![A documentary titled Luister [Listen] tells the stories of black students and a lecturer's experiences at Stellenbosch University's Agricultural College, Eisenberg.](https://image-prod.iol.co.za/16x9/1600/A-documentary-titled-Luister-Listen-tells-the-stories-of-black-students-and-a-lecturer-s-experiences-at-Stellenbosch-University-s-Agricultural-College-Eisenberg?source=https://xlibris.public.prod.oc.inl.infomaker.io:8443/opencontent/objects/8be1a6b2-c458-5a5b-992d-9c8ffda70437)
Cape Town - The ANC in Parliament expressed outrage on Tuesday against a documentary that chronicled how black students felt discriminated against at Stellenbosch University.
The 34-minute long film called “Luister” (Listen) went live on YouTube on August 20. In the documentary, 32 students at Stellenbosch University and its Agriculture College, Elsenburg, were interviewed by a lecturer about their experiences at the university.
Students of colour express their views and share their experiences at the university, whose dominant language of instruction is Afrikaans.
ANC Chief Whip Moloto Mothapo said many students of colour spoke out about their “gut-wrenching personal experiences of institutionalised racism, discrimination and harassment [which] they continue to suffer purely on the basis of their skin colour”.
He said the documentary showed that “students are made to feel unwelcome at this previously white only institution of higher learning.
“At this university, it has become normal for whites to refer to black students with a k-word, for black students to be physically harassed and verbally abused without any protection or intervention from the university management, for black students to struggle against being forced lectures in Afrikaans that they don’t understand, and for black students to be regularly made to feel subhuman.”
Mothapo stated that after over 20 years of democracy, it was not acceptable that “Stellenbosch University remains an enclave of white supremacy and apartheid culture, where young people in the new free South Africa suffer the same indignity experienced by their forebears”.
“We express an unequivocal solidarity with the black students at Stellenbosch University,” he said, recalling the 1976 Soweto uprising.
“We will spare neither strength nor effort in ensuring that transformation at all our institutions of higher learning is speeded up – including ridding institutions like Stellenbosch University of the demon of apartheid practices and all associated discriminatory practices,” he said.
“More than two decades into our democracy, transformation cannot no longer be negotiable. It is unacceptable that the students of Stellenbosch University today are made to suffer the same abhorrent conditions the students in apartheid South Africa had to deal with in 1976.”
The ANC in Parliament were unanimous in their displeasure at the incidents the documentary shed light on.
“We view this serious allegations of racism and discrimination in a very serious light and we condemn them in the strongest terms possible. Such practices are not line with the spirit and principles of our democratic Constitution, particularly its Bill of Rights, which prohibits inequality and discrimination,” said Mothapo.
The ANC indicated that this matter would be looked into, and South African Human Rights Commission and the Higher Education portfolio committee would be expected to urgently investigate the disturbing allegations of racism at the university, meet with all relevant stakeholders at the institution and provide feedback to the National Assembly.
Mothapo said the Higher Education portfolio committee’s report “would guide Parliament regarding how to intervene decisively to arrest the situation”.
He added: “The alleged practices of racism at Stellenbosch University have no place in our free and democratic society.”
ANA