Cape Town - Transformation at Stellenbosch University (SU) took centre stage at the Cape Times Breakfast Talk on Monday as the guest speaker, rector and vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers, spelt out the university’s stance on the issue.
De Villiers addressed guests who attended the event at the Table Bay Hotel at the Waterfront.
In his speech, De Villiers said: “We see it in a systemic way, not reductionist. Transformation is not a numbers game, and a transformation strategy should not be a paint-by-numbers kit. Transformation has to give us energy, take us forward.” De Villiers said South Africans should not be surprised by “lots of talk about transformation”.
“Our country is still in transition from apartheid to democracy, and the born-frees have arrived on campuses – old enough to think for themselves and see the problems around them, and young enough to want to do something about it.
“We welcome robust discussion because universities are places of critical thinking and freedom of expression,” he said.
Guests included Independent Media executive chairman Dr Iqbal Survé and representatives from UCT, UWC, Acadia University in Canada and Athlone High School.
During question time one of the guests, Nada Wotshela, expressed concern to De Villiers about her daughter – an SU student and Open Stellenbosch (OS) member – who had allegedly been threatened and told to leave her residence after she returned from a recent protest wearing an OS sweater.
De Villiers urged for such cases to be reported to the university’s management and said counselling was offered.
Another guest, Beverley Thaver, asked: “Is it that universities are controlled by certain groupings who influence and shape these institutions? Is it that black academics are available but cannot access or advance their careers due to the practice of gatekeeping?
Dr Survé thanked De Villiers for his honesty and passion in ”tough questions” eloquently.
“I’d like to believe in you and we want to support you on this journey of transformation. There are lessons to be learnt and there are some university vice-chancellors who have approached transformation arrogantly, others have embraced it very differently, and I think you are part of the latter. I have come away here with hope. Hope that we are going to be okay as a country, and we cannot build our country only as white people or only as black people. We have to build it together,” he said.
During his opening of the event, Cape Times editor Aneez Salie explained that the Cape Times and Independent Media were in a period of rapid growth and transformation.
“We were untransformed, and discovered that we had lots of work to do and set about doing that. Unfortunately we did not please everybody.
“We had quite a bit of opposition to contend with, and opposition is legitimate, of course; it is healthy, but some of it has been rather unfair.
“But the Cape Times is still here and we have managed to maintain our circulation against all odds despite international trends which show that newspaper sales have dropped,” Salie said.
@carlo_petersen
Cape Times