Young Afrikaners swing to the right or to Roelf as racial incidents rise, writes Gustav Thiel
Student leaders at Afrikaans universities across the country say the days of National Party domination of campus politics are over.
Both the Freedom Front (FF) and Roelf Meyers New Movement Process (NMP) are gaining ground at Potchefstroom, Stellenbosch, Orange Free State (UOFS) and Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) campuses which are also experiencing an increase in racist attacks.
The Freedom Front won last weeks Students Representative Council (SRC) election at the University of Pretoria, prompting the FFs Gauteng leader, Joseph Chiole, to say the results could be an important indicator for the future of white politics in the country.
The fact that the National Party did not draw a single vote at Pretoria could not have been good news for the partys new leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, although the NP said the results would have little bearing on its future.
But the Freedom Front has predicted the end of the NP and the dawn of a new conservatism amongst Afrikaners. The chairman of the FFs youth wing, Kallie Kriel, said trends on Afrikaner campuses show that young Afrikaners are choosing the FF because the party works for the interest of Afrikaners.
The FFs euphoria was tempered slightly by the strong showing of Roelf Meyers new party in SRC elections at Pretoria, RAU and UOFS. The fledgling NMP now has student branches at all traditionally Afrikaans universities.
But dominant politics at historically Afrikaans universities is still white, despite growing enrolment of black students there.
Madelein Brand, leader of the African National Congress Youth League in Stellenbosch, who failed in her SRC election bid recently, said black student organisations continue to be marginalised at Afrikaans universities.
I think that in particular, Stellenbosch is becoming more and more conservative as these people are confronted with the harsh realities of a changing South Africa, Brand said.
While politics did not play a major role in our SRC elections, the candidates who made it are almost exclusively conservative whites. It is safe to say that this will have an effect on the performances of political parties on campus.
At Stellenbosch, 11 of the 12 SRC members are white. The picture at the other universities is much the same. Potchefstroom has an exclusively white SRC despite the fact that more than 10% of the students are black. At the UOFS, 13 of the 17 SRC members are white.
Progressive student leaders at these universities say the increase of violent racist incidents on campuses is an indication of the foothold gained by radical right-wing elements.
At Stellenbosch, said Brand, black and coloured candidates for the SRC elections were spat at and abused on several occasions. At the Dagbreek male residence, the only black candidate elected to the SRC, Winoma Michaels, was told by a group of men that they would never vote for a kaffir.
At the Helderberg male residence, Brand and others received physical threats if they did not withdraw from the race.
A white SRC candidate said in the election campaign that Jesus called me to study at Stellenbosch because Jews and Muslims go to the University of Cape Town. He was elected.
Stellenbosch rector, Professor Andreas van Wyk, downplayed the incidents, saying it was expected for such episodes to take place during an SRC election.
At Potchefstroom, newly elected SRC president Gisela Horn said they were aiming to have black members on the council in 1999, but denied that race played a major role in campus politics. She also denied that violent racial incidents dominated campus life even after a resident of the mixed residence, Isaac Tshaboeng, was assaulted by a former chairman of the house committee, GF Heyns.
Heyns was charged in the student court and will have to serve 10 days community service.
At the University of Pretoria, South African Students Congress (Sasco) member Lucky Thekiso was beaten by white students who brandished weapons at him. Sasco chairman Joseph Mamabolo said this is a frequent occurrence.
Pretorias SRC president, Andrea Naude, admitted that racial incidents were a problem. However, she insisted that the politicisation of the campus was necessary to ensure that minority parties, such as the FF, were represented on student structures.
UOFS SRC chairman, Naude de Klerk, said it is ironic that, while his university has traditionally been regarded as the most conservative in the Afrikaner community, there have been few racial incidents.
More than 40% of our students are black and by next year this will exceed 50%. We simply cant ignore changes in society and we are addressing these, he said.
This does not mean, however, that conservative white political organisations will become extinct. I can already see that they are mobilising to fight for the rights of the Afrikaner.