‘White cabal still running Maties’
A former member of the Stellenbosch University Council disclosed how traditions have been maintained at the institution.
|||A former member of the Stellenbosch University Council has disclosed how traditions and anti-transformation interests have been maintained at the institution, thanks to key people or their family members holding multiple positions on key governance and funding bodies.
There is apparently a group of conservative alumni, some of whom hold top posts in the banking and business sectors, who strategically placed one another in the convocation, the council and the Stellenbosch Trust, “to maintain their ideology”, the source told Weekend Argus.
As a result, chairmanship of these structures and council committees was “dominated by white Afrikaans men”, leaving little room for anyone else.
The former council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was not surprised by current council member Piet le Roux’s recent “transformania” tweet, as he was familiar with Le Roux’s anti-transformation position in council sittings.
Le Roux tweeted: “Blade Nzimande en #transformanie gaan nie wen nie. Ondersteun die nuwe Afrikaanse Alumni-vereniging.” (Blade Nzimande and #transformania will not win. Support the new Afrikaans Alumni Association).
“A few years ago there was an investigation about what he wrote in an Afrikaans newspaper. He was absolved of all wrongdoing,” the source said.
In a statement this week, the council executive committee distanced itself from Le Roux’s views.
The former council member’s take on the links between key decision-makers at the university were echoed by a former member of senior management, who said: “They have done this by ensuring that alumni who are white Afrikaans males are infused into all the governance structures at the university. This way, they can collectively put pressure on halting any decisions that would impact on their ongoing white privilege in Stellenbosch.
“This is demonstrated in the council, which is still a majority of white men. Most of them are from Stellenbosch, almost all alumni and some so-called ‘friends of the university’. They control the purse strings as it were. They control the family silver.”
A look at the university structures shows some council members are also members of the Stellenbosch Trust, which holds the university endowment, estimated at billions of rands.
Council chairman George Steyn is connected to the trust through his father Geys Steyn, who is a trustee. Steyn senior is a former council chairman.
Remgro Ltd chief executive Jannie Durand and Plexus Asset Management executive chairman Prieur du Plessis are members of both the council and the trust.
Another highly-placed source, who previously worked closely with the trust, said the body was established just before 1994 with an initial capital amount from university coffers: “University management feared nationalisation and took money out with the purpose of privatising it so that the ANC couldn’t get their hands on it”.
The leadership of the convocation, which comprises all graduates and academic staff, is another curious issue, according to sources.
Convocation chairman Christo Viljoen, who was recently vocal on the subject of the university’s residence placement policy, said this week that he supported transformation.
But a source had this to say: “The convocation, a supposed alumni body, can be classified as the ‘old’ white guard, again governed by white males who oppose transformation and have on occasion in these convocation meetings insulted (former vice-chancellor) Professor Russel Botman publicly. I was there.
“The convocation would bus in alumni from old age homes in the community when a vote was about to take place for new leadership and for or against an issue of transformation.
“It was only because of the work and organisation done by the Centre for Inclusivity and ... Botman that the new residence policy received more votes at an open meeting so that the policy could be implemented.”
Weekend Argus reported last month that shortly before Botman’s death last June, the Centre for Inclusivity was at the crux of a tense confrontation between Botman and members of council who were opposed to its establishment, and its transformation plan. Weeks after Botman died, the centre was disbanded.
“To me it shows how the male and white privilege of council and management runs Stellenbosch University, where an academic institution is so afraid to hear views different from their comfortable white identity that a thought exercise in hearing the other is seen as an attack,” the source said.
Sunday Argus