Abstract
Scholars agree that the rise of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has altered South Africa’s political landscape since its inception in 2013. Its Student Command (EFFSC) has made similar pathways in student politics at institutions of higher learning, particularly in formal Student Representative Councils (SRCs) across the country, although little research exists on this level of EFF politics. The EFFSC played an important role in the trajectory and aftermath of the Fees Must Fall movement of 2015 and 2016, which critiqued the lingering colonial nature of education, knowledge production and patriarchy. Scholars have further argued that the EFF subscribes to a masculine style of politics, evident in its choice of military attire and often clumsy grasp of how gender configures within its class and race analyses of the current crisis of neoliberal capitalism. However, no research exists on how instances of sexism play out within EFFSC branches or the emerging black radical feminist politics within its ranks. Focusing on a particular EFFSC branch, this study attempted to understand how gender justice configures within the student party’s struggles for ‘free education’ and ‘economic freedom’ and how the specific social processes which shape these expressions encourage or inhibit the scope for feminist politics in the EFF and EFFSC...
M.A. (Development Studies)