CPUT protests - The irony of it all

Spent half the week covering the student protests
at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
No 'great' photos... please believe that.

Anyway, admittedly, I don't usually write socially informative articles.
This time, may be no different, but I'm one who cannot ignore irony and hypocrisy.
The protests? The protesters, themselves?
Drenched in hypocrisy.
Soaked to the bone.

I can understand their plight, to a certain extent.
Unhappy with the proposed registration fee increase -
an increase of about R2000.
Again, understandable, at first.

Between the chants of 'Amandla', the rubber bullets, the bricks, the broken glass -
there's a 'sick' feeling in my stomach.
Not swine flu. No,
I've just seen the leaders of this protest climb out of BMW X5's and other luxurious automobiles.
But, um, comrades...

Yeah, that's another thing... all this pre-democratic SA, 'struggle', lingo.
The protesters reply to Amandla every 10 seconds, and are all referred to as comrades.
The protest referred to as, 'The Struggle'.
The irony, of course, is that as soon as they see a photographer,
they attempt to halt his/her work.
Because, of course, the media is evil...
You want to get attention, that's why you're protesting.
You want people, everywhere, to see that you're not playing around.
That you don't agree with the fee increase.
In fact, there's a brick, let's throw it.
But, please, don't take our picture,
because that'll make our protest more effective.
Great guys, just great.
Genius, in fact.

Enjoy the leather seats.

(*photographic rant over*)

© Luke Daniel