Politics on Pretoria University Campus

You may remember the article we featured on the website not too long ago, Freedom of Speech or Freedom to Hate.
In it, we shed some light on varsity racism in the form of the
discriminatory posters that adorned the University of Pretoria (UP)
campus during their SRC election campaign. Well, ballots were counted
and the results are in – the Freedom Front, an all-white party, won.

Campus life continued as usual, with election results never exceeding
water cooler significance in the cafeteria and coffee shop. Indifferent
students mentioned it in passing, but believing it does not affect
them, they did not take matters further. I, like many, thought the
elections were over and done with, until I saw an article in
yesterday’s Sunday Times supplement Metro. It alleged that there was a
contravention of the University’s constitution and the Dean of
Students, Professor Mcglory Speckman, called the SRC elections
“irregular”.

UP management refuses to accept this newly elected council on the
grounds that it is “too white” and not in keeping with the relevant
governing principles, which state that “there must be representivity
[sic]” in the Council. Management “discovered” that all the faculty
representatives (one of three ‘arms’ that make up the SRC) were white.
An all-white panel on a campus with an estimated 35% black student
population – you do the maths.

The newly elected SRC president from the Freedom Front, JAN-HENDRIK KAY
was quoted as saying that “Everyone was free to stand as candidates and
to vote” and he “cannot agree it [the election] was racist.” He also
accused university management of double standards, saying SRC
representatives from the university’s Mamelodi campus “are all black
but not a word is said about this.” I have one thing to say about this
comment: just about all the students at the Mamelodi campus are black,
so there is representativity, and any protests in this regard would
barely be justifiable.

Now, we await the university’s final decision – order the SRC to hold
new elections or let things stand as they are. One thing is clear
though; this year’s elections brought racial rifts at the university to
the fore, and these divisions certainly won’t be resolved overnight.