Cape Town - A Stellenbosch University council member’s conduct is to be investigated by a committee after his views on transformation caused a stir on social media.
Piet le Roux tweeted: “Blade Nzimande en #transformanie gaan nie wen nie. Ondersteun die Afrikaanse Alumni-vereniging (Blade Nzimande and transformania won’t win. Support the Afrikaans Alumni Association).” The post resulted in calls on Facebook and Twitter for the council to be dissolved.
Khaye Nkwanyana, spokesman for the Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande, hit back at Le Roux on Twitter: “It is with utmost regret that there are still people like you who have not yet crossed the Rubicon of ’94.”
The council met on Monday and accepted various motions related to transformation and the university’s language policy.
Susan van der Merwe, the university’s marketing and communications director, said the council had also taken note of the actions and pronouncements by Le Roux on universities in South Africa and the minister of Higher Education and Training “and regard these actions and pronouncements as anti-transformational”.
A committee of five members has been mandated to investigate Le Roux’s “actions and pronouncements as reported, in the context of legislation and the code of conduct for members of council”.
“The committee has been instructed to agree on a process with Le Roux, to obtain further legal advice and guidance from senior counsel, and to report its findings and recommendations to council three weeks prior to the council meeting of November 30, 2015.”
The council also accepted a motion by the rector’s management team to remove the word “safeguard” from the introductory section of the university’s language policy in its relation to Afrikaans as an academic language.
Qualifying words such as “judicious” and “where feasible” as they related to the development of isiXhosa as an academic language would also be removed.
The current version reads: “The university is committed to the use, safeguarding and sustained development of Afrikaans as an academic language in a multilingual context, while increasing the teaching offering in English to enable optimal learning and teaching for all South Africans at this university. The university also accepts responsibility for the judicious advancement of isiXhosa, where feasible, as an academic language and a language of social engagement.”
The council approved recommended changes to the university’s statute, including a proposal that the number of council members appointed by Nzimande be increased from three to five “from nominations submitted in view of council’s skills and diversity matrix”. The amended statute would be presented to him for approval.
Cape Argus