Institute to monitor integration on campuses

The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) says it has set up a system to monitor integration efforts in various institutions. This comes after the Reitz hostel of the University of the Free State (UFS) apologised unconditionally to all students and other hostels at the institution.

The hostel says its committee has discussed the video and has decided to offer an unconditional apology. The SAIRR spokesperson, Chris Kriel, says by setting up the monitoring system they want to understand and 'get the full picture' on the integration efforts at universities.

Tensions running high
The video, which mocks the university's integration policy, features five black university employees on their knees eating food which had been purportedly urinated on by a white student.

The Bloemfontein campus of UFS has been experiencing tensions since then. Students were arrested for allegedly intimidating other students wanting to attend classes.

Twenty-eight Free State University students were arrested on Tuesday. They were arrested for intimidating other students wanting to attend classes. The students were charged yesterday with contempt of the High Court order and will have to appear again in court on April 3.

FF Plus appeals for stability
The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) Youth has appealed to the Free State University management to intervene as a matter of urgency to bring stability to the campus.

The Free State FF Plus youth leader, Jan van Niekerk, says the South African Students Congress (Sasco) should not be allowed to disrupt lectures or intimidate staff and students. He condemned the planned countrywide protest marches by Sasco tomorrow, saying that this could bring tensions on several campuses to breaking point.

ANCYL say FF Plus stifles positive change
During a discussion on Morning Live, which highlighted the racial challenges and divisions still plaguing South African society, the FF Plus distanced itself from racial tensions and divisions on South African campuses. The party stated that students in the middle of the Free State racism video are not affiliated to the party.

However the ANC Youth Leagues says that parties like the FF Plus make reconciliation impossible. "We cannot succeed when you still have organisations that are defined in terms of race, tribalism or culture," says the ANC Youth League spokesperson Zizi Kodwa. "Organisation that use culture as a from of any parties identity entrenches and nurture such behaviour."