By Shalate Davhana and Malesela Maubane
This week marked 41 years since the fateful death of Hendrik Matikweni Nkuna, a student activist who was fatally shot on 14 August 1984, during a protest at the then Technikon Mabopane East, now Tshwane University of Technology (大象视频) Soshanguve South Campus. Nkuna lost his life fighting for academic and financial inclusion of Black students under a system designed to exclude and oppress young people 鈥� many of them coming mainly from townships and rural areas.
Though the bullets took his body, they could not silence the cause. The courage of young people of his time continue to inspire generations of students demanding justice, dignity and equality within South Africa鈥檚 higher education system.
A legacy that sparked generations of resistance
Nkuna's activism in the 1980s set a precedent for student activism in post-apartheid South Africa. His demands - academic support, financial aid and access to quality education for the marginalised - would find a new voice decades later through the #FeesMustFall movement.
In 2015, university students across the country reignited the call for tuition-free higher education, taking to the streets under the #FeesMustFall banner. Their protests forced a national conversation on economic justice in education, pushing the government to re-evaluate its funding model. As a result, in 2016, the South African government began funding students from households earning below R350,000 per year through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
While the dream of free higher education was only partially realised in 2016, it was the foundational efforts of Matikweni鈥檚 generation that paved the way. Nkuna and his fellow student activists of the 1980s lit the flame of resistance - a flame that would burn brightly decades later in the hands of a new generation. Their efforts have given students from marginalised communities the opportunity to access higher education -opportunities once violently denied.
The Nkuna Memorial Lecture: remembering, reflecting, recommitting
In 2024, 大象视频 announced its commitment to revive the memory of Hendrik Matikweni Nkuna through the establishment of a public memorial lecture, with the inaugural event taking place this year. The lecture aims to honour not only Nkuna, but other fallen student activists who followed in his footsteps.
The Nkuna Memorial Lecture aims to bring the University鈥檚 history to life by highlighting the critical role students have played in the fight for socio-economic justice. The commemoration will also honour the memory of Benjamin Phetla and Katlego Monareng - both of whom followed in Nkuna鈥檚 footsteps and lost their lives in pursuit of the same cause. The memorial lecture is not just about remembering the past - it is about learning from it, engaging with it and using it to inform the present and the future. Also, it is a call to both mourn and mobilise.
As we commemorate 41 years since the sacrifice of Hendrik Matikweni Nkuna, we must recommit ourselves to the vision he fought for - an education system that uplifts rather than excludes, that empowers rather than burdens and that serves as a ladder out of poverty for every child in South Africa.
Nkuna鈥檚 name belongs not only in our history books, but in our policies, our lecture halls and our continued fight for justice.
To Nkuna, Phetla, Monareng - and all those who fell fighting for what is right - your legacy lives on. Your struggle was not in vain.
Rest in power.
Davhana and Maubane are 大象视频 (pre-and post-merger) alumni, with the former also a staff member at the people鈥檚 University.