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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2012 23:46 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2012 23:46 |
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The Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State is still divided along racial lines, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said on Thursday. "One student put it nicely: one campus, two races," he told journalists after visiting the institution. He said there were nevertheless some positive signs, including the recent election of the first black president of the student representative council. "We think that is important. Also you hardly find anyone now defending what happened, everybody is talking transformation." Although Nzimande planned to visit most of the higher learning institutions in the country, the Bloemfontein visit came in the wake of a report commissioned by the previous education minister into the Reitz men's hostel incident last year. "Also I just wanted to see for myself what is happening at the UFS, how they are dealing with the matter." The UFS found itself at the centre of a storm last year when an initiation video, made by four white residents of the now-closed hostel, surfaced. Nzimande said he was still deeply disturbed and "shocked" by what he heard after meeting students on Thursday. "This is still a highly segregated campus."  CONTINUES BELOW Campus residences were segregated, while separate Afrikaans and English classes on campus were "actually two racial groups". There was nowhere on the campus where social integration could take place, such as a student centre or cafeteria. "Those things are deeply disturbing to me." Nzimande said much work needed to be done at the university and the department supported some of the measures that management had already proposed. The department fully supported new rector Professor Jonathan Jansen's efforts to integrate residences. Nzimande was expected to deliver the annual Public Management Commemorative Lecture on "Higher Education in contemporary South Africa" at the UFS on Thursday night. - Sapa TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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