ABSTRACT
Although South Africa attained political independence in 1994, the country remains one of the most unequal globally, with most black people confronting the triple socioeconomic challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. In a context marked by racial and gerontocratic structures, young black people have been pushed to the margins of the country’s political and economic landscapes. However, young people have not remained passive victims of structural forces that marginalise them. In this chapter, the authors examine the ways in which student protests have become productive spaces in which we can begin to unpack and theorise youth agency in South Africa. The authors assert that Rhodes-Must-Fall and Fees-Must-Fall movements signify the failure to transform the structural remnants of apartheid on and beyond university campus spaces. Through these movements, student activists’ concerns transcend campus-based struggles but include broader societal struggles hinging on racism, poverty and inequality, which are legacies of apartheid.
