Admit black racism - FF+

2008-04-08 18:07

Pretoria - Racism by black people against whites should be acknowledged, said Freedom Front Plus Youth leader Cornelius Jansen van Rensburg on Tuesday.

This comes after his party met Education Minister Naledi Pandor on Monday night to discuss racism at universities, the status of Afrikaans and the proposed schools pledge with her.

The FF+ Youth delegation pointed out several cases of what it called black on white racism to the minister and also elaborated on the structural exclusion of Afrikaner students on campuses.

Jansen van Rensburg said: "Although the minister undertook to investigate the mentioned cases of racism, the government is not yet at a point where they acknowledge that black on white racism on campuses and elsewhere is alive and thriving.

"The only way in which we will be able to successfully address this virus, would be to acknowledge this problem in totality."

He said the organisation expressed its concern at the way in which the ministerial committee, which must investigate discrimination and racism on campuses, was constituted.

"While the minister pleads for representivity on campuses, not one Afrikaner is represented on her own investigation team. This brings the legitimacy and objectivity of the commission into question," he said.

According to Jansen van Rensburg, Pandor was positive about Afrikaans or multilingualism, but he added that efforts to promote it were inadequate.

On the proposed pledge for pupils, the FF+ Youth said schools should rather be encouraged to develop a code of honour themselves without interference by the department.

- SAPA