Media Statement

The African National Congress (ANC) congratulates the South African Students’ Congress (SASCO) on its 33rd anniversary. SASCO was formed as a non-racial students’ organisation, at a congress held from 1 – 6 September 1991, through a merger of the South African National Student Congress (SANSCO) and National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

The timing of SASCO’s founding in 1991 served as a strategic curtain raiser for the non-racial and democratic future that the national liberation movement sought to cultivate in a democratic South Africa. Accordingly, the ANC commends the work that SASCO has spearheaded for the past 33 years in galvanising the students in the Higher Education sector behind the vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and prosperous national democratic society.

Moreover, the 33rd anniversary celebration of SASCO also coincides with the centenary commemoration of the student movement in South Africa. From the days of the defiance campaign, strikes, student boycotts and stay-aways from school and work in protest against racist laws meant to oppress black people politically and economically; the students’ movement has always entrenched itself within struggles for freedom and democracy. By so doing, the students’ movement asserted itself as part of the revolutionary forces struggling for a more just society and carved out a strategic role for the revolutionary intelligentsia in defining the politics of each epoch.

The current generation of the revolutionary students’ movement has a duty to discover a strategic role for SASCO in the current era that the national democratic revolution finds itself in. This includes a critical role in theoretical efforts to define the current political moment, and the need to generate a cohesive ideological framework for the entire liberation movement to safeguard the national democratic revolution.

The ANC would like to wish SASCO a revolutionary celebration that charts the path for the coming generations of leaders and we implore upon them to ensure that they stay steadfast, resilient, militant and relevant in students struggles and in protecting the advance of the national democratic revolution.

Amandla!