Remarks by the African National Congress Western Cape Chairperson Marius Fransman (MPL), at the Freedom Charter Forum Lecture
17 September 2015
Programme Director; National Chairperson of the African National Congress, Cde Baleka Mbete
We could not have chosen a better setting for this Lecture on the Freedom Charter than the University of Stellenbosch.
Cognisant that we meet during Heritage Month, the month of the death of Steven Bantu Biko as well as the month in which we celebrate the birth of the ANC Youth League, we, as the ANC in the Western Cape, take this opportunity to welcome all of you here to this Lecture.
We welcome especially the National Chairperson of the ANC, Cde Baleka Mbete, an activist who knows this province; a leader who is well aware of the struggles of defending our democratic institutions and the hard won freedoms we enjoy today.
We welcome you the students and staff of the University of Stellenbosch but also members of the community of Stellensbosch and the greater Cape Winelands area to this occasion where hopefully all of us will once again be inspired to take up the call to work towards a national democratic society as envisioned by the Freedom Charter.
The University of Stellenbosch was established in 1874 and may be described as the oldest Afrikaans-language university in South Africa. It is no secret that this university served as the bedrock for the formulation of the policy of apartheid.
Here, National Party and Broederbond leaders, such as Hendrik Verwoerd, DF Malan and John Vorster were groomed and taught. FW de Klerk received an honrary doctorate here.
The institution was not only the birthplace of Apartheid but it also served as an incubator for racism and discrimination.
For example, the residence called “Dagbreek” (formerly known as the John Murray House) housed students that were directly involved in the “clash of Andringa street” which occurred in 1939.
From Dagbreek, students from the University went out into the community and attacked the homes of the African and Coloured communities. Former Prime Ministers Verwoerd and Vorster were both housed at Dagbreek and the residence served as a formation house for future National Party politicians.
At the same time, Afrikaans has historically been a source of contention in South Africa because it is intertwined with issues of identity; both for the Afrikaner and for some Coloureds.
Yet the implementation of language policy then already was used as a tool in order to advance the interests of those holding political office, that is, the Apartheid regime under the Nationalist Party.
Are we then surprised that the same people who advocate for the use of Afrikaans in this university today, despite the exclusion of others, are the very ones who wish to perpetuate past privilege?
The language policy then, as it is today, was to establish Afrikaners as a distinct cultural and linguistic group; note, even to the exclusion of Afrikaans Coloured speaking people. The Afrikaner agenda was driven then and continues to be premised on the struggle for cultural and linguistic domination.
Furthermore, the University’s racist past was revealed in the discovery of an instrument case with Eugen Fischer’s name engraved on it. Fischer was a leading Nazi eugenicist in Germany in the 1930s and the instruments were used to measure hair and skulls.
In a lecture at this University two years ago, the ANC pointed out all these factors which are today being highlighted by student movements on this campus.
We are not jumping onto the bandwagon, we set the bandwagon in motion two years ago already.
Then already, we pointed out the institutional racism that existed within this town because of the university. Just as one cannot separate Dagbreek from the clash of Andringa street; so too one cannot separate the town from the university.
Those who perpetuate racism in this town are often students from this university. Those who use Afrikaans to perpetuate past privilege are the very ones who work for the university.
Yet it is important too, to understand the global role that the University of Stellenbosch plays. It, marketing itself as an international institution, must be understood within the proper global, neo-liberal yet racist context.
Already in the 1920’s the Carnegie Corporation, based in New York, pumped money and resources and partnered with the University to undertake and advance certain research projects.
It was the well-known, five-volume, “Poor White study” report of the 1930s that brought together the destinies of poor and well-off Whites, in order to mobilise socially and politically for dominance. The study stemmed from a social science project done in 1929 to uncover the growing number of Whites that were slipping into unmitigated poverty (Carnegie Corporation, 2004).
A “Poor White” commission made up of politicians, clergy and members of academia were dedicated to uplift 300 000 poor Whites out of poverty in order to salvage White political solidarity.
The study did fieldwork, gathering statistics and facts, as well as capturing the voices of Afrikaans speaking, impoverished Afrikaners and their plight. This “Poor White Study”, funded by the Carnegie Corporation, was fundamental to the rise of the National Party in later years; which reiterated that “The white man must remain masters.”
The ‘Poor White Study’ can therefore be regarded as a catalyst to the construction of the Apartheid government.
Allow me to quote from the Lecture I gave in 2013:
“...the university seeks to serve the interests of Afrikaans speaking Whites and Coloureds but things become unclear on how the university’s leaders plan to achieve their goal of inclusivity with reference to accommodating Africans, the majority of whom do not understand Afrikaans and who are historically marginalized from Stellenbosch. This could be termed as the dilemma of ‘multi-lingulism’.
In addition, despite the role played by the Carnegie Corporation in funding the “Poor White Study”, Stellenbosch University boasts the Carnegie Doctoral and Masters’ Research Commons situated in the J.S. Gericke library.”
Today, twenty-years into our democracy, 83% of the academic staff remain White; while we are made to believe that the university goes for quality in theior academic staff. In other words, White equals quality.
62% of the student population are White. This cannot be right.
-Transformation that the Freedom Charter envisages does not exclude the usage of Afrikaans;
-Afrikaans belongs to all South Africans, it must not be used to exclude; it must not be used to divide;
-It is the language of the people, born out of the kitchens of the Boers where the slaves worked; it is a child of Dutch but also of Malaysian.
-The ANC will defend Afrikaans but not if it is forced on our people and not if it is used to subjugate our people.
What Kliptown was to the Freedom Charter, Stellenbosch was to Apartheid.
If we wish to conquer the legacy of Apartheid, still evident today in our universities, our communities and our province, then we must come to the place where it all started.
We must work towards that which is espoused by the Freedom Charter when it declares:
“...We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brother-and-sister-hood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities...”
We are confident that you, Chairperson, will be comfortable in delivering this Lecture here today, for you once were a teacher (me too in fact) having taught in Durban and then in exile in Swaziland; having also spent time in Dares Salaam, Nairobi, Gaborone, Harare and Lusaka.
On return from exile, you took on various leadership positions, serving as Secretary General of the Women’s League from 1991 to 1993, Deputy-Speaker of the National Assembly from 1996 to 2004 and Speaker of the National Assembly from 2004 to 2008; a position in which you serve the country to this day.
In 2008, you were elevated to the high office of Deputy-President of the Republic while this is your second term as serving as National Chairperson of the ANC.
Statement issued by Marius Fransman, ANC Western Cape chairperson, 17 September 2015
This speech was first made at the Freedom Charter Forum Lecture delivered by the National Chairperson of the ANC Baleka Mbete in Stellenbosch
