Maties to decide future of Piet le Roux
Stellenbosch University may sanction council member Piet le Roux after his "transformania" tweet.
|||Cape Town - The executive committee of the Stellenbosch University council has recommended that the council investigate the possibility of sanctions against council member Piet le Roux.
Last week the Cape Argus reported that Le Roux had found himself at the centre of an uproar over his stance on transformation, after a tweet in which he stated: “Blade Nzimande en #transformanie gaan nie wen nie. Ondersteun die Afrikaanse Alumni-vereniging (Blade Nzimande and transformania won’t win. Support the Afrikaanse Alumni Association).”
His tweet followed just days after the council told Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education that it was united on the importance of transformation at the institution.
In a statement released on Monday, the executive committee distanced itself “from recent anti-transformational statements by a council member, Mr Piet Le Roux. These statements were made with regard to universities in South Africa and the Minister of Higher Education and Training”.
At a meeting on Monday, the executive committee passed a motion on the matter affirming that: “Council is resolute in its support of the Institutional Intent and Strategy document (approved in April 2013) that was formulated under the late Professor Russel Botman’s leadership as well as the Institutional Plan that was adopted by council in December 2014”; and that the documents “demonstrate the commitment of council and management to the university’s transformational journey”.
It said that while it acknowledged Le Roux’s constitutional right to have his own opinion, “Council distances itself completely from his statements as these are contrary to the Council’s official position”.
In an e-mail to the Cape Argus last week, Le Roux, who is also head of Solidarity’s research institute, said he coined in Afrikaans “transformanie” to distinguish it from transformasie (transformation), “which can also be interpreted positively, depending on what one means by it”.
“For example, one can use the word transformation in the sense of making civil society stronger and halting the state’s racial engineering, as opposed to the case under apartheid. Unfortunately, transformation as driven by the Department of Higher Education, has taken a particularly destructive form, under which it is rigidly insisted that every organisation in the country, universities included, should reflect the national racial demographics and, by extension, become an English institution,” he said.
“It does nothing for transformation in any positive sense; parades as pro-diversity when, in fact, it insists upon uniformity; and extends the control of the state over civil society in much the same way the National Party government used to extend its control.”
ilse.fredericks@inl.co.za
Cape Argus