/ 10 March 2011

Reitz victims to start their own company

Reitz Victims To Start Their Own Company

The victims of the 2008 racist video produced by four students of the former Reitz hostel at the University of the Free State (UFS) are to start their own national company, which will deal with cleaning, among other projects.

This follows an out-of-court settlement at the end of last month in the Equality Court case between former UFS cleaners Emmah Koko, Rebecca Adams, Mankoe Phororo, Sebuaseng Ntlaseng and David Molete on the one hand, and the university and UFS students Johnny Roberts, Roelof Malherbe, Schalk van der Merwe and Danie Glober on the other.

Koko said that the workers will now start their own company and “are very happy about this, it will change our lives”.

It is understood that the company, which is expected to be launched next month, has already received seed funding, and will be used as an example of how bad situations can be changed for the good.

The workers are being trained in preparation for the launch.

The settlement between the parties included four demands. The creation of the company is in keeping with the workers’ demand for decent jobs.

Series of apologies
Koko would not reveal the monetary aspect of the settlement. In their initial claim, the workers demanded R1-million in compensation for their treatment by the students, who asked them to eat food that appeared to be urinated on.

The settlement also included a series of apologies, made during a reconciliation ceremony on February 24 and 25 in Bloemfontein. On the first day the four boys met the workers one on one, with both speaking openly to one another. A second apology, on the same day, was made to the victims as a group by the students and the university, while a third event included the families of the victims and the South African Human Rights Commission. The final apology was delivered in public the following day on the UFS campus.

Koko said that during the one-on-one meetings the young men “spoke as children, showing their humility and apologising to their parents, saying they also didn’t know why they did this”.

Ntlasteng said: “We are very happy since we spoke to the children. We cried, and they cried; and we shook hands.”

The final demand was for the university to open a human rights centre. “We came up with the idea,” said Koko, “for those who come after us at the university to know how to handle situations of this nature in future.”