Fasiha Hassan

Fasiha Hassan (born 26 November 1993) is a South African politician and former student activist. She has represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly since June 2024 and formerly represented the party in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature between 2019 and 2024. She rose to national prominence as a student at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she was secretary general of the student representative council during the #FeesMustFall student protests of 2016. Quotes I mean, so many people think that activism is only about politics, but you can be an activist in any circle in any space that you're in - and I really want to drive that message home. You don't have to be in mainstream politics, you don't have to belong to a political party. It really is about being active in your society and in your community, and even taking what you're good at and what you love, and finding a way to give back to society using that in a very empowering sort of way. So for me, youth activism is fundamental to South Africa, it's fundamental to fixing South Africa. And most importantly it's fundamental to us as young people organizing, so that no longer are we going to be left out of the conversation and left out of the decision making process. It's about really just centering us in our own lives, really. Youth Activism in South Africa, you know, you can't actually dissociate the two. The history of struggle and the history of South Africa, particularly at key moments, has always been led by young people. You can think of recent examples, 1976, you can even trace it all the way back down now, in the most recent example, to Fees Must Fall, which is really where I sort of cut my activism teeth, so to speak. So for me, it's fundamental. It's particularly important because in a country like ours, the majority of the population is under the age of 35. And so in almost any scientific idea of representation, of activism, of issues, we as young people should be the centre and the focus of it. Therefore that means us getting involved in our communities and getting active. Yeah, so being being an MPL- this is the the more personal stuff. For me, my passions are of course around skills. Firstly, education. As much as Fees Must Fall pushed us into the higher education space, the Portfolio Committee I actually sit in on is Basic Education - so that's one of the big things. We'll all agree that education is a crisis in the country, but also something we need to focus on. My second biggest passion, and perhaps actually something that I focus more on, is around youth unemployment and creating meaningful opportunities for young people. I do that both in my capacity as an MPL and in my capacity as Chairperson of the Economic Development Portfolio Committee, but also as a youth activist and leader. There's nobody sitting in this country, or outside of it, who can say that youth unemployment is not a national crisis. It is a national crisis, and it's something that we have to take extremely seriously. If every single one of us were focused on bringing an end to structural inequality and structural unemployment, I think we'd be seeing a very different outlook and outcome in the current phase. I think that's why it has become such a big part of my passion. External links Category:Living people