Statement on the issue of irresponsible statements by student leaders.
06 May 2015
The Department of Higher of Higher Education and Training (DHET) calls on all student leaders to think carefully and to be fully informed before making inflammatory statements about people and events, including historical figures and episodes. We should not be making such statements when we are oblivious of the facts.
Irresponsible statements about Hitler, for example, cannot be made in ignorance of the role that he actually played. Hitler and the Nazi regime that he led were responsible for unleashing on the world the worst violence in the twentieth century. The Second World War resulted in over 50 million dead and many more maimed and wounded.
These casualties included soldiers and civilians from five continents and from countries as diverse as widespread as China, Australia, many African countries and, of course, Europe where most casualties occurred. South African troops – both black and white – participated in the war and many lost their lives.
Those who imposed the racist apartheid regime were strongly influenced by Nazi ideology. An ultra-right wing movement, the Ossewa Brandwag, sabotaged South African military installations during the war to support Nazi Germany. Their members included John Vorster who later became the Prime Minister and President of South Africa in the darkest days of apartheid. A prominent member of the liberation movement in South Africa, Brian Bunting, wrote a book called The Rise of the South African Reich which drew parallels between apartheid and Nazism.
Hitler was the worst kind of racist who believed that Jews, Roma (or Gypsies) and blacks were the lowest forms of human life. They were considered to be sub-human and not worthy of any rights. Under Nazi rule, six million Jews and a quarter of a million Roma were killed in the most inhuman ways including being forcibly forced into concentration-camp gas chambers.
Although there were few blacks in Europe at the time, a significant number suffered the same fate. Black German citizens and the children of German fathers and African mothers who met in Germany’s African colonies were sterilized to keep Germany “racially pure”.
Contrary to the views of some, Hitler did not unite the German nation. German Jews, Roma, communists, liberals and other opponents of Nazism were viciously persecuted. Modern Germany is so disgusted by the Hitler regime that it made it illegal to propagate Nazism.
We should do some basic research before making statements that can inflict great psychological pain on the survivors as well as the relatives and descendants of the victims of historical injustices. It also gives offence to those millions (including South Africans) who risked their lives in World War Two.
We urge student organisations to educate their leaders politically and promote general student awareness about history. The DHET is willing to consider a partnership with the South African Union of Students (SAUS) in this regard. We also support the Department of Basic Education’s plans to introduce history as a compulsory subject up to Grade 12.
Statement issued by Khaye Nkwanyana, Ministry of Higher Education and Training, May 6 2015
