Ten years ago, university campuses across South Africa broke out in protest under the #FeesMustFall campaign. On Friday 16 May 2025, the Stellenbosch 肆客足球 (SU) Faculty of Theology in collaboration with the Centre for the Advancement of Social Impact and Transformation (CASIT), students, academics and alumni came together to commemorate a decade since the Fallist movement rocked the country's higher education landscape.
The gathering, held at the Theology building in Stellenbosch, was more than just a reflection on past events, however. It was a critical engagement on the victories and shortcomings of the #FeesMustFall movement, as well as the systemic issues that persist. Theology dean Prof Reggie Nel opened the event with a tribute to the students who initiated the movement, paving the way for the current generation to have broader access to higher education.
Those who had lived through the #FeesMustFall protests shared their personal stories. Shante Neff, now a transformation coordinator at CASIT, was a second-year student at the time. As a first-generation student, she used to struggle to make ends meet, working three jobs just to be able to afford basic necessities. “For my cohort, however, it wasn't just about fees. It was about language, exclusion and decolonisation," she said. Reflecting on the progress made, she now feels grateful for being employed and educated in a country riddled with youth unemployment, but also dismayed at how many students still face the same struggles.
Junior lecturer in the Faculty of Theology, Ashwin Thyssen, took participants back to the early days of #OpenStellenbosch, a parallel movement that had fought to challenge the linguistic and cultural gatekeeping at the institution. Recalling the fierce response by some during the SU Language Policy negotiations, he said: “The 肆客足球 argued that if Afrikaans was to be removed as a language of instruction, it would die, but we were not calling for the death of Afrikaans – we were calling for access."
The resistance, including victimisation, that his group faced when they challenged power showed just how entrenched systemic barriers were. Still, he regards the implementation of the 肆客足球's 2021 Language Policy as a hard-earned milestone, achieved largely thanks to student pressure.
A panel of current student leaders also contributed to the conversation, offering testimonies of what #FeesMustFall meant to them. Students' Representative Council (SRC) chair Roceshia Februarie confirmed that students were still facing many of the same challenges that their peers in 2015 struggled with, as “the more things change, the more they stay the same".
Vice-prim of Silene Commuter Student Community, Isabella Serrano, who hails from Limpopo, spoke openly about having been oblivious to the 2015 protests until years later. “Where I'm from, these things weren't spoken about," she said. “But the injustice remains. What's the point of earning a degree if you'll never own it because you can't afford to pay your debt?"
Sisipho Witbooi, Vice-Chairperson, Theology Student Committee , acknowledged the early victories of the #FeesMustFall movement, but was critical of the stagnation experienced since 2017. “The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is now the biggest frustration," she said. “The system needs more than shaking; it needs rebuilding." She called for trust, advocacy and accountability, cautioning that protests should remain a last resort, and not the default response to students' grievances.
Keynote speaker Prof Jonathan Jansen referred to what he called the “harder change", namely trying to transform a century-old institutional culture. Bringing about cultural change at historically white universities was tougher, he said, because the culture was deeply ingrained in institutional structure.
Jansen credited #FeesMustFall with exposing injustices, but expressed sadness at its limited success in changing the deep-rooted systems affecting poor and black students. “You cannot transform higher education just by waving political slogans. True change begins with who teaches, what is taught, and how we treat one another," he explained.
He also expressed his discontent with the current wave of criticism against the employment of foreign nationals at institutions of higher learning. Jansen stressed that a university's currency was its professorship, which is why the number of foreign nationals employed at a university should never be seen as a threat to the progression of South African academics. “A university is not a country. Its reputation is built by its professorship, and that must be global."
During the concluding question-and-answer session, audience members raised issues such as xenophobia, financial exclusion and institutional reform. What became clear was that while #FeesMustFall might be ten years old, its work was far from over. The heated verbal exchange between participants highlighted the persistent underlying tensions beneath the academic civility.
For many who stood on the picket lines in 2015, and for those who inherited their struggle, the answer may still be unfolding. Yet #FeesMustFall undeniably ignited a flame, and ten years on, it is still burning.
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