A LATE-night debate in the National Assembly on the rise of racism in SA’s universities turned into a blame game on Tuesday, as parties accused one another of culpability for the increasing polarisation between black and white at institutions of higher learning.
On Monday, management at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) took the decision to close its Soshanguve campuses until next month, due to the ongoing disruptions of lectures.
With hundreds of millions of rand in damage and disruptions to the academic year at various other university campuses, the National Assembly scheduled a debate on the matter.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder, introducing the debate, said MPs were representatives of the people and had to provide leadership on the issue of racism.
Mr Mulder said he had sent a message to his supporters that "racism is a very serious issue that must be condemned unconditionally".
He said the current protests were different, were largely artificial and were an attempt of certain political powers including the Economic Freedom Fighters to create a revolutionary climate.
African National Congress (ANC) MP Jabulani Mahlangu accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of distorting the position of the ANC, saying racism should be criminalised. He blamed the DA for promoting racial attitudes.
Mr Mahlangu also said there should be a register of racists, with those who ended up on the list being blacklisted. The list should be sent to foreign embassies so that South Africans on the list could be refused visas and denied international travel, he said.
DA MP Belinda Bozzoli said individual and group expressions of racial and other forms of hatred were repulsive, and must be condemned.
The racial tension was symptomatic of society, Prof Bozzoli said. "Not only is our society in a terrible economic state, with over 8-million unemployed, 16-million living on state grants and a 1% growth rate; not only is our state in the process of decay and half-captured by an emerging dictatorship, but on top of that, our universities are paying the price for 20 years of financial neglect by government."
She said that as a result, universities had, unsurprisingly, been subjected to massive, unremitting protests across every province. "There has been violence, arson, vandalism, bullying, the prevention of learning and probably many other things we don’t yet know about. All our latent fears and historical resentments come to the fore when our world is threatened. It is not unexpected that out of this cauldron, racial hatred has emerged."
Tshwane University of Technology ( TUT ) Picture: ERIC MALEMA
A LATE-night debate in the National Assembly on the rise of racism in SA’s universities turned into a blame game on Tuesday, as parties accused one another of culpability for the increasing polarisation between black and white at institutions of higher learning.
On Monday, management at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) took the decision to close its Soshanguve campuses until next month, due to the ongoing disruptions of lectures.
With hundreds of millions of rand in damage and disruptions to the academic year at various other university campuses, the National Assembly scheduled a debate on the matter.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder, introducing the debate, said MPs were representatives of the people and had to provide leadership on the issue of racism.
Mr Mulder said he had sent a message to his supporters that "racism is a very serious issue that must be condemned unconditionally".
He said the current protests were different, were largely artificial and were an attempt of certain political powers including the Economic Freedom Fighters to create a revolutionary climate.
African National Congress (ANC) MP Jabulani Mahlangu accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of distorting the position of the ANC, saying racism should be criminalised. He blamed the DA for promoting racial attitudes.
Mr Mahlangu also said there should be a register of racists, with those who ended up on the list being blacklisted. The list should be sent to foreign embassies so that South Africans on the list could be refused visas and denied international travel, he said.
DA MP Belinda Bozzoli said individual and group expressions of racial and other forms of hatred were repulsive, and must be condemned.
The racial tension was symptomatic of society, Prof Bozzoli said. "Not only is our society in a terrible economic state, with over 8-million unemployed, 16-million living on state grants and a 1% growth rate; not only is our state in the process of decay and half-captured by an emerging dictatorship, but on top of that, our universities are paying the price for 20 years of financial neglect by government."
She said that as a result, universities had, unsurprisingly, been subjected to massive, unremitting protests across every province. "There has been violence, arson, vandalism, bullying, the prevention of learning and probably many other things we don’t yet know about. All our latent fears and historical resentments come to the fore when our world is threatened. It is not unexpected that out of this cauldron, racial hatred has emerged."
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