AfriForum Youth hands “Respect our right to learn” memorandum to Presidency

Respect our right to learn, allow us to study in Afrikaans and stop subjecting us to quota systems. This was the message AfriForum Youth representatives gave to the presidency on behalf of Afrikaner students. The youth organisation today handed a memorandum to the president’s office during a discussion of issues pertinent to Afrikaner students.

According to AfriForum Youth representative, Henrico Barnard, Afrikaans students sympathise with the financial issues raised by the #feesmustfall campaign. However, our interests are not represented by this group.

AfriForum Youth distanced themselves from the tactics used by the protesters.

“Non-participating students were attacked, some had to barricade themselves in classes out of fear for being beaten, students writing exams were disrupted and others were forced to participate. Even university staff members were held hostage. As a result, the majority of students were deprived of their right to education. We cannot associate with such behaviour,” Barnard said.

According to AfriForum Youth national spokesperson, Ian Cameron, issues discussed included: exclusion from financial assistance for Afrikaner students, the race based quota systems of access to institutions and the dire position of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.

Most Afrikaner students today were born after 1994. They have grown up under the current constitution. Yet in practice, Afrikaner students do not have the same freedom as their fellow students.  Today’s Afrikaner students played no part in Apartheid, yet they bear the brunt of policies aimed to redress the effects of that system.  “Now, increasingly, we are faced with policies that seek to exclude us from education,” Cameron said. 

We take note of the fact that the tertiary landscape has now changed. We are also cognisant that government will make a number of policy changes in this regard. We are intent on playing an active role in these changes to ensure that our interests are not disregarded. We therefore demand the following:

- A safe learning environment for all students and that measures are put in place at institutions to protect the rights of both protesting and non-protesting students.

- Quality education for all.

- That the principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy be respected by government.

- That race-based quotas with regard to university acceptance be disposed of in total.

- That class-based and race-based quotas be disposed of where financial assistance is concerned.

- That government fulfil its constitutional obligations and provide financing for mother tongue education and ensure that it is protected and applied at all institutions of learning.

Since 1994, generous attention has been given to those issues effecting previously disadvantaged student communities, and rightly so. As a result, for the last 20 years Afrikaner students had to accept that their issues would play second fiddle to these imperatives. The situation has now changed. We are part of the born free generation and we refuse to be treated as second class citizens.

“If we enjoy the protection of a constitutional democracy, we demand all rights afforded to us by that constitution,” Barnard said.

Issued by Henrico Barnard, Spokesperson, AfriForum Youth TUKS, 26 October 2015