[lg policy] South Africa: Maties vote for status quo

[Harold Schiffman]

Maties vote for status quo
Jerome Cornelius | 28 January, 2016 00:41
Heunis said yesterday he had been impressed with attendance at the meeting
- about 2000 alumni turned out. File photo
*Image by:* AMBROSE PETERS
The Higher Education Transformation Network has called for Stellenbosch
University's convocation to be dissolved following the election on Tuesday
night of advocate Jan Heunis as president.

Network spokesman Hendrick Makaneta said the organisation was "not
convinced that [Heunis's] appointment will bring about significant
transformation at Stellenbosch University".

"The entire structure of the convocation must be dissolved," he said.

The convocation is a statutory body consisting of graduates and academic
staff. Its role is to ensure the input of alumni into matters regarding the
university.

Parliamentary policy researcher Ziyanda Stuurman, who had also been
nominated for the position, said of Heunis's election she was "not
expecting anything different".

She received 199 votes to Heunis's 476.

"I know how good people who oppose transformation are at mobilising. The
speeches took unfair pot shots at university management, and how they're
failing to protect Afrikaans. It's an incredibly warped, skewed and
nostalgic viewpoint," she said.

In his address, Stellenbosch rector Wim de Villiers said: "Our language
policy gets a lot of attention. Some fear that our use of Afrikaans may
exclude those who prefer to study in English. Others fear our use of
English is putting Afrikaans at a disadvantage.

"I want to tell you the university is committed to multilingualism without
any exclusion. Language should never be an obstacle to any student. That is
why we are expanding parallel-medium tuition."

De Villiers said the university had allocated an additional R70-million to
diversify the staff body.

The university's student representative council said yesterday: "The
convocation chose to remain within the boundaries of what is comfortable
and, in real terms, regressed in its representation of diversity and
much-needed transformation."

Heunis said yesterday he had been impressed with attendance at the meeting
- about 2000 alumni turned out.

"The turnout was remarkable. Management was democratically elected."

He said of criticisms levelled against the meeting: "No one has a problem
with diversity. The turnout signifies that Afrikaans as the [main] language
of instruction will not suffer at the university ... We believe that both
English and Afrikaans can be primary languages of instruction."

Heunis said yesterday: "I am happy to engage in ongoing discussion with all
stakeholders in the interest of the university".

Speakers at Tuesday's election included author Breyten Breytenbach and
Nigerian-born, Afrikaans-speaking Lovelyn Nwadeyi, the first woman and
first black person to address the convocation.

Nwadeyi was up for the position of vice-president but lost out to Jacques
du Preez by 15 votes.

"The reality is that language, race, power and privilege are issues at the
moment. Change is a direct threat to people at the moment. People feel it's
a direct attack," Nwadeyi said.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2016/01/28/Maties-vote-for-status-quo


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