the university being portrayed as right and the students as wrong. By framing the discourse as a binary, the grand narrative fails to take into account the complexity of the FMF protests and its relationship with the university.
condemns violence against women in all its forms, including physical, sexual, and psychological. Rape and sexual abuse are a grave violation of women’s human rights and are never justified. The University does not condone any form of brutality to any sector of society including students. (Van Jaarsveld
In light of Althaus-Reid’s (
However, in this instance, critical theological reflection using Althaus-Reid’s (
Such domination extends to the narrative of the student raped. The university issued a statement which contained a condemnation of rape and violence against women. However, the paragraph in which this condemnation is given is under the heading ‘Erroneous reporting of an alleged rape’ (Van Jaarsveld
The newspaper articles published about the rape use the same language describing an ‘alleged’ rape, as well as reporting the university’s official stance that the rape occurred off-campus (see Singh
This is just one among many instances where the introduction of a court interdict into the university community has brought with it circumstances and consequences violating to those in the community. This invalidation is in itself a violation of the integrity and dignity of protesting students and in no way contributes to the creation of a human rights culture on the university campus.
Most people will agree that human rights are important; however, these rights are not always experienced in the lived reality of all people. As a result, what is needed is the development of a culture that is respective and protective of the rights of all people. The recent
as long as such protests remain peaceful and as long as they pose no immediate threat to persons or property, it is morally unconscionable to use force to break them up – no matter how inconvenient the protest may be for others. (p. 1)
The contribution of Indecent Theology to this discussion is in the critical analysis of the human rights abuses. Through the lens of this theology, the construction of narratives that contribute to the abuse of rights becomes obvious. It becomes clear that the court interdict created a narrative that placed the university in the position of moral justifiability while placing the protesters in opposition to this. This narrative also allowed the university to justify increasing security and bringing police onto campus. These acts caused the increase in violence on campus, with the violent suppression of the many non-violent and creative protest initiatives undertaken by FMF. Furthermore, the construction of a narrative that denied the rape of a student at the university served to add another layer of violation to what had already taken place. This violation, and the manner in which the narrative was framed, caused the silencing of someone whose rights had already been violated. The conclusion that can be reached is that there have been abuses of human rights that have been evident in the FMF protest with very little evidence of a human rights respective culture within the culture of university institutions.
Using the language of liberation theology, and in light of the Indecent Theology analysis conducted above, it is clear that theological affirmation of the FMF students is needed. If God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed (Boff & Boff
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
L.G. and C.L.B. equally contributed to the research and writing of this article.
For more in depth analysis of the emergence of human rights, see Ishay (2008) and Cmiel (
For more on Kairos Theology, see Nolan (
Available at:
See official communication from UKZN (Seshoka
See South African Constitution Chapter 2, section 25.
Authors such as Slavoj Ẑiẑek and Giorgio Agamben reflect helpfully on the failure of democracy and the contemporary state of permanent economic crisis that most of the world is experiencing. Furthermore, they reflect on the use of power to impose the perspective of the owners of capital onto the populace. This is part of the macro-reality within which the FMF movement takes place.
It should be noted that the court interdict remains in place, available to the university to use should they wish to do so. Furthermore, the results of this interdict are still being experienced by students who are facing court charges as well as financial and academic exclusion from the university as a result of being interdicted. See also the petition calling for the university to protect these students from a ruined future: