Thuli Madonsela's daughter speaks out against racial abuse at Tuks
Pretoria - Thuli Madonsela's daughter, Wenzile, who is the EFF's general secretary at the University of Pretoria, has told News24 how she and other students - and their mothers - were insulted during a protest over language last week.
Wenzile, an outspoken Economic Freedom Fighters student leader on the main campus, said the verbal attacks on her and her fellow protesters were of an extreme racist nature.
"Jou ma se poes (your mother's cunt)", "You’re a fucking kaffir", and "You’re a monkey”, were some of the insults hurled at black students.
Madonsela, a law student, said these came from Afriforum Youth members, but the organisation's spokesperson told News24 he was not aware of this, and that he would not condone such behaviour.
Madonsela said the insults were preceded by an attack before a debate on language policy at the university with members of AfriForum Youth on Thursday afternoon.
"They [AfriForum Youth] were there in their numbers. The University has hired bouncers on top of Fidelity [campus security company] using R2 million a month to control us as the Economic Freedom Fighters and other students who are engaging in any protest. They barricaded us and AfriForum then attacked me, took off my beret under the watch of the university," she said.
“Those people were mandated to choose us as the aggressors. We did not do anything. They were the same people who were whispering to us, jou ma se poes (your mother's cunt), you’re a fucking kaffir, you’re a monkey. They were agitating us."
AfriForum national co-ordinator Morne Mostert said he could not confirm the incident as he hadn’t seen anything. He said they did not tolerate such behaviour from members. He said they would look into the matter.
"We don’t give instructions to behave like that. We believe in mutual respect and want that for all students. I don’t think that one of our members would do that, but when the matter is brought to us, we will handle it and see if it did happen," said Mostert.
University spokesperson Anna-Retha Bouwer said they would not tolerate hate speech.
"We can't comment on individual fights but as a whole, the university does not condone unlawful action and hate speech would be one. That action goes against the social cohesion that we are trying to build at the university," she said.
Mandonsela, who is the daughter of Public Protecor Thuli Madonsela and a member of the EFF student command, said Thursday’s clashes resulted in students protesting on Friday and shutting down the campus. At least 27 people were arrested on the day for public violence and they appeared in court on Monday. Charges against three of them were dropped, leaving only 24 students to stand trial.
"Police were there and some students were throwing stones, but not necessarily from the EFF student command. They released tear gas and started shooting while our backs were towards them, but I know legally they are not allowed to shoot you when your back is towards them.
"I got injured and I’m taking the university to task because I’m a student of the University of Pretoria and their first priority is to protect the students and not to protect the institution," she said.
Madonsela said she would be taking legal action against the AfriForum member who attacked her.
"I will be taking legal action against the guy from AfriForum, SAPS and the University of Pretoria because we can’t have this. Someone needs to be held accountable. We can’t continuously be victimised on campus," she said.
Arrested Tuks students were targeted
Wenzile Madonsela also claimed that University of Pretoria students who were arrested last week were targeted by the university.
“There was a list that was circulated of students who they [university] wanted [them] to be arrested. Those arrests were not by chance,” Madonsela told News24.
“They thought momentum would be gone with the arrests.”
At least 27 people were arrested last week on Friday for public violence and appeared in court on Monday. Charges against three of them were dropped, leaving 24 students to stand trial.
University spokesperson, Anna-Retha Bouwer, said the institution had nothing to do with who was arrested on the day. She added that they could not intervene or assist in paying bail as the arrests took place outside the university's premises.
Arrests off campus
“The arrests happened off campus and the police made the arrests. The university could not intervene by saying arrest this one and let this one go,” she said.
Madonsela accused the university of failing to assist the students. She said the move to target and isolate student leaders was adding fuel to an already raging fire at the university.
“They are just agitating and aggravating the students even more. The passive aggression is now gone, there is raw anger where students are tired of being victimised, tired of being second class citizens, tired of the divisions and Afrikaans classes and constantly being undermined by the university.
Institutional racism
“They are tired of institutional racism, they are tired of being black before [being] students and the university doesn’t care, but we will make them care whether it’s through legal recourse or protest. I won’t go for anarchy because I’m not an anarchist but it's time,” she said.
Students at the university have been protesting over language policy. The protests have resulted in the closure of the institution, including on Monday.
Bouwer said due to the disruptions, academic activities on the Hatfield campus, lectures and tests that were scheduled were temporarily postponed on Monday
Madonsela called on the university to withdraw the charges against the students.
“Until the charges are dropped, we will continue to agitate and frustrate [the] campus," she said.
"Yes we are losing academic time but [with our fight] ours is [to say] academics first. [Our fight] is not to take time from the students but to promote equality on campus. The same kind of environment, the same rights that any other student has."
This article first appeared on News24 – see here.
