SASC, Dem Club Collect Goods

A three-week-old drive to collect clothing and educational aids for a Tanzanian school run by the African National Congress (ANC) raised several thousand dollars worth of goods, organizers said yesterday.

The campaign, run by the South Africa Solidarity Committee (SASC) and the Harvard-Radcliffe Democrats, resulted in the collection of hundreds of books, many bags of clothing, as well as a typewriter and several calculators.

The Harvard donations will be sent to South African refugees in a Tanzanian college later this month along with goods collected at Boston University last spring.

More than 20 members of the two organizations have worked since November 3 to solicit the donations in House dining halls, said Jeff Behrens '89, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Democrats.

John N. Ross '87, who coordinated the drive for SASC, estimated that the material would have been worth more than $10,000 if new.

For Refugee College

The recipient, the Solomon Malanghu Freedom College, is the only school exclusively set aside for South African refugees, said Temba Vilikazi, a representative of the ANC.

Vilikazi said that educational aid is a vital means of supporting the struggle against apartheid. "A revolution does not really end or perhaps even begin with the political struggle," he said.

"It takes a lot of work to develop a free government. This kind of drive has very long-term ramifications," Vilikazi said. "We hope the students will utilize the skills or knowledge they obtain in a future free South Africa."

Ross said that drives for educational material were important because so many young people have fled South Africa because of the unrest around the schools there.

"Education is power. That's why it's the focus of the struggle in South Africa," Ross said.

Behrens said he was "glad that students responded to the real need for Black South Africans to be educated. It shows well that a lot of students on this campus do care."

Both Ross and Behrens said that the drive drew students who were not normally active in the activism against apartheid.

"The drive addressed a concern that a whole range of students from very liberal to very conservative can support," Behrens said.

"[The drive] is an avenue for people who are not activists but are interested in the war for Black people in South Africa," Vilikazi said.