Stellenbosch – praag.org

Letter: By what right may government decide what language I should use?

I write in English to accomodate readers who aren’t bright enough to speak more than one language; those who do not understand Afrikaans.

I write anonymously as I am not pursuing a career in politics or in media. Further I don’t want to be tarred and feathered or championed by any group.

Also as I am not a politician or a pundit, so I will keep it brief, relying on the reader’s pre-existing knowledge of affairs to set the context and situation.

I refer to the current controversy on racial transformation in our society, specifically with regards to Stellenbosch University and the Open Stellenbosch movement.

It has been reported that Stellenbosch University has removed the memorial plague of the Villain Verwoerd and renamed the Malicious Malan hall.

I find this ironic. It’s ironic as the government and associated intellectuals and press still think that they are within their rights to socially engineer South Africans into their vision of society, curtailing the rights of individuals and free associations that don’t fit the plan.

Furthermore they won’t blink whilst classifying individuals into racial categories and deciding for themselves what the rights will be that these categories shall enjoy or forgo.

I find it very ironic that a movement such as Open Stellenbosch is fighting for language rights at Stellenbosch University (not Universiteit) when that institution is already a majority English university with almost all textbooks in English; the majority of classes are presented in English, not translated but presented in English.

All exams can be completed either in English or in Afrikaans.

Nobody is intuitionally/bureaucratically excluded from Stellenbosch on the basis of race and there have been major efforts to accommodate students who are not Afrikaans-speaking at undergraduate level, while all post-graduate studies are already in English.

Fighting for language rights at the only bilingual university in South Africa?

Are there any English universities who even make this concession to language preference? Stellenbosch is already a de facto English university and de jure a bilingual university.

Within all popular frames of reference it is not only allowed, but morally just and desirable for government to impede individual freedoms by disallowing the right to free association, language and cultural rights.

In this philosophy it is just for national government to interfere in the future of it citizens and decide no longer will this be an all-white team/university/company/person but it must now be 79.2% black.

By what right can government classify me according to race, and if this right exists for government what is the process, where do I appeal and when will the SA bureau of Standards(SABS) release the race specs?

By what right can the Communist Party tell me in what language I may receive instruction?

This is pure arrogance to interfere in my life and disturb my peace. Was it gained from Baas Verwoerd?

Koos Kleurvol
‘n Vryburger

Stellenbosch promises to ‘remove racists’

Rector and vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers promised Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education and training on Tuesday Stellenbosch University would root out “racists”.

Stefan Lang, the outgoing SRC chairman, having to rush through his address in order to provide committee members the chance to respond to the university’s presentation, reiterated that the SRC was focussed on “celebrating diversity”, a euphemism for black monoculture.

“Our vision is to create a welcoming ethos and anything that is against that must be removed,” he said.

“Our journey is imperfect, incomplete but we remain steadfast,” said De Villiers.

De Villiers, along with the rest of Stellenbosch University’s management were called before the Portfolio Committee to respond to allegations of racism made in an online documentary called “Luister” recently.

The 35-minute video has been trending on social media since its release last month.

“I watched ‘Luister’ with my wife… it was uncomfortable and upsetting,” said De Villiers. “I do not enjoy knowing that students – my students – are suffering. It is painful.”

The student movement, Open Stellenbosch, was first to post the film online. It documented 34 students and a staff member’s accounts of racism on campus. De Villiers said he would not “attempt to defend the indefensible”.

“It’s wrong. Racism, discrimination, human rights violations, exclusion and marginalisation are wrong,” he said.

However, De Villiers pointed out certain “nuances” omitted from “Luister” and in the dialogue that followed thereafter. Among these, De Villiers said clarification on off-campus incidents had not been made and that Elsenburg, a campus mentioned in the documentary, was in fact not part of Stellenbosch University.

The “activist group” Open Stellenbosch on Tuesday embarked on a protest march to coincide with university management appearing before MPs to account for the institution’s transformation policies.

The group has bemoaned the university’s use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, charging that this was devised to safeguard Afrikaner culture at the expense of black students.

Last week a documentary titled Luister, which captured black students’ plight at the university, caused ripples in Parliament and the government. Following its airing, the university’s management was ordered to appear before Parliament’s committee on higher education to explain themselves.

Source: IOL/ Business Day

Black students rally in support of expelled Wits SRC president

Support is pouring in for the University of Witwatersrand’s expelled SRC president.

Mcebo Dlamini’s Facebook post that mentioned Hitler has sparked outrage from the South African Union of Jewish Students.

Students from the Rhodes Must Fall campaign and activist group, Open Stellenbosch, are marching in support of Mcebo Dlamini.

The Higher Education Transformation Network also says the decision to expel him was harsh.

It says action is being taken against Dlamini when other students from Cape Town and Stellenbosch universities got a slap on the wrist for racist incidents.

The Network was referring to, among others, the white students who painted their faces black.

SA’s first coloniser was a coloured

If President Zuma wants to blame the first Dutch “settler” he must look at Simon van der Stel, says T Kleyn

After President Jacob Zuma’s idiotic statement that all the problems in South Africa started with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in 1652, we have been noticing quite a number of Jan van Riebeeck profile pictures, cartoons and T-shirts on sale.

As could be expected, I would personally consider doing anything civilised to annoy Zuma as well.

But I think one should have one last word about this and then we can focus on the future again, instead of doing the ANC thing of dwelling in the past forever.

Van Riebeeck was sent to the Cape to establish a halfway station for the trade ships of the Dutch East India Company. There never was an intention to colonise or settle.

We know that all too well, because he sent out only a few expeditions to trade cattle with the Khoi-groups in the Peninsula and allowed the first free citizens to measure out small farms only after a lengthy correspondence with Amsterdam. Van Riebeeck left the Cape after a decade, never to return.

No, if Zuma wants to blame the first Dutch “settler” we must look at the arrival of the last commander of the Cape who also became the first governor in 1679.

On November 3, 1679, he arrived at a lovely spot nestled in the mountains by a river and decided to establish a “colony” of people there in a new town.

This was a clear indication that the man, Simon van der Stel, who named the new town, Stellenbosch, after himself, intended to stay.

After his retirement he never left the Cape but went to live on his farm, Groot Constantia, despite the fact that his children all returned to the Netherlands.

He lived for another 14 years before dying, respected and known as “Father Simon” by the people of the Cape – black and white alike. Van der Stel was the first colonialist.

We have no reliable portrait of him, only a description which tells us that he was short and stocky with very dark hair, oriental eyes, a small flat nose and a yellowish complexion. In the records of the Dutch East India Company, Van der Stel is described as “mestizo” – non-white. His mother was the daughter of captain Hendrick Lievens and a Batavian slave woman Mai Monica da Costa van Java.

Zuma, your first “European coloniser” wasn’t even a white man. In today’s South Africa he would be regarded as a coloured person.

T Kleyn

Pretoria to introduce free internet in public spaces

The capital city is set to offer free access to the internet in public spaces.

Poor communities, schools and high-density areas in the city have been targeted for the first phase of the project

The city of Tshwane says the project will be life changing especially for the youth.

Meanwhile, the Gauteng provincial government is planning to issue tablets with internet connectivity to more than 2 000 Gauteng schools by 2014.

Can you imagine going online while you’re waiting at a bus stop or queuing to pay your water and lights bill?

If all goes well, that’s what Pretoria residents will be doing in the near future.

Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa says “The City of Tshwane will be the first metro in the country to provide city-wide free Wi-Fi. Come November, Church Square will be one of five zones, where you can surf the net free of charge – and you [won’t] even need a password.”

Impoverished communities have been targeted for the first phase, which comes with a price tag of R1 million.

The mayor continues, “The second phase, the 219 schools in Atteridgeville, Soshanguve and Mamelodi will be up and running before the end of calendar year in 2014 and third phase in 2015. We are extending it in the main to government institutions and all other institutions of higher learning.”

The project is part of a collaborative effort by NGOs to bring free Wi-Fi to the continent.

“The intent is to show governments as well as private sector that bandwidth can be treated just as you treat electricity and water,” says Project Isizwe representative Alan Knott-Craig.

And government thinks the country is more than ready.

Dumsani Otumile of Tshwane ICT Management says, “We no longer think of Wi-Fi as a luxury, we think of Wi-Fi as the same as electricity and water – it’s a commodity for us.”

Tshwane is following in Stellenbosch’s footsteps.

Technology experts have given that city’s project the thumbs-up, saying it bridges the digital divide.

-eNCA