AfriForum Youth demands answers from the Puk about racial exclusion
11 February 2023
AfriForum Youth is demanding answers from the Puk management regarding the exclusion of city residences from the annual campus welcoming function which led to students taking a stand over racial exclusion. House committee members (HC) of the city residences received a WhatsApp message at 23:30 on Friday evening informing them that their first years had to watch a virtual broadcast of the welcoming function in separate venues and could not be part of the session which is presented every year at the amphitheater.
The HC inquired with the student council (SC) about this decision, to which the SC member replied that the city residences are not diverse enough and that when they are going to be asked to stand up during the amphitheater session it will look too white. This morning, a large group of students from the town residences gathered outside the amphitheater to express their unhappiness about this decision.
“It is bizarre that the Puk deprives some of their students, who have already paid for registration and orientation, of their first student experience on campus, because they are so racially obsessed that they exclude students based on the colour of their skin. Furthermore, racial classification and racial discrimination are already part of the admission requirements for the campus residences, and now the students who are excluded there and have no choice but to join a city residence are not welcome in other places either,” says René van der Vyver, spokesperson for AfriForum Youth.
The city residences in question, as well as campus residences that stand against this exclusion, also took a stand today outside the amphitheater and did not go to the separate venues. However, a management member, who reports to the Executive Director of Student Life, addressed the group of students and told them to leave. He argues that the campus could not afford stands, as in all previous years, to accommodate the first-year students from city residences at the amphitheater session.
“It is disturbing that HC members, who were elected as leaders by students, are not allowed to take a stand against issues on campus. They are made aware of important information at the last minute when they receive messages with instructions late at night. When they then show up and stand up against the unfair exclusion, they are chased away,” says Adrienne Krause, AfriForum Youth officer for development, who observed how the scenario unfolded.
AfriForum Youth strongly condemns racial exclusion and is gathering more information about this, while further steps are being planned.
Statement issued by René van der Vyver, Spokesperson: AfriForum Youth, 11 February 2023
