Language and exclusion at Stellenbosch University - Open Stellenbosch
Many people in South Africa are aware of the RhodesMustFall movement at UCT and the problems of institutional racism it has highlighted. These problems are nowhere more present than at Stellenbosch University where Afrikaans systematically excludes Black students and staff, and where White Afrikaans culture is celebrated over all others. Open Stellenbosch was created to challenge this.
We are a movement of predominantly Black students and staff at the University who refuse to accept the current pace of transformation. In 2013, only 3.5% of all professors at the University were Black, while 86% were White. In fact, there are more professors named ‘Johan’ than there are Black professors at our institution. Is this really what transformation looks like 20 years after apartheid?
The fact that we as Black students on campus have to take matters into our own hands to change the oppressive institutional culture at Stellenbosch is an indictment of the University management. We do not believe that those in the SRC, the Senate or the Council understand the weight of normalized oppression that we experience at this overtly White University.
Although our institution claims that “continuous transformation is part of the core being of the University”, this could not be further from our everyday reality at Stellenbosch. We are tired of empty promises and goals that are perpetually postponed. We have been having these conversations for over a decade now and it is clear that the management at Stellenbosch has been operating in bad faith. Many promises, little action.
There was the “Strategic Framework” of 1999, the “Vision 2012” document of 2000, the “Transformation Strategy” of 2008, the “Overarching Strategic Plan” of 2009, the “Quality Development Plan”, the “Employment Equity Plan”, the “Diversity Framework” and so it goes on. These have all failed because of a wholesale lack of political will to implement them - both then and now.