[lg policy] South Africa: Campus tempers flare over racism and student elections

Sun Aug 30 20:12:54 UTC 2015

Campus tempers flare over racism and student elections
Munyaradzi Makoni29 August 2015 Issue No:379

Racial problems that have dogged the South Africa’s prestigious
Stellenbosch University have flared after the publication of a documentary
about the discriminatory experiences of black students. The parliamentary
portfolio committee on higher education and training is calling the
university’s leaders to an urgent meeting, to table institutional
transformation plans. Meanwhile, violence has marred the run-up to student
elections on other campuses.

Portfolio committee chair Yvonne Phosa expressed concern last Thursday
about incidents of student violence. It was “very worrying” she said in a
statement, to learn of occurences where “violence of a senseless nature is
meted out by students at one another”.

On Wednesday, police fired stun grenades to disperse students at the
Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria. There was stone-throwing by
students belonging to the Economic Freedom Front, or EFF, and rival South
African Students Congress, which is allied to the ruling African National
Congress, ahead of student elections.

There was also reportedly a scuffle involving members of the EFF during a
student representative election debate at the University of the
Witwatersrand last week.

“Despite belonging to different political formations, we urge students to
act in a manner that is civil and to show political tolerance so that
incidents of violence, which have no place in our higher learning
environment, do not recur,” said Phosa, calling on political party leaders
to “desist from engaging in actions that might incite violence among
students”.

*The Stellenbosch saga*

Allegations of racism at Stellenbosch University reached a crescendo last
week following publication on social media of a short documentary called
*#Luister* <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF3rTBQTQk4> – Afrikaans for
‘Listen’ – ratcheting up already enormous pressures on ‘historically white’
institutions to transform.

Yvonne Phosa called on the university management to deal swiftly with the
racism claims. While the university’s management had put measures in place
to ensure transformation, she said, “efforts have to be speeded up to
ensure that allegations such as those revealed in the *#Luister* video are
dealt with and do not rear their ugly head again”.

In a series of interviews on the video, black students recount instances of
racial prejudice that they continue to experience in the town of
Stellenbosch, and the enormous challenges they face due to the use of
Afrikaans as a language of teaching at the university.

*Language policy*

Last month a protest led by members of the ‘Open Stellenbosch’ movement –
“a collective of students and staff working to purge the oppressive
remnants of apartheid in pursuit of a truly African university”, as they
describe themselves on Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/openstellenbosch/info?tab=page_info> – broke out
in a lecture hall at Stellenbosch. The students said they were objecting to
the university’s language policy.

With its origins as Victoria College, Stellenbosch University acquired its
status in 1918. A wealthy Stellenbosch farmer, Jannie Marais, bequeathed
the money needed to become a university before his death 1915, but attached
conditions on the money.

He said Dutch or Afrikaans should have equal status to English and that
lecturers must teach at least half their lectures in Afrikaans. By 1930
very little if any tuition was in English. The vestiges of this tradition,
21 years into South Africa’s democracy, are refusing to die.

The current language policy says that Stellenbosch contributes to
multilingualism in such a way that Afrikaans as an academic language can be
used, safeguarded and advanced, while utilising the value of English as an
international academic language and a common language for the many speakers
of other indigenous South African languages.

Also, the university says it devotes attention to the judicious advancement
and application of isiXhosa as an academic language and as a language of
social engagement.

But on the ground practice has angered black students. Some have complained
that they were recruited to Stellenbosch with the promise that lack of
Afrikaans would not affect their academic progress – but this is not the
case when they get to class.

University spokesperson Martin Viljoen said the language policy afforded
English the same teaching status as Afrikaans. “A growing number of modules
are therefore available in the parallel medium option that is in both
Afrikaans and English, keeping both the human resource constraints as well
as physical infrastructure constraints in mind.”

*Minister wants answers*

Dr Blade Nzimande, minister of higher education and training, also
expressed concern over the experiences of racism expressed by students in
*Luister*, which tells the story of how 32 black students have experienced
race relations on and around campus. Their stories conjure up dark memories
of apartheid South Africa.

In a letter to the university council, Nzimande requested a report on how
it intends to address the matter. He said in a statement that it was to
shocking to view personal accounts of the daily experiences of racism that
black students encounter.

“No South African should tolerate racism and discrimination in our modern,
democratic dispensation,” he said, urging Stellenbosch’s council and
management goeis to deal with problems of racism and discrimination firmly
and with the respect, seriousness and urgency.

“The issue is not only about Afrikaans as a language of instruction at the
university, but this provides a basis for harbouring racist attitudes among
some white students and academics at the university, clearly depicted in
the interviews.”

Nzimande said the matter of institutional transformation and acts of racism
and discrimination were discussed in a meeting convened by the minister on
in April with representatives of councils and management of some former
Afrikaans universities, including Stellenbosch.

All of the universities agreed to deal clearly with issues of social
inclusion and cohesion, language and admissions policies. But while the
universities indicated that they were working on such matters, student
experiences showed otherwise.

“Programmes appear ineffective. The language policies may be good on paper
but the practice is different, thus some of the institutions are still
regarded as bastions of the old South Africa. This culture has to change,
and needs to be done so urgently.

* Vice chancellor speaks out*

Stellenbosch University Vice-chancellor Wim de Villiers said that since his
inauguration in April he had confirmed the right of students to protest, on
condition that they complied with processes and procedures applicable to
all universities.

De Villiers said the video touched on several important issues that
affected students at Stellenbosch and it was indeed sad that some students
were still exposed to dehumanising experiences of racism and other forms of
discrimination – in spite of the progress that the university has made.

“My management and I are not indifferent towards these issues as they are
exactly the kind of challenges that are currently receiving pertinent
attention on various levels and in high-level discussions with groups and
individuals on campus,” he said.

“To insinuate that the university is not serious about transformation, that
it turns a blind eye to flagrant racism or that it in some sense advocates
or maintain a culture of apartheid at the university is simply not true and
cannot go unchallenged,” De Villiers added.

The university prioritised transformation in every sense of the word. The
violation of human rights, victimisation in any sense, racism, classism,
sexism and all other forms of discrimination would not be tolerated –
“regardless of who is involved” – he said, citing the termination of the
contract of a lecturer this year who sent a racist SMS to a student.

De Villiers was concerned that the *Luister* created the impression he and
management did not listen to students or care about their lived experiences
on campus.

There had been several initiatives, including in recent months, to help
with transformation including a dignity march, removal of a plaque to
former apartheid leader HF Verwoerd, setting up a bursary and plans to
establish an office to fast-track transformation.

“A plan is also in place to set up a research chair in reconciliation and
transformation.”

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150828143238771

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