In one of the ugliest incidents of 2016, in February last year, rugby supporters at the University of Free State’s Shimla Park stormed the field and attacked protesting students. It was described as a “race brawl” – the protesting students were black and the rugby supporters white. #FeesMustFall met Mangaung’s supporters of Afrikaans, supporters of rugby. Last week, the inquiry into the incident published its report, which was critical of both sides, but particularly the swartgevaar mentality that pervades the campus. By GREG NICOLSON.

There’s humour in this, somehow. The UFS inquiry formed by former vice chancellor and rector Jonathan Jansen and led by former Constitutional Court Justice Johann van der Westhuizen, assisted by Advocate Phoebe Labuschagne and Molebogeng Kekana, with Advocate Mduduzi Skhosana serving as evidence leader, managed to find comedy in a racial attack at the university’s Shimla Park rugby stadium last year. The inquiry’s report describes how, after a protest leader was arrested, students and workers campaigning for an end to outsourcing decided to march to the stadium, where a Varsity Cup match was scheduled. At the gate, the black protesters met white Afriforum members trying to block them, according to Afriforum, to ensure public safety.

In his testimony, Siyabulela Lufele said that during the confrontation he hit Afriforum co-ordinator Ju-Mari Pretorius twice after she called him the “k-word”, which she denied – one was with a loudhailer, leaving her unconscious. The inquiry said the attack was “highly unnecessary”.

The pair sat next to each other during the hearings and Lufele apologised. “Ms Pretorius – a drama student – appeared pleased and indeed slightly thrilled by the apology… but said that he was not the person who attacked her. He assured her that he was and that she did not recognise him because he had shaved off his dreadlocks.” The inquiry’s report, released last week, said it was a “somewhat comical episode”.

There’s little to laugh at in the rest of the report. Van der Westhuizen noted the testimony of a worker who was photographed on the field being carried off by white spectators. The well-known picture was hailed as a symbol of harmony. The worker pulled the newspaper clipping from his pocket and recalled his son, who had seen the picture, asking him why he worked at UFS. “The answer was obvious: he needed the salary for his family.”

The report notes: “The conduct of the white spectators who left the stands at Shimla Park and attacked the protesters on the rugby field – leaving some of them unconscious – was violent, racist and barbaric.” It criticises the protesters’ decision to march to the stadium, where conflict was likely to occur, but the most serious allegations relate to the culture at UFS.

Black students, it said, complained that the university didn’t follow up on claims of racism or had given white students clemency when it comes to allegations of racist attacks. It noted the allegations of a black student being run over because of his race, and, of course, the case against the Reitz Four. Reitz was a residence at UFS and four white students were exonerated for an initiation video featuring black workers drinking a substance they said was urine. The controversy led to the closure of Reitz, but the inquiry’s report said the Heimat residence was established as its successor.

“In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the establishment of Heimat appears somewhat sinister, as if it might well have not only apartheid but Nazi connotations. The centrality of differences between black and white in South Africa, our history of apartheid and the controversial ideal of a ‘white homeland’ in far right-wing circles are well known. The choice of a German word that means ‘homeland’, or ‘fatherland’ for a new residence in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to accommodate the inhabitants of a residence that became notorious for racist practices, cannot go unnoticed.” Establishing the Heimat residence was not likely to have been aimed at improving race relations, said the report.

The inquiry noted two other instances of white students pouring urine on black people at UFS – one test that was verified as urine, the other as water. “The pouring could be nothing other than an attempt to remind black people of Reitz and of white supremacy – to humiliate, intimidate and instil fear,” the inquiry said. The fact that one attack was with water and not urine did not make it any better, the report said. It added an element of “trickery and mockery”, making the insult worse by making the victim feel too stupid to tell the difference.

“From the above, it appears that racism at a level unacceptable for a university, even in South Africa, continues to exist and racist conduct continues to occur on and around the UFS campus,” said Van der Westhuizen’s inquiry.

Former rector Jonathan Jansen, who is now working in the US, also came into play. The protests that led to the Shimla Park incident were inflamed after students involved in the 2015 #FeesMustFall protests and workers’ protests against outsourcing were victimised. Jansen got directly involved in reviewing troublesome students’ transcripts and work history at UFS and appears to have been instrumental in firing Trevor Shaku, who worked and studied at the university. Shaku had led the workers’ movement against outsourcing and issues escalated significantly once he was fired, and then arrested, leading to the Shimla Park protest.

Jansen was evasive when the inquiry questioned him on targeting and excluding protesters. “To ignore and refuse to comment on the reference by the panel to e-mails with obvious implications seems to indicate disrespect for the panel and disregard for its task of finding the truth. A forthright explanation of what management attempted to achieve under the difficult prevailing circumstances, with an acknowledgement that mistakes might have been made, would have been preferable,” the inquiry said. The report said it was unfortunate that such an esteemed academic seemed to have been “touched negatively” by #FeesMustFall leaders and students in their early 20s.

“ Did anyone bother with criminal charges when the Berlin Wall or the statue of Saddam Hussein was brought down?” the report asks, a reference to protesting students later targeting statues they viewed as symbolising apartheid.

After Shimla Park, the report criticises both black and white students. Afriforum brought members on campus and escalated the potential for violence. Black students targeted whites whether or not they were involved in the issues. The police and private security crackdown apparently targeted blacks much more than whites, using outdated security tactics and arresting students on racial generalisations.

“Very disappointingly, not a single one of the spectators who went onto the field on 22 February, who assaulted workers and protesters, came forward to give any insight into what they did and why they did it. Similarly, apart from [Afriform’s] Ms Du Preez and [Afriforum’s] Ms Pretorius, who were invited and encouraged to present their evidence, and who came together, no member of Afriforum, no white student who tried to keep protesters out of Shimla Park, or participated in the stand-off at Vishuis, came forward,” said the report.

“Yet every white student at UFS is not a racist.” DM

Photo of Shimla Violence via YouTube.

Read more:

Days of thunder and violence at University of Free State in Daily Maverick