Varsities 'letting SA down'

2008-02-28 17:44

Verashni Pillay

Cape Town - Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said at a conference on diversity on Thursday that universities had let the country down, after a spate of controversial incidents involving students.

"If we have students studying engineering, philosophy and the highest level of literature, and they are unable to live together and respect the values of workers who do their work everyday, I don't know what kind of universities we have," she said.

She was referring to the recent controversy over a racially offensive video made by four students at the University of the Free State (UFS).

The video surfaced on Tuesday, but was made last year in September and included footage of a group of black workers eating meat that appears to have been urinated on.

Pandor had been due to speak at the conference, hosted by the FW de Klerk Foundation at the Radisson Hotel in Cape Town, about the role of schools and universities in the promotion of cultural diversity and nation-building.

" I'm sure you recognise how difficult this subject is given events of this week," she told the audience.

Student leader murdered

I think what occurred was bad," she said of the video. "But the fact that they recorded (it) and see no shame in that is what really horrifies.

"These young men committed actions that clearly offend, against our constitution and the values enshrined in it."

She related the UFS incident along with the recent murder of a student leader from the University of Limpopo by student leaders from a different organisation at the university.

Three students on the way back from the Union Buildings began arguing with another student, beat him to death with a brick according to Pandor, and then flung his body out of the bus in which they were travelling.

"These are university students," said Pandor. "Schools may be struggling, but universities are the institutions that have really let us down."

The conference tackled the issue of protecting and promoting the rights of indigenous languages and featured talks by former minister of education Kader Asmal and Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan, among others.

The consensus was that schools and universities were struggling with integration.

The former dean of education at the University of Pretoria, Jonathan Jansen, said that "once we get beyond the expressions of disgust" the public had to ask why the UFS students did what they did, and to what they were responding.

'Their worlds fall apart'

He said many white students heard the same stories over and over again from their community and parents, about "racial exclusivity, racial supremacy and racial victimisation".

"Their worlds fall apart when they enter a university where learning and living with black people is often a very traumatic experience," said Jansen.

"Where we have failed these young people is to interrupt their troubled knowledge and to enable and empower them not to tolerate, but to embrace the humanity around them."

- News24