SOLIDARITY AKADEMIA COLLEGE

The Higher Education Transformation Network (HETN), hereby supports the Minister of Higher Education‘s planned closure of Akademia College, Solidarity/ Afriforum's private university for the continued discrimination based on language which is not compliant with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (see Rapport article). We further question the processes utilized for the accreditation of the Akademia's learning programmes by the Council for Higher Education (CHE).

We wish to question the criteria and guidelines utilized by the CHE in granting provisional accreditation status to Akademia Konkordia College, an institution that exclusively admits Afrikaans-only students to the exclusion of non-Afrikaans underprivileged students speaking other languages who cannot access the College's courses at the prices the College's courses are being delivered at.

The accreditation of Solidarity/ Afriforum's Akademia College is inconsistent with the principles of Section 4 of the Constitution, the Education White Paper of 1997. and Higher Education Amendment Act 21 of 2011.The Education White Paper of 1997 states that higher and further education needs to promote fair equity of access to all students who are seeking to realise their academic potential while eradicating all forms of unfair discrimination. The Higher Education Act of 1997 (as amended) also espouses the principle of ensuring equal access to education to provide optimal opportunities for learning for all.

Contrary to promoting the interests of a unified South African society to advance economic prosperity and fight poverty, Solidarity and Afriforum, supported by the subjective one-sided reporting by Rapport newspaper amongst others, are playing a divisive nefarious role by seeking to entrench the exclusion of blacks from higher education as evidenced by their exploits at the North West University (NWU) and the University of Pretoria Tuks Alumni Board.

The Higher Education Transformation Network (HETN) has already requested and received further particulars from the

CHE for further clarity as it considers a way forward on the matter.

We do not rule out legal action on the matter should Solidarity and its Akademia continue refusing access to studies based on exclusive language considerations which are not in compliance with Constitutional provisions.

Statement issued by Mr Hendrick Makaneta, Director Alumni Support and Media relations, HETN, December 2 2014

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