Archives of neofascism Charting student historical debt in a neoliberal university in South Africa

The 2021 academic year in South Africa opened in March with a yet another number of student protests. These protests were geared towards what has now been popularly known as ‘historical debt’ with reference to student university fees. Mobilized through social media and other channels, these protests started at University of Witwatersrand (Wits University) and quickly spread to other universities in the country, including the University of Cape Town. It is important to foreground that historical debt as holding back registration for the 2021 academic year was one the main drivers of this protest. Historical debt is particularly of significant concern in post-colonial/apartheid South Africa. Indeed, NSFAS is supposed to cover qualifying student fees but sometimes doesn’t cover the total. And therefore, historical debt is ‘the portion of tuition the [NSFAS] students must pay on their own.