Tag: racial transformation

University of the Free State to get rid of Boer leader’s statue

The University of the Free State announced yesterday that the historical statue of M.T. Steyn, the last president of the former Boer Republic that came to an end in 1902 is to be “relocated off campus”. In recent years, the university has been prone to antiwhite sentiment, including attacks on statues representing white people.
According to a statement released by the university, “Council furthermore requested that the relocation must be done in complete cooperation
with the family of President MT Steyn. The decision of the Council follows a recommendation made by the ‘Special Task Team’ in a report to the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, that the statue should be relocated to a site off campus.”
Prof Francis Petersen (left) making the announcement last night that MT Steyn’s statue will be removed

“The decision was not taken lightly, but I believe that it was in the best interest of the university,” said Prof Petersen. The “Special Task Team” was appointed earlier this year by Prof Petersen “to develop and implement a framework on engaging with a process to review the position of the

statue in front of the Main Building on the Bloemfontein Campus.”
Black students and communist radicals started to object to the MT Steyn statue as far back as 2003, and objections to “the statue of the white man” were again raised during a University Assembly on 28 April 2015. In
January 2018, the university’s Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP) work stream dealing with “Names, Symbols and Spaces” embarked on a process of “reviewing how space and symbolic representation facilitates or hinders social inclusion in a diverse community”. Representations of white people were seen as “hindering diversity”, therefore the MT Steyn statue had to go as “a priority”.
On 8 March 2018, the black-dominated Student Representative Council (SRC), once again asked for the MT Steyn statue “to be removed”. Prof Francis Petersen, a radical coloured academic that used to be with the Cultural-Marxist-infested University of Cape Town, and then nominated to be vice-chancellor and principal of the rural University of the Free State, “acknowledged the urgency of the matter and appointed the Special Task Team to review the position of the statue”.
According to Prof Petersen, the relocation of the statue to a site off campus
will best serve the university’s vision for the future. “This includes ensuring that the UFS is a place where everyone feels welcome, where
diversity is encouraged and celebrated, where concepts such as
decolonialisation are challenged in an academic and realistic
way, and where integration is accomplished in a holistic manner
– as reflected in the ITP,” he said.
The Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP) of the university is meant to “racially transform” the institution in keeping with the overal “transformation” ideology of the ruling ANC-terrorist regime of South Africa. According to the university, “as established in the ‘Names, Symbols and Spaces’ work stream of the Integrated Transformation Plan, the university’s statues, artworks, names, and memorabilia should facilitate social inclusion in a diverse community and reflect a transformed university. The visual and spatial environments should also promote inclusivity and non-racialism. Keeping the statue in its current position – elevated and central, in front of the building that houses the university’s executive management– does not align with the core principles of inclusivity and diversity.”

“In fact, a large proportion of our student body is feeling unwelcome (at least in the specific space in front of the Main Building), as it represents a period in history that they do not feel part of… A comprehensive approach and coherent process will be implemented to reconceptualise the space in front of the Main Building. Members of the Special Task Team will form part of the reconfiguration process,” said Prof Petersen.

Racial transformation of SA’s housing market

luxuryhouseThe racial transformation of South Africa’s suburban markets is continuing and 2013 could be the first year when the estimated percentage of white buyers in these areas drops below 50 percent of total buying.

The estimated percentage of black buyers may also be the highest yet.

FNB’s estate agent surveys for the first two quarters of this year reveal that an estimated 46.5 percent of total buyers were white, 32 percent black, 12.5 percent Indian and 9 percent coloured.

John Loos, a household and consumer sector strategist at FNB, said yesterday the racial percentages did not move dramatically from year to year but the change since 2005 – when a question on the racial classification of buyers was introduced to the bank’s estate agents survey – had become “very significant”.

In 2005, white buyers represented an estimated 57 percent of total buyers and black buyers only 23 percent, he said.

The further progress in the racial transformation of the suburban housing market should not come as a surprise, Loos said, given that for a long time data from Statistics SA and others had been showing the steady transformation of the labour market, and with it the narrowing of the income gap between race groups.

It was also notable that estate agents perceived more rapid change in home buying percentages in favour of the three previously disadvantaged population groups around times of more rapid economic growth, with transformation appearing to suffer a setback in stagnant economic times.

“Whereas in the economic boom years black group buying saw its estimated percentage of total buyers rise from 23 percent in 2005 to 30 percent in 2008, the lagged impact of the 2008/9 recession was a decline in this group’s percentage back to 26.8 percent in 2011.

“Then, in 2012 and the first half of 2013, it appeared to gather steam once more.”

Loos said the estimated pick-up in buying by previously disadvantaged groups following a considerable period of better economic times and low interest rates was not surprising.

Many people in these groups had less financial backing from older generations and this emerging middle class was arguably more dependent on a favourable economic and interest rate cycle to boost current income and access to credit compared with many older white group repeat buyers, who had already built up significant wealth, including the value of the homes they had sold in the past.

“Boosting economic growth through boosting the skills development sector and developing growth-friendly policies should therefore be seen as essential to housing market racial transformation.

“Stagnant economic growth periods have estate agents seemingly pointing to a slower rate of suburban housing market transformation,” he said.

FNB last week reported that the most important reasons for homeowners selling in the second quarter of this year were downscaling in line with a different life stage (21 percent), upgrading (19 percent), downscaling due to financial pressure (18 percent), change in family structure (12 percent) and moving for safety and security (10 percent).

Loos said selling to upgrade had become “very significant once more” following the lull in the 2008/09 recession but it had yet to exceed selling to downscale due to life stage changes.

He said life stage downscaling and downscaling related to financial pressure accounted for 39 percent of total selling.- IOL