Last Tuesday eNCA news reporter announced rather cavalierly that "the University of the Free State was hit by another racist scandal". Not to be outdone, talk show host, Eusebius McKaiser, labelled it a horrific race attack before the facts had even been established. These allegations made my hackles rise.
The story was that two white students had allegedly assaulted a black student, Muzi Gwebu, after some car scrape, which ended in a violent altercation. Claims were also swirling that the two white students were drunk, their car swerving all over the city, before they landed on the campus. Race baiters embellish where they can.
Facts are of no consequence, the media labelling it a scandal when in fact it was an incident. Unaware of the distinction between the two they held forth, oblivious of the fact that a scandal attributes value to the event and implies shame, dishonour, and disgrace.
The assault might well have been a hate crime or just pure thuggery. Who knows? That is for the courts to decide. But this was no scandal. Never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity, the race crusaders concluded rather arrogantly that this incident was racially inspired even before investigations started.
Add to this, the hypocrisy of the media and pundits alike and it will explain why they encourage trial by media. The media forgets the black student from the University of Johannesburg who was trampled to death by fellow students. They forget about the white woman from UFS whose leg was amputated by a black driver. Were these instances acts of racism?
For all we know, the UFS incident might be a hate crime but that has to be established by the courts. One cannot brand the entire university racist just because of the transgressions of two people. Prof Jansen has done more than any VC to promote reconciliation and transformation. UFS has won awards and much acclaim for its innovative strategies to promote inclusion, gender and racial equality, and reconciliation.