Dear Sir
In your last edition Mr RW Johnson makes a case for the consideration
of academic merit as the sole criterion when judging issues involving
higher education in South Africa. This case is made in opposition to a
threat from the minister of education about the introduction of racial
quotas.
However, Mr Johnson first heaps praise on the minister of education
for turning a page in South African history by at last "merging most of
the HDIs with formerly all white institutions so that most of them
disappear".
I am not sure that the minister would agree with Mr Johnson's summary
of his merger proposals, but I think all the HDIs will agree with Mr
Johnson that this is the result of the minister's proposals.
What the HDIs, and I in particular, have great difficulty with is the
generalisations and obvious racial bias in the arguments put forward by
Mr Johnson to support his hypothesis.
Allow me to make two points before responding in detail to Mr
Johnson:
1) It is a fact that prior to 1948 the English language White liberal
universities enjoyed great financial and political support from the
state and the ruling party at the time. After 1948 the Afrikaans
language White institutions had their period of support from the
Nationalist Government.
During these many years of overt government support, the White
institutions were able to build up huge reserves and develop capacity
that would be very beneficial later on in establishing their
superiority.
Prior to 1994 and, indeed after 1994, the black institutions were
hoping to experience their era of support and capacity building from a
government elected to bring about greater equity. Unfortunately this
did not happen at all, even though Mr Johnson claims that "… from 1994
on the government was clearly minded to give them preferential
treatment of every kind".
2) Apart from the discriminatory periods of support that some
institutions enjoyed from their politically aligned governments, one
further factor that impacted significantly on higher education in South
Africa was the burden of having to deal with angry young people.
It is naïve to believe that, because our transition was peaceful,
there was no cost. I believe that to a large extent the HDIs absorbed
the anger of the youth who fought valiantly for the liberation of this
country.
Young people at higher education institutions, mainly at the HDIs,
were very involved in the protest against the previous regime. When in
the early 90s the political dispensation started changing, students
used their power to focus on changing the situation they found
themselves in at the individual institutions. This ranged from a demand
for free education to demanding the relaxation of admission criteria
and academic standards.
It took the next 5-7 years of social change in South African society
and the hard work of institutional staff to convince students that the
struggle for liberation was over, and that the new struggle was against
poverty and unemployment. Though many institutions experienced periods
of unrest and conflict, it was largely experienced by the HDIs because
this was where the majority of angry students were.
With these two points as background I wish to respond to Mr Johnson's
article as follows:
- I find it strange that the HDIs are associated with "separate development" policies, which by implication means that all the white institutions must have been part of a democracy. But every single South African institution was part of the separate development plan.
- It is true that some institutions experienced leadership problems, but to claim that the HDI management teams "uniformly failed" is a gross exaggeration. I can name quite a few that did not fail, but I will volunteer our institution for closer scrutiny so that Mr Johnson's generalizations and assumptions can be dispelled before they poison some more innocent South African minds.
- The comment on "tiny fiefdoms" and the reference to brightly coloured mock-medieval costumes are not only condescending, but clearly come from a South African that has been badly affected by years of repeated racial indoctrination.
- The post-1990 periods of unrest at some HDIs caused students and staff to migrate to more stable surroundings, weakening the HDIs and strengthening the white institutions because they could select the best black students and staff. Though unfortunate, this was part of the political adjustment going on throughout the country.
Prof. B
Figaji
Vice-Chancellor
Peninsula
Technikon
