I OBSERVED with horror on the ENCA television news programme on September 7 that the law library at Howard College had been set alight.
The next morning I visited the scene of the fire and the destruction it wrought. With other persons who used and occupied the building, I wept. I was informed that student protesters had set fire to the northeast façade of the law library housed in the historic and architecturally magnificent Howard College Building.
Although the fire was contained, serious damage was done to this very special building, but from what I was able to ascertain there was no significant damage to the main collection of books.
I, as an emeritus professor of public law, have used this library with its superb and extensive collection of books and other materials for more than 30 years. To me it is a secular temple. I used it to prepare lectures, to write the books I have authored and while I was assisting in drafting the Interim Constitution at the Multi-party Negotiation Process in 1993, I used material to draft certain clauses in this constitution, on which our extant Constitution was based.
The Howard law library contains one of the most comprehensive collections of law materials in the country and the law library building won an architectural prize. It is part of the heritage of all South Africans and an incomparable resource of which we can all be proud. Its damage is a source of profound pain for all those who use it and value it. This act of uninhibited arson and vandalism is morally inexcusable and must be condemned in no uncertain terms.
Section 17 of the Constitution gives everyone the right, peacefully and unarmed to assemble, to demonstrate and prevent petitions. This provision does not permit violent acts, such as arson and destruction of property. In a High Court judgment in acting superintendent-general of education of KwaZulu-Natal vs Ngubo, it was held that the right to assemble and demonstrate impliedly extended no further than what was necessary to convey the demonstrators’ message. The Court held that it was not possible to conceive of any situation where the right to assemble and demonstrate could be so extensive as to justify harassment, delicts or criminal acts. Democracy must be distinguished from conduct that constitutes mob rule.
There are very serious problems relating to the funding of higher education in South Africa. In this regard the students at tertiary institutions do indeed have very legitimate grievances. However, they do their cause and the country great harm by resorting to acts of violence and destroying resources which exist for their use and upliftment. This is irrational and cannot be condoned. The starting of a fire in a residence for disabled students on Tuesday in Durban, is also irrational and shows an intense callous disregard for the lives and safety of inmates that all right thinking persons will find incomprehensible. The same applies to, inter alia, the arson of the student café at Howard College, the fire at the examination hall on the Pietermaritzburg campus and destruction of vehicles on the Westville campus.
Although the criminal law must take its course and the culprits must be apprehended and prosecuted in accordance with the justice system, it is of fundamental importance that the university authorities continue to engage with the student leadership and students to find acceptable solutions to the problems in higher education. This also applies to the Department of Higher Education, the Minister of Education and his officials.
SA is a country of infinite potential and great resources. All the role players must commit themselves to engagement and finding mutually acceptable solutions to problems without resorting to violence and destruction This will require good will on the part of all concerned and efforts in this regard will have to be redoubled. Unfortunately, there however appear to be some radicals in the student leadership who do not want to find solutions, but have a powerful political agenda to cause maximum disruption and anarchy. As a nation we cannot allow them to destroy a process of meaningful negotiation which will bring about a peaceful process of transformation of higher education and other pressing problems in South Africa.
George Devenish
Emeritus professor at UKZN, and one of the scholars who assisted in drafting the interim constitution in 1993
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