Transformation hearing bias

AfriForum Youth questions the transparency and credibility of the two day long hearing of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) which was hosted in Johannesburg this week (see report).

 "The roleplayers who were involved include one-sided and blatant racist organisations, such as the Higher Education Transformation Network (HETN). The hearing involved no minority groups," said Henk Maree, National Chairman of AfriForum Youth.

 "The examples used by the Commission to make their conclusions were - amongst others - the Reitz incident, a 2008 incident which has been dealt with long ago, the drowning of a first year student of the Potchefstroom Campus of the North West University in 2012, in which the probe found no element of race or discrimination, as well as the example of the University of the Free State (UFS).

This incident referred to the two students who were accused of assault, but the case is still being investigated and no conclusion can be made as yet, on the contrary, it came to light that the student who was allegedly assaulted was dishonest in his statement. Furthermore, just two weeks after the first incident at the UFS a white student was assaulted by a black student, but the Commission chose to ignore it," Maree said.

According to the SAHRC spokesperson, 45 % of all complaints have racial connotations, but conveniently leaves out how many of these complaints can be supported or even confirmed. The SAHRC mentions that all complaints do not come from universities, but still uses the percentage to suggest that the problem lies at universities. 

 "AfriForum Youth will continue to protect Afrikaans as medium of instruction at universities. It's strange that external roleplayers do not utter one word about the fact that the Mafikeng Campus hosts between 97% - 99% black students," Maree said.

Statement issued by Henk Maree, National Chairperson: AfriForum Youth, August 2 2014

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