Race video makers face charges
2008-02-26 21:14
Bloemfontein - Criminal charges are to be brought against those responsible for making a video showing university black women on their knees eating meat that had been urinated on.
The video of University of the Free State employees was condemned "in the strongest possible terms" by the university on Tuesday.
The video, made by the Reitz men's residence, surfaced on Tuesday morning and adds to an already-tense situation at the UFS after student riots about the hostel integration policy.
It allegedly depicts a mock integration of five black staff members.
The rector, Professor Frederick Fourie, said his management condemned the video in the strongest possible terms.
"It's a gross violation of the human dignity of the workers involved."
He said criminal charges would be brought against those responsible.
Speaking to journalists in Bloemfontein, Fourie said there was a strong condemnation of the video by all members of management who had been meeting for most of the day on the issue.
'Integration was the topic'
"We have immediately started with a most-urgent investigation on this matter," he said.
The students involved had been identified and the university had taken steps to suspend them.
Democratic Alliance spokesperson in the Free State, Liana van Wyk, who had seen the video, described it as "shocking and inhumane".
The video shows four white male students taking black, elderly, women workers and making them down a bottle of beer, run a race, play rugby and then kneel and eat meat which had been urinated upon, she said.
"It looked like they were willing (participants), but they didn't know what purpose the video served... it was quite humiliating at the end to see the quite-senior ladies on their knees eating the meat."
The men's residence had chosen integration as the topic of the video they were requested to make.
Fourie said two of the students involved in the video were still studying and had been barred from entering the campus grounds.
The two other students identified on the video completed their studies last year.
Fourie said he was deeply saddened that some students apparently saw nothing wrong in producing such an offensive and degrading video.
Cops on standby
Management had apologised to the workers on Tuesday morning for the video, which was recorded last year.
Meanwhile, police had been notified about the incident and arrangements had been made for them to be present on campus on Tuesday night.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille condemned the incident and said the matter would be handed to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to investigate the underlying causes of racial tension on campus.
The SA Students Congress (Sasco) also condemned the students' behaviour.
"The barbaric behaviour of the Afrikaner students in that university still resembles the old apartheid order," said the student body.
Sasco said sympathy strikes would be held across the country against the students' conduct.
The student body said the process of racial integration at the residences of the UFS should continue "whether Afrikaner students like it or not".
- SAPA