tertiary education
While some of South Africa’s tertiary institutions experience few interracial problems, others still can’t find solutions
Heather Hogan, Nawaal Deane, Marianne Merten, Connie Selebogo and Paul Kirk
Universities across the country are struggling to find ways to accommodate interracial strife in newly integrated residences. As the Mail & Guardian reported last month (February 25 to March 2), the University of the Orange Free State (UOFS) has acceded to student requests to segregate its residences after being hit by debilitating race rows – some triggered by matters as trivial as taste in music. TheUOFS has opted for an obvious if controversial solution, but it’s not the only course of action being pursued by South African universities. With students of all races experiencing for the first time what it means to live cheek-by-jowl with a different culture, tertiary institutions are experimenting with a range of strategies.
Pretoria Technikon
Apartheid is alive and well at Pretoria Technikon residences according to students, who say management is not prepared to take the initiative and change the situation.
Students say some residences – like Magalies, all-male and fully integrated – work well, while others, like Lizard, also all-male but with segregated corridors, have problems. There are some residences strictly for students of certain races: Polonaise, Legai and the Heights are all black, although at least foreigners are mixed with locals. In some other residences, there are whites-only corridors or floors.
“The issue of race is pathetic,” says a black male student. “The technikon uses accommodation to perpetuate separate development and only individual lecturers encourage transformation.”
He says that although classes are supposed to be taught in both English and Afrikaans, lecturers teach most of the classes in Afrikaans and only summarise in English. This he says causes foreign students as well as non-Afrikaans locals to suffer greatly. “We would prefer the classes all in English so that we can strive for globalisation,” he adds.
“If a student applies for one residence, they simply get pushed into another,” he continues, “and that is only the start. Every residence has a bus to transport students, but the Heights’s bus is wetter inside than outside when it rains.”
A Student Representative Council (SRC) member says black cultural programmes are not encouraged and that if one doesn’t attend other cultural activities, one is “spot fined”. “A spot fine is only R5 but after your third spot fine, you have to face a disciplinary committee.”
“It is not the students creating problems. Management is playing games with us,” says another SRC member. Some residences accommodate students according to the sports mentioned on their CVs and “most of the black students didn’t have enough facilities at school to experience most of these sports”.
The men seem to have more problems than the women. In the four female residences, the worst incidents are merely mild arguments. “Guys don’t care about anything. We have our problems but not like in guys’ residences,” she says. “Guys swear and fight when they’re drunk. This creates lots of problems and tension among students.”
-Technikon management, asked repeatedly for comment, avoided dealing with the issue – the only institution which refused.
University of Pretoria
Despite changes following an inquiry into racism at the University of Pretoria (UP) by the Human Rights Commission (HRC)in 1999, some of the 27E044 students the university caters for remain disgruntled.
-The HRC report stated that allegations of racism at UP were unfounded, but confirmed there was some racism in certain residences – especially Boekenhout, Karee and Sonop, the last-named owned by Sonop Old Boys. It also found segregation in some corridors and recreational facilities.
-UP’s response to the report was a proposal that two special task groups involving a wide range of stakeholders discuss and ensure the implementation of the council’s recommendations.
-Among transformation policies put forth in the report was that residence placement for 2000 ensure “as far as possible the demographic representation” and full integration of passages and residences.
-Training programmes for student leaders on racism, racial discrimination and racial stereotyping were also proposed.
-“I am not impressed with the proposal and I feel little has been done to change things after the HRC’s report,” says Lucky Thekiso, a student complaints officer and law student.
-“Racism is rife and people are not willing to change. Management may not necessarily be responsible, but they have invested their trust in people who are against change and therefore we blame them. We are all for democracy, but not democracy that takes us backwards.”
-A student living at Mopanie residence confides: “This is the first time I’ve been exposed to racism. It is very difficult to have white friends here. The whites are not all bad but if you have a white friend who is a girl and she wants to visit you, it is a problem. Even if you are just friends, other black students want to know what is going on between the two of you and you could end up with your room flooded and slogans like ‘AWB: Don’t feed the animals’ written on your door.”
He claims there are usually two social events – one for whites and the other for blacks.
“Transformation is more than an issue of black and white, it is a democratic process. What we are against is tokenism,” says Ntuthuko Khumalo, representative for the African National Congress Youth League on campus. One black man and one coloured man have been appointed house fathers, but “the issue of Wallace Isaacs being appointed as house father in Karee and Ezekiel Moraka’s appointment as house father in Boekenhout isn’t a question of whether they are black or white, but what they will do for transformation. These new guys are doing little to promote transformation.”
Khumalo says that out of the 13 men’s residences, Karee remains an all-black residence and Boekenhout predominantly white, while Sonop was definitely whites- only up until the end of last year.
“The [eight] female residences are very different,” says Khumalo. “There are no race-only corridors and they manage to be friends with each other. That is not to say there are no problems between them but there is minimum confrontation which is so minimal it can be disregarded, but where there are men, there is trouble.”
He believes the reason for this is because Afrikaans men defended apartheid under the old regime and African men fought against it.
“Now there is a battle to reconcile their differences,” he explains. “Women are also racist, but not to the same degree. They won’t tell you to your face that they hate you, they just won’t date you …”
Khumalo says progress initiatives are in place and the interim language medium in classes is now both English and Afrikaans, but believes Afrikaans is still predominantly used.
“The biggest problem is the level of implementation of policies,” he adds.
Says UP media officer Leon Rademeyer: “Our policy is to reflect student democracy.” He claims there are no officially segregated residences and hallways.
The HRC report dealt with its perception of racial tension on campus but, he says, “racial tension and acts of racism are two different things. There are no real problems here.”
The university has initiated an employment equity initiative to help with transformation; there is an employment equity officer and committee and its plan is “entrenched and running”.
“We see managing the university as an ongoing process. We see Ezekiel Moraka’s appointment as house father of Boekenhout as one of our success stories,” Rademeyer says.
“There is no way any form of human rights abuses will be tolerated here and we will definitely be enforcing that policy.”
University of Natal and Technikon Natal
In Durban students at Technikon Natal, the University of Natal-Durban and the University of Durban-Westville get along pretty well regardless of race, colour or creed.
But the institutions are not without their problems.
Last year, a Technikon Natal photography lecturer won a R50E000 defamation case against a union which accused her of racism. The racism charge came after Vivienne Freeman wrote a tongue-in-cheek e-mail warning members of staff that “three carbon/H2O units” had robbed one of her students at a cash machine.
According to staff at the technikon the incident left a nasty taste in many people’s mouths and led to some serious tension between supporters of Freeman and her accusers.
Perhaps tellingly, attempts to find out the racial and gender breakdown at the institutions failed – they do not keep information on racial breakdowns handy.
However, a trip to the campuses revealed a strange form of apartheid at work. While students mixed at the bars near campus and on the sports fields, the residences were exclusively occupied by African students – and overcrowded.
Said one lecturer: “Black students get bursaries more easily these days, and their sponsors often pay for rooms as well. But black students often do not have much cash so at both the Technikon Natal and the Durban campus of the University of Natal, many stay at home and rent out their rooms to others.” Involved are an estimated 5% to 10% of the rooms, often with up to five students in a bedroom. “The whites,” says the lecturer, “stay off-campus in flats mommy and daddy pay for.”
Enterprising students at the University of Natal are alleged to have another few moneymaking schemes on the go.
“We have always had some students growing dagga in the flower bed,” says a security guard. “But now we have also heard rumours that some of the chemistry students brew beer in their rooms. The more students, the bigger the drinking and the partying.”
University of Stellenbosch
The Afrikaans-medium university has actively recruited black students in recent years, but its image as a conservative institution prevails. White students are still the majority on campus and in residences, followed by coloured and African students, in that order.
Interracial mixing still raises eyebrows on campus and the English-Afrikaans language divide also plays a role.
Chief director of student affairs, Professor Pieter du Plessis, says there is no racial segregation in the university residences. “We hope we never have this. It is not our ideal.”
There have been some minor incidents, but nothing which could not be resolved either by the housemates or house committees, he adds. Around half the students, or some 5E500, live in 31 residences and 21 off- campus student houses.
Students are selected according to their matric results and, although it is not official university policy, some residences also take into account whether a student’s parents lived there before accepting applicants.
And while at least one residence still has the reputation of being a “Broederbond bastion”, Goldfields regards itself as a success. Formerly an off-campus hostel for senior African students, the predominately coloured house committee decided a few years ago to open the doors. It is now a racially and gender-mixed residence.
Speaking on behalf of the house committee, Lisa Delbridge says there have been “little clashes” over, for example, the type of music played by residents, but nothing which could be described as serious tensions.
Initially Afrikaner males seemed to have the most difficulty adjusting. “They came with the wrong ideas and attitude. But once they have been here for a while they adopt and feel very positive.”
Goldfields is known on campus as “the coloured residence”. This is out of ignorance, says Delbridge. “It works. We have learnt to live with each other.”
University of Christian Higher Learning Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom University tries to promote cultural integration among students by helping them to find common ground. It isn’t always easy.
In 1998, tension erupted in the Hombre men’s hostel when black and white students quarrelled over control of the television sets in the TV room, and accused each other of making noise. The black students moved out of the hostel.
Professor Pieter Potgieter, the dean of student affairs, found other accommodation for them and held negotiations with all students involved until the issue was solved amicably. The university has since aimed to promote understanding and try to change attitudes among students.
“We do not encourage separate black and white hostels,” said Potgieter, who says the incident highlighted the racial undertones that existed in hostels.
SRC president Rehaan Bezuidenhout says transformation policies have been implemented in residences where first-year students are allocated rooms.
Corridors in residences are racially mixed and foreign students are fully integrated into residences with local students, nearly half of whom are black.
There is a policy that encourages students to participate in various university activities as well as excel academically. If they do well in their studies, they can choose their own rooms in the second year.
Although racial tensions are not evident on campus, Potchefstroom is currently promoting tolerance with the help of 19 student cultural groups which cater for all student preferences. All student complaints are directed to the wardens.
Potchefstroom has several transformation policies, including the “revaluation of student cultures in terms of human rights requirements of the Constitution and financial aid to assist students from disadvantaged communities”, according to Frikkie Kotze, the university’s media officer.
“We don’t have racial or cultural tension, only small incidents in men’s hostels – and these problems are due to differences in lifestyle.”
Rand Afrikaans University
Students at Rand Afrikaans University consider themselves lucky. “We really don’t have any racial problems here,” says Sharon McGregor, SRC chair. “Certainly we have our transformation issues but they aren’t racial issues.”
There are five residences for female students and four for the men, and the only problems students might experience with each other are “social interest issues”, she says – for example, the type of music they play or the TV shows they want to watch.
“That problem is experienced equally with white groups and black groups. If the person in the room next door to me likes house music and I like classical music, then one of us might have a problem studying,” she explains.
A black student who declined to give his name says that “everything is cool here, there are no problems”. His group of multiracial friends all agreed. Foreign students are all integrated with local students in residences.
University of the Witwatersrand
When Liza van Zyl of Nigel on the East Rand – admitted to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) for a BSc degree course this year – realised that she was going to stay in one of the female residences, she was nervous.
“I had never stayed away from home before and I was told that the residence was dominated by black students,” she says. “I was told that they were not going to accept me.”
However, when Van Zyl reached the campus she discovered things were not that bad. She quickly made friends during orientation week. She shares premises at Sunnyside with a black student, Kelebogile Kgopa, and now feels that Sunnyside is a “home away from home”.
“Of course I would have preferred to share with a white girl just for familiarity, but we get along very well,” says Van Zyl. “I sometimes feel very lonely here. I am so limited with the people who are here and I cannot afford to make enemies.” Kgopa and Van Zyl say they have actually become close friends. “We are now very close friends, she takes my phone messages for me when I am away,” says Kgopa.
They share a washing basin, and they keep the doors that divide their room open.
Van Zyl and Kgopa are not the only students from different races sharing rooms at Wits. But Van Zyl is one of the few white students who choose to stay in residences at the university.
Although most white students at Wits now live off-campus, the university claims it has never had major problems with race in the residences.
But a student representative in the residence, who declined to be named, says he is not surprised white students left the residences as more black students came in.
“It is always the case in this country that white people do not want to stay with blacks,” he says. “When black people moved into the central business district of Johannesburg, white people moved to the northern suburbs, and even in student organisations, when the South African National Students Congress and the National Union of South African Students merged to form the South African Students Congress, white students left and now it’s only black students in the organisation.” Residence life office head at Wits, Naziem Randera, says the flight of white students from the residence is not entirely a result of political intolerence. In the Nineties, the university started giving preference to those students whose homes were not conducive to studying to come into residences, and the majority of them were black.
Randera says while most white students who come to Wits are from Gauteng and can afford to travel to and from their home every day, more and more black students are getting bursaries from both the government and private companies, which enable them to afford residence fees. However, Randera does not rule out racial intolerance. “Although there are no overt racial tensions, students do not integrate; there is no cultural and religious engagement among different racial groups,” he says.
Applicants to Wits residences are given a choice of smokers or non-smokers as roommates, and religious preferences are also a factor. Allocation into residences is made initially according to a request for self-catering or catered accommodation.
Randera says Wits has never segregated students along racial lines – although there was Glynn Thomas, a black-only residence in Soweto which closed in 1992.
“The division was imposed by legislation and not by Wits,” says Zola Majavu, a former Glynn Thomas resident and current house warden at Men’s Hall. “It was a result of the Group Areas Act.”
Although there were no white students in Glynn Thomas, there were black students in predominantly white residences on campus.
Majavu does not remember any violent racial conflict in the residences since he entered Wits as a law student in 1986. However, he agrees racial intolerance has driven away white students from university residences. “In the Eighties and early Nineties, residences were 90% white but now it is the other way round,” he says.
University of Cape Town
The racial dilemma at the University of Cape Town (UCT) residences is not interracial tension, but a lack of white students.
“Some residences have asked if more white students could be placed there,” says UCT director of student housing Ian Mackintosh. “If anything, our ‘problem’ is that we do not have enough white students in the system to fully integrate all residences.”
Overall, black students are in the majority at UCT’s 18 residence complexes, which range from single-sex or mixed self- catering flats to fully catered halls, and accommodate around 4E700 men and women. In the junior residences there is a “good balance of black and white students”, the administration says.
Places are allocated according to the average of the six best matric marks.
UCT tries to maintain a racial balance at its residences as research shows the existence of a minority could lead to feelings of discomfort.
A residence development programme seeks to promote diversity, while the running of the residences is shared between wardens and student house committees.
According to Mackintosh, the aim is “to create an environment in which students from diverse backgrounds can learn to live and to work together”. Residences have been racially integrated since the early Eighties. A conscious decision was taken by the then vice-chancellor Stuart Saunders to open up all student housing in defiance of the Group Areas Act.
For the most part, students say, people get along even if they tend to socialise within their own racial groups. But there is also acknowledgement that sometimes there are difficulties adjusting, particularly if a student did not attend a racially mixed school. And no residence is immune from the prejudices of the broader South African society, as some of the black foreign students have experienced.