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A pressure group promoting transformation at the University of Stellenbosch claims its members have been threatened with disciplinary action if they go ahead with planned mass meetings to focus on the university’s language policy.
City Press last week reported that Sikhulekile Duma – a sociology student and member of activist group Open Stellenbosch – received a racist SMS from a lecturer at the university. The SMS read: “Jou swart moer van die wit boer” (you black bastard from the white farmer).
The SMS was traced back to physics lecturer Anton Stander, who has since been suspended.
This week, Kylie Thomas, also a member of Open Stellenbosch and a lecturer at the university’s English department, told City Press the university had threatened to discipline individual members if the group organised any mass gatherings.
“Two members of the Open Stellenbosch collective received letters threatening us with disciplinary action if we went ahead and held the first meeting to focus on language and exclusion at the Rooiplein – a central gathering place in the middle of the campus – and if we held further meetings in the future.
“I was one of the people who received this letter.
“The letter I received was from the director of strategic initiatives and human resources, Tobie de Coning, and it was copied to the vice-chancellor and others in senior management. It was not sent to the dean of my faculty.”
De Coning said members of Open Stellenbosch did not follow university procedure regarding mass gatherings.
“The university would be failing in its duty not to indicate to staff members that they run the risk of disciplinary action should they continue to advise students to ignore the correct procedures.”
Tensions between the group and the university also heightened this week in the student parliament, when one of the vice-rectors dismissed the concerns of mainly black students about the language issue.
In a recorded clip, the vice-rector for learning and teaching, Arnold Schoonwinkel, can be heard asking students whether “coming to Stellenbosch, did you really think you wouldn’t hear Afrikaans?”
The session descended into chaos when members of Open Stellenbosch called for him to retract his statement.
Efforts to contact Schoonwinkel were in vain.
