The Council on Higher Education (CHE) has accused students and staff of two Eastern Cape campuses of xenophobia — prompting angry denials by foreign students themselves.
In reports on the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and Fort Hare universities, the CHE’s higher education quality committee asked the university authorities to address issues of xenophobia on campus.
The committee conducted audits on Nelson Mandela Metropolitan in September last year and Fort Hare in May last year, at the height of the xenophobic violence then wracking the country.
The CHE’s Lumkile Lalendle said the council’s audits were based on documentary evidence and interviews.
But foreign students interviewed by the Mail & Guardian insisted they have been misrepresented. ‘It is uncalled for and unfortunate that the CHE’s report says that there is xenophobia on our campus,†said the former public relations officer for Fort Hare’s International Students’ Association, Shepherd Honzeri.
Fort Hare spokesperson Minenzima Vusani said that after last year’s xenophobic attacks the univesity’s student counselling department and the Student Representative Council organised workshops and seminars to teach students about xenophobia.
All students were actively involved. The audit report says the panel gained the impression that Fort Hare is not fully aware of the problem or that the problem has not been taken seriously enough.
It says that in interviews with staff and students at Nelson Mandela it heard of cases of xenophobia in relation to foreign students, particularly those from Africa.
Most incidents took place in student residences, where the panel found evidence of a sense of isolation among international students.
About 8% of the university’s annual enrolment consists of international students, mostly from Southern Africa.
The president of the university’s International Students’ Association, Placide Ebongue, said that at the height of last year’s xenophobic upheavals foreign students were accused of stealing jobs and were told to go home.
But before and after the violence, ‘there was absolutely no xenophobia on campusâ€, Ebongue said.
University spokesperson Debbie Derry said the university is not aware of xenophobic incidents.