#FeesMustFall

One thing people must understand is that money does not grow from the trees.  We all struggle to get from point A to B. All universities are ridiculously expensive and not all guardians and students wishing to further their education can afford it. This is where the #FeesMustFall campaign started. 

It started last year in Mid-October at the University Of Witwatersrand then quickly spread to the University of Cape town and continued to spread to most of the Universities across the country.

By the time this started in The University of Johannesburg, it was everywhere. In all social networks, all over the news, not just in South Africa but  a number of other countries all over the world. All universities were protesting and some others were even shut down because other people ended up being hurt during the protests. This led to other Universities, including UJ to postpone exams as it was the time for writing our finals. Assignments could not be submitted because there was a whole lot of confusion during that time.

The #FeesMustFall campaign was partially a good thing. It raised awareness to the issue of fees. They started realizing that it is a lot of money we are paying to increase on that. That would mean other students having to drop out because of not affording to pay their tuition fees. It’s not only tuition fees, some others travel to get to school, its textbooks, Res for people like me, who are foreigners. Our nation needs education, and for that to happen #FeesMustFall.

The youth of South Africa must be heard. All these things were trending and everyone was in agreement with it. This gave people opportunities to say their views on this and fight for their educational rights since we all know that Education is the Key to Success. This was for a good course though because the increment ended up not being there and this year more bursaries from the government are being issued out. That means, more people are being educated.

Everyone must have access to education. Freedom includes Education. We all have a right to Freedom.

#SayNoToXenophobia

As we all know, xenophobia is just the fear of having strangers or foreigners invading in your country. Some others say they take their jobs, some say they bring crime into the country. The last xenophic attack in South Africa took place last year April. It started in Durban when King Zwelithini took out an order and said all foreigners should pack their bags and go. The people misunderstood him to be saying they must kick foreigners out of the country using violence.

This was when the social media buzzed and all these hashtags started. I personally say no to Xenophobia because I am a foreigner myself looking for greener pastures. I was part of the #SayNoToXenophobia campaign. No one deserves to be tortured, beaten and burnt. These hashtags were on every social media and billboards all over South Africa. People were also protesting against the xenophobic movement against foreigners.

The #SayNoToXenophobia campaign influenced people to stop the attacks because some others were not aware of what was happening and how many foreigners were being killed. So the more people saw this on these campaigns, the protests and hashtags from the news it made it easy for the word to spread and for more people to be aware.

The hashtags gave the PRPs a medium to communicate with the public since they were also receiving feedback on their thoughts. Everyone could say what they felt and solutions on how to stop these attacks because no human could ever wish for something like that to happen to anyone, well at least those with a cautious. Not to say that the #SayNoToXenophobia campaign was not effective, but some people decided to only support it online and not to take any action.

As the Bible says in the book of Exodus 22:21 “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt." So no one has the right to mistreat anyone even if the order was said by the king himself. It was still wrong. Imagine the lives that people lost, nothing can be done to bring them back. It happened, it passed. Let there be no repeat of it. As Nelson Mandela says “I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself”.

No one can control your country for you, be hardworking, invest in landed properties & commerce #SayNoToXenophobia.