AFRIFORUM YOUTH DEMANDS DISMISSAL OF UCT LECTURER AND ANSWERS REGARDING RACISM ON CAMPUS

AfriForum Youth today directed an urgent letter to the management of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in reaction to recent incidents of a racist nature on the campus. Three demands are put to the university management in the letter.

In the first place, AfriForum Youth demands the dismissal of the UCT lecturer Lwazi Lushaba after he made the statement that there was nothing wrong with the obliteration of a minority by a socialist powerful majority (namely Hitler’s Nazi Party).

Secondly, AfriForum Youth demands that the university calls its Students’ Representative Council (SRC) to order after the SRC directed an appeal in favour of the use of violence against minorities that disagree with them ideologically. The first appeal in this regard was made on 19 November 2020 against white and brown Afrikaans speakers and as far as it is known no steps have yet been taken against those members of the SRC in this regard. On 7 April 2021, the SRC once again send out a notice according to which they used their position of power and status as a majority to try and discredit someone from a minority group – based on his race, gender and sexual preference – and to demand that his temporary appointment is ended. This took place even before he accepted his responsibilities. The SRC’s criticism can thus not be attributed to misconduct or a shortage of expertise, but indeed to a racist, sexist and heterophobia attitude on the side of the SRC.

In the third place, information is requested about a video that was distributed where students from a majority group make a call to violence against a minority. Allegedly the incident also took place on the UCT campus and those present are students at the university. AfriForum Youth already on 19 March 2021 sent an email regarding this video to the UCT management with the request for more information about the incident, but the youth organisation is still awaiting feedback.

“The pattern of incidents being committed by UCT-related persons and the lack of action by the UCT management create the impression that UCT approves such behaviour,” says Bernard Pieters, Manager of AfriForum Youth.

“AfriForum Youth demands an answer in regard to all three the abovementioned demands by 30 April 2021, otherwise we will need to escalate the matter seeing as UCT then still seems to protect and allow this unacceptable behaviour and remarks,” concludes Pieters.