Call for Maties to dissolve council of ‘mainly white males’

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29

2015 OPEN Stellenbosch members protested outside a meeting of the Stellenbosch University council yesterday, calling for the body, “which mainly consists of white males” to be dissolved.

Majaletje Mathume, a spokesman for the group, said the council had not been transformed and was an obstacle to transformation at the institution. He said there were 18 white men on the 27-member council but only three were women.

In a statement last week, Open Stellenbosch said many council members had been “unabashedly opposed to transformation”.

“We recall with great discontent the recent statement made by council member Piet le Roux, who suggested that the current debate on the language policy’s inability to expand access and create a culture of inclusivity constitutes what he terms ‘transformania’, a term he coined to express a ‘condition’ best described as the fixation on transformation, engendered by a psychotic imbalance on the part of those calling for change.”

Le Roux caused a stir on social media with the tweet: “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.”

At the time Le Roux said he had used the word tranformanie to distinguish it from transformasie (transformation), “which can also be interpreted positively, depending on what one means by it”.

During a recent meeting of Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education the council indicated it was united on the importance of transformation at the university.