Cape Town - Former Stellenbosch University staff who left the institution citing entrenched and institutionalised anti-transformation attitudes must feel vindicated by a parliamentary report that equity at Maties was still lagging behind.
Staff demographics at the university still show that the institution has a long way to go to bring in inclusivity and diversity.
African academic staff increased only from 5 to 7%, coloured from 12 to 14% and Indian from 2 to 3% from 2017 to last year.
In terms of senior positions, whites still dominated with 486 employees, followed by 79 coloured, 64 foreign, 28 African and 21 Indian.
“The university should intentionally work towards a translation of its transformation policies and plans,” the committee said in its report.
The university should also prioritise the employment of women in senior management, according to the report.
The university was forced to withdraw and apologise for a poster featuring mostly white women in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8.
And those familiar with this space will recall how a black woman employee was forced to quit after reporting a white contractor who appeared to be displaying racial attitudes and undermining her.
The ugly face of oppression still rears its head today, even though often passively, she wrote in her opinion piece to Independent Media.
“The inability of my white female seniors to recognise this (incident) for what it was only engendered further frustrations and fuelled my resentment towards them. I found myself having to explain my story over and over, and the problem fell at my feet, so to speak.
It was later revealed to me that my seniors had allowed this man to continue to serve out the rest of his contract, hiding behind the technicality that I failed to formalise the matter, and thus they couldn’t approach him out of fear of appearing partisan.”
While Stellenbosch University should be commended for the change in its language policy, and renaming some of its buildings, it will take much more than that to shake off its painful past of being the cradle of apartheid’s leadership, as long as the lived experiences of the previously oppressed are seen as secondary issues.
The best place to start would be with its staff complement.
Cape Times