UNIVERSITY OF DURBAN-WESTVILLE

major hurdle to overcome. Second and third year classes were much smaller (around 15)
in size. Lecturers at this level were more competent in with regards to subject matter.
Although in many cases the antagonism between students and lecturers was still present,
the students who had managed to proceed past first year achieved academic success in
the subsequent years.
Political activities on the campuses grew in the 1970's. The students collectively
protested the political and social conditions in the country. There were confrontations
(in the form of boycotts, strikes, mass meetings, disruption of the university work
programme, closure of the university and even violence on the campuses) between
students and the university management. However the university administration had the
backing of the state and its security forces and students paid a high price for their
involvement in politics. Bawa had several spells in jail for his political activities and
lost many years of study. Mokhele challenged the vice-chancellor at a mass meeting and
the following year was refused admission to the university. Nevhutalu made changes to
subject choices when they knew that lecturers would fail them without reason. Even
those who were not directly involved still experienced the anger of the institution in the
form of lecturers attitudes to students after a boycott or the way an examination
timetable was drawn up after the examinations had to be shifted because of student
boycott. With the closure of campuses students were often unsure whether or not they
would complete their studies. During these periods of disruption some participants were
able to continue working on their own while others found the atmosphere unsettling.
Some participants failed some of their subjects because they could not focus on studies
during the disruptions.
The state and institutional administration had tremendous power over the students.
These participants had to negotiate the limited intellectual skills and racist attitudes of
lecturers who tried to under-develop them and an institutional culture that tolerated no
opposition from the students. During the 1970's and 1980's black South African
universities had a more political than intellectual culture.
In most cases there were one or two black lecturers on campus (not necessarily in
science) who inspired students to go further and made them want to pursue further
studies. There were other black lecturers who, maybe, feeling that they would lose their
feeling of specialness if there were more blacks in their domain, also did mean things
and tried to discourage students from studying further. There were a few white lecturers
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