Cape Town - As the management of Stellenbosch University (SU) ensured MPs of the institution’s commitment to transformation on Tuesday, hundreds of students took to the streets in a march against “apartheid culture” at the university.
Students from universities across the province gathered at Rooiplein, Stellenbosch, before marching through the town singing songs and brandishing banners with messages that read, “Open up your ancient gates”.
The march was organised by Open Stellenbosch, the movement behind the recently released “Luister” documentary.
The chairman of the SU branch of the South African Student Congress, Chumile Samson, said he chose to do his honours in International Studies at the university so he could be part of the change in policy.
“South Africa as a whole is against this and it is important for all students to come together as we would all like to see change.
“We would like to see complete change at Stellenbosch University, we want a complete revolution here.”
Samson added that the university needs to realise that it was not a “Europe in South Africa”.
Third year student Nwabisa Janda said those who wanted the language policy to be changed were being unfair to other students. “There are hardly Afrikaans textbooks for the Afrikaans kids, and what about the students that are Sotho or Pedi? Most students are here from Joburg and other places that have different languages. We are all struggling.”
Janda, who studies accounting at the institution, said there are interpreters in the Afrikaans lectures but they “are not great”, but said she was there to learn. She and her friend, Nolwazi Mthimkhulu, rely on “self-study” to pass.
“You are given the option when you come here if you want to be in an Afrikaans or English class, but in third year there is no option. You know that English and Afrikaans are the only options before you sign anything to be students here,” Mthimkhulu said.
“It’s not about being black or being white. I have to self-study, because I know what I am here for.”
Students from UCT also joined in the march that saw about 500 students calling for a change in Stellenbosch University’s language policy and general transformation at all universities. Third year UCT Political Science student Athenkosi Manikavana said she supported the Stellenbosch students in trying to change the language policy.
“I think it is unfair that one student pays the same amount as other students who speak Afrikaans but doesn’t understand it; that means that that student has to work twice as hard.”
Manikavana said it was “painful” to watch the documentary and said she hoped change would come fast.
Earlier in the day, the university’s management appeared before the National Assembly’s higher education committee where it explained its transformation plans and its response to the documentary.
Vice-chancellor and rector Professor Wim de Villiers said he had found the documentary “very disturbing”.
“Hearing these narratives of racism and dehumanisation is really painful to me as a vice-chancellor.
“I’m not going to defend the indefensible.”
He said the university had acted when incidents of racism were reported and earlier this year terminated the services of a lecturer who had sent a racist SMS.
“Transformation is a top priority for us.”
He said there were, however, some issues that had to be pointed out.
This included that some of the cases featured in the video related to the Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute, which did not fall under the auspices of Stellenbosch University.
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“There is a perception in the video and on social media that Stellenbosch University management refuses to listen. This is simply not true.”
He said Open Stellenbosch had refused to acknowledge legitimate university structures.
“It has ignored repeated invitations from management and myself to engage.”
He said the university had irrevocably moved from being a historically white, formerly Afrikaans institution to a multilingual non-racial national and international asset.
The institution is implementing a policy which would afford English and Afrikaans equal status.
It is also establishing a transformation office, which will guide and co-ordinate transformation processes on campuses.
De Villiers admitted that while the university was doing “a great deal” to promote integration and mutual understanding, “we need to open Stellenbosch University even more”.
“We are on a journey of transformation. It’s incomplete, it’s imperfect but we are steadfast and committed.”
Currently, 62.2 percent of the university’s student population is white, 17.8 percent coloured, 17. 4 percent black and 2.6 percent Indian. It is projected that by 2019, 56.2 percent will be white, 22 percent coloured, 19.5 percent black and 2.3 percent Indian.
In terms of academic staff, 73 percent are white, 17 percent black, coloured or Indian while 10 percent were classified as international.
“I’m fully aware that it is inadequate for us to have 17 percent of our staff as black, coloured and Indian.
“However, we share this issue with all the South African higher education institutions,” said De Villiers, adding that there were already a number of initiatives to try and address this issue.
Professor Nico Koopman, acting vice-rector: social impact, transformation and personnel, said the university had already started to make appointments for a fully staffed office for transformation.
“Their task is to co-ordinate transformation processes on campuses, to stimulate it, guide it, offer consultation and to monitor and assess it and propose intervention when required.”
De Villiers said there had been a decision by the council in late November last year to move to an equal footing for English and Afrikaans as languages of tuition and this policy was now being implemented.
“I’m not denying that there are problems with implementation and task teams are investigating this. There is an open|invitation to all to raise problems.”
Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande said he intended to convene a seminar on language in higher education before the end of the year.
“I want to factor it into the funding formula for universities that certain monies cannot be used for anything else other than to promote multilingualism and to implement the language policy.”
He said he had met with some of the former Afrikaans universities earlier this year.
“The reality is that we’ve been getting particular kinds of complaints from some of the former Afrikaans universities.”
This included issues of language and “the institutional culture that many black|students feel they can’t be a part of”.
He said part of the problem was that there were “very conservative interests around Stellenbosch University that are resisting transformation”.
“The journey of transformation needs to be radicalised. It cannot be that in South Africa today you still have a university with the majority (being) white students.”
Cape Argus