A report commissioned in the wake of ”vigilante” attacks at the University of Stellenbosch earlier this year has warned that it is a matter of urgency that campus culture be placed on a new footing.
The report was compiled by a seven-member panel chaired by Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and released at the university on Friday.
”Recent incidents are proof … of a mindset and value system that are in conflict with basic human rights and that exceed all boundaries of reasonable behaviour,” the report says.
”Attempts to gloss over these incidents as a form of student fun deny the seriousness and more profound nature of the problem.”
The panel was appointed in May after three senior students of the Majuba men’s hostel donned balaclavas to attack two other residents at the hostel they believed were smoking dagga.
Since then, the university has been rocked by an incident in which four students from another male residence, Wilgenhof, were arrested for shooting female students with an air gun.
In the 25-page report the panel says that for various reasons the ”realities and implications” of change in post-1994 South Africa began to make their presence felt at Stellenbosch later than at other campuses.
The discrepancy has led to customs and practices being maintained and condoned — despite numerous attempts to stop them. This is simply not reconcilable with the Constitution and the Bill of Human Rights.
”It is disturbing to note that recent incidents are apparently a continuation of this tendency, while the persons involved do not seem to realise to what extent the public image of a residence — and of the university as a whole — is defined by their actions.
”It is a matter of urgency that residents and campus culture be placed on a new footing.”
The panel says that for this reason, it is particularly encouraged by evidence of fundamental reconsideration and innovative thinking that are coming to the fore in the student community.
A shared vision and set of common values in the area of codes of conduct and discipline should be developed for all forms of student accommodation.
The panel calls for a reorganised and more professional system of managing student affairs and accommodation.
Noting that there is mistrust between management and students, it recommends that students should have more direct access to and representation at the highest management level. — Sapa