A Brief History of ACTS
From the ACTS Identity document:
The Association of Catholic Tertiary Students was founded in Johannesburg in December 1993 when both CASA (Catholic Students Association) and NCFS (National Catholic Federation of Students) were dissolved.
Initially, NCFS was the only Catholic student body in South Africa, however, this changed when students attending black campuses broke away in the early seventies to form CASA. Consequently, CASA then existed at historically black campuses whereas NCFS existed at historically white campuses.
Following the changes within the country in 1990 attempts were then made to merge the two student bodies into one unified student movement. However, eventually after various attempts had been made to unify, it was decided to form a new Catholic student body called the Association of Catholic Tertiary Students that includes students from Universities, Technikons and Training Teacher Colleges.
And so therefore...
What is ACTS?
From Section One of the ACTS Constitution:
We, the Association of Catholic Tertiary Students, realising the past of our organisation, and recognising our historic internal tension between movement and federation, are youth united in Catholic faith who are ecumenical and guided by the principals of non-sexism and non-racism.
We commit ourselves to enriching and empowering the youth spirituality towards the development of the local Church within the context of South Africa.