Social Analysis, Volume 54, Issue 3, Winter 2010, 47–63 © Berghahn Journals doi:10.3167/sa.2010.540303 ‘BURYING THE ANC’ Post-apartheid Ambiguities at the University of Limpopo, South Africa Bjarke Oxlund Abstract: Based on an in-depth analysis of the events that took place during a single day at the University of Limpopo, this article makes con- nections between current and past events in arguing that post-apartheid South Africa is underpinned by several layers of ambiguity. At one level the article seeks to demonstrate the continuing relevance of situational analysis as a research paradigm, while at another level it attempts to provide a fresh look at the dominant cleavage in South African society that was identified by Max Gluckman in 1940. Drawing on a mock funeral held for government-aligned student organizations in October 2006, which revealed strains and uncertainties in South Africa’s post- apartheid society, the intent is to show how the government’s failure to secure service delivery has created new lines of contestation. Keywords: activism, ambiguities, apartheid, extended case, situational analysis, student politics, University of Limpopo In late October 2006, two days after the elections held for the Students Repre- sentative Council (SRC) at the University of Limpopo, the youth wing and the student arm of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) 1 were symbolically buried in an ironic re-enactment of the funeral processions normally accorded to fallen heroes of the struggle against apartheid. The funeral was organized by members of the Pan-Africanist Student Movement of Azania (PASMA), the student wing of the Pan-African Convention, to celebrate their electoral vic- tory over the better-resourced ANC. Although the event played on a humorous and ironic symbolism, it soon proved to reveal a number of serious tensions and ambiguities underlying post-apartheid South African society. The students at this former ‘Bantu institution’, which was reserved for the black population only during apartheid, still struggle to carve out a path for themselves. They question an ANC movement that is divided and has failed to deliver on its