‘Transformania won’t win’ tweet sparks row

A Stellenbosch University council member has found himself at the centre of a row over his stance on transformation.

Cape Town - A Stellenbosch University council member has found himself at the centre of an uproar over his stance on transformation, which is contrary to the university’s recent commitment to change.

It started with a tweet by Piet le Roux, a member of the Stellenbosch University council, who is also the convener of the newly formed Afrikaanse Alumni-vereniging, and has caused a row on social media.

Just a few days after the university council told Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education that it was united on the importance of transformation at the institution, Le Roux tweeted: “Blade Nzimande en #transformanie gaan nie wen nie. Ondersteun die Afrikaanse Alumni-vereniging. (Blade Nzimande and transformania won’t win. Support the Afrikaanse Alumni Association.”

The hashtag #pietlerouxmustfall was started soon after and calls were made on Twitter and Facebook for the university council to be dissolved.

The association’s website states that “under the banner of transformation” there is an “orchestrated attack on the independence and excellence of the most outstanding South African universities”.

Nzimande’s spokesman Khaye Nkwanyana hit back at Le Roux’s tweet by posting: “It is with utmost regret that there are still people like you in SA who have not yet crossed the rubicon of 94.”

He later added: “Minister Nzimande reserves the power to force transformation, haul over coals those resisting it, as a last resort.”

Campus activism body Open Stellenbosch, which in May also called for the council to be dissolved, said in a statement on Facebook on Sunday that the “official pro-transformation rhetoric” coming from the management and the university’s corporate marketing division was “clearly at odds with the views of council members such as Piet le Roux, who is unashamedly anti-transformation”.

“For Stellenbosch University to exist for the benefit of society at large and to be a non-discriminatory, inclusive institution, anti-transformation attitudes must go. South African university councils are not meant to be constituency-based bodies and council members are not meant to serve sectional interests as many do at Stellenbosch.”

In an e-mail to the Cape Argus, Le Roux, who is also head of Solidarity’s research institute, said he coined in Afrikaans “transformanie” to distinguish it from transformasie (transformation), “which can also be interpreted positively, depending on what one means by it”.

“For example, one can use the word transformation in the sense of making civil society stronger and halting the state’s racial engineering, as opposed to the case under apartheid. Unfortunately, transformation as driven by the Department of Higher Education, has taken a particularly destructive form, under which it is rigidly insisted that every organisation in the country, universities included, should reflect the national racial demographics and, by extension, become an English institution,” he said.

“It does nothing for transformation in any positive sense; parades as pro-diversity when, in fact, it insists upon uniformity; and extends the control of the state over civil society in much the same way the National Party government used to extend its control.

“Transformanie is the Jimmy Manyi-version of transformation (insisting that coloured people should stop their so-called over-concentration in the Western Cape), under which radical racial engineering by the state becomes the dominant feature of society, which only serves to take us further away from the diversity and tolerance of a normal society. Dr Nzimande is more circumspect than Mr Manyi in his remarks about what his idea of transformation means, but fundamentally Dr Nzimande and Mr Manyi share the same vision of a state-directed society.”

Le Roux said he didn’t speak for the council and his statements were not directed at the situation at Stellenbosch inparticular, but had been made in response to the general unrest and insistence on “radical transformation” at universities over the country.

“Council at Stellenbosch, like all councils and all boards, are often not in agreement on some issues. Nevertheless, even when there is disagreement, councils still have their official positions, and disagreement by some members do not invalidate those official positions.” He said Nkwanyana and Nzimande appeared to believe that the role of government toward universities “are today in principle different from that under the National Party government”.

“I think it is not as different as they imagine. What is eerily similar is that both this and the previous government interferes very directly in the domain of university autonomy by insisting that government should determine matters of language and race at universities. What is different is only the content of the insistence and the interference, not the unfortunate existence of the interference itself.”

Stellenbosch University spokesman Martin Viljoen confirmed Le Roux was a council member and was one of six members elected by the convocation (which mainly consists of alumni). “Council matters are decided by consensus or a majority vote of the members present. Council overwhelmingly approved the Institutional Intent and Strategy documents in April 2013 and the Institutional Plan documents in December 2014. These documents set out the roadmap for transformation, and the university management is moving forward with the implementation thereof.”

Viljoen said any council member had the prerogative to state a personal opinion, but that didn’t not alter a council decision or derail the university’s committed transformation initiatives.

ilse.fredericks@inl.co.za

Cape Argus