South Africa’s deep race, class and gender divisions can manifest in very ugly ways. One such unfortunate method is the adoption of crass nationalist and cultural frameworks to legitimise the superficial racialising of political spaces.
Such destructive posturing was on display last week at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in the wake of the furore that has emerged after a series of rapes and assaults, which highlighted the precarious security situation at the university. The issue became hotly contested when the most recent rape was that of a foreign student, whose friends and supporters became, justifiably, angry enough to mobilise media focus on the incident. Students and academics have expressed renewed outrage and anger at the university’s management for the poor security conditions.
The fact that there was greater public attention to this particular case has led to certain students’ representative council leaders arguing that support for her is along racial lines — that is, she is a so-called white northerner, which is why this case is making headlines. In addition, they claim that one of the university’s management officials, who faced the wrath of angry staff and students, was subjected to racist treatment, and that all these infuriated people have never raised such a ruckus when other ”black” South African students have been raped.
It is true that previous rape cases may not have received this level of public attention, but this does not mean that there was no one making a huge noise about these cases, or trying consistently to engage university management to improve the security situation. The university lobby group fighting against gender-based violence, together with other concerned activists (including both staff and students), has been working on these matters for nearly two years.
The fact that the most recent case has attracted greater attention is arguably because of the fact that the support network around the victim mobilised quicker and more effectively, not because she is white (which she is not), but because she has acted as a catalyst to unite the majority of the university community behind the demand for a safer and more secure university environment.
It is disingenuous for any person to argue that those of us who are demanding answers and action from the management are only doing it to undermine a black-led administration, because we are all somehow racist. It is shocking that this is the kind of discourse emerging from some of the student leadership, and has very rightfully been condemned by many students (of all race groups) who have argued that this student leadership actually does not speak for them, nor does it represent their views.
Despite condemning the rapes, the fact that they chose to engage in a deeply divisive discourse that sets up ”white academics” or academics in general, against a majority black student population, assuming that the racial identity of these academics somehow disqualifies them, is a short-sighted approach.
The perils of engaging in a racialised discourse around violence, particularly gender-based violence, are numerous and lead us nowhere. Race is a significant factor in a contemporary university context, but a superficial introduction of this issue into a debate on addressing violence is inappropriate. The fact that angry staff and students, who were only concerned with improved security, were accused by student leaders of having ”agendas” is deeply disturbing. It reflects poorly on student governance, their training as future leaders, and on the kinds of political mentoring they are being exposed to.
Lubna Nadvi is a lecturer in the school of politics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal