It is with a sense of dread and worry that Gelyke Kanse (GK) takes note of the media coverage regarding Nazi-like posters on the Stellenbosch campus.
However, GK is encouraged by the fact that spokesman Martin Viljoen’s press release mentions that the incident has been reported to the University of Stellenbosch’s unit for equality.
GK entreats the US board to see the inspection through to the end so that the motives behind the posters, stemming from a group called The New Right/Anglo-Afrikaner Student, can be established. Hopefully there are lessons to be learnt from history, where an inability to act quickly against small militant groups of students has meant that they continue to be guilty of disruptive and divisive behaviour and then disappear like the metaphorical disprin in the swimming pool.
Gelyke Kanse strives for non-discriminatory opportunities for all, including the equal distribution of resources to all the youth in South Africa, regardless of race, gender, religion, political leanings, ethnicity or any other factors not linked with the capability of the students and the language preference protected in the constitution.
True to these values, Gelyke Kanse echoes the Dean of University of Stellenbosch, Prof Wim de Villiers, who has stated that the political message of the posters are in conflict with the values of the US.
Gelyke Kanse would like to accept that the US board isn’t just paying lip service to these values, but is also aware of the students’ frustration with the impediments to their studies that the new language policy brings. These impediments are irreconcilable with the goals and values that equal opportunities and multilingualism would have.
