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Fact sheet

SASSFE (South Africa Student Solidarity Foundation for Education) is a Fund started by a group of concerned former student leaders in South Africa, spanning many generations.

SASSFE

During the 1970’s and 1980’s black students studying at historically white universities in South Africa established Black Student Societies (BSS), which were elected bodies aimed at representing the specific interests of black students who at the time, due to apartheid policies, constituted an artificial minority on so-called white campuses.

Typically the BSS and SRC structures worked closely together in uniting black and white students in anti-apartheid campaigns guided by the overall vision of a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.

The roots of this approach lay in Steve Biko and Barney Pityana’s decision in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s to lead black students out of the National Union of South African Students (Nusas) to establish the South African Students Organisation (SASO).

In 1991, the BSS and SRC’s decided to form united representative structures on the historically white campuses.

At the same time, Nusas and Sansco (Saso’s successor organization) merged to form the South African Students Congress (Sasco).

Board of Trustees of SASSFE

  • Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, the Archbishop of Cape Town – Chairperson
  • Retired Judge of the Constitutional Court, Richard Goldstone
  • Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Judge Azhar Cachalia
  • Professor of Mathematics and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa, Mamokgethi Phakeng

Management Committee of SASSFE and the Wits Chapter of SASSFE

  • Tiego Moseneke (Chairperson) – Wits Black Student Society (BSS) President 1983
  • Firoz Cachalia - Wits Black Student Society (BSS) President 1980
  • Themba Maseko - Wits Black Student Society (BSS) President 1986 and 1987
  • Terry Tselane - Wits Black Student Society (BSS) President 1988
  • Moss Mashishi – Wits South African Tertiary Institutions Sports Council (Satisco) President 1988
  • Kenneth Creamer – Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) President 1991/2
  • Linda Vilakazi – Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) President 1992/3
  • Tebogo Thothela - Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) President 2012/3
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