AfriForum Youth distance themselves from student protests

On 27 October AfriForum Youth will hand over a memorandum to the Presidency at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

AfriForum argues that the purpose of the protest is to request that tertiary education in Afrikaans should remain.

“Respect our right to learn, allow us to study in Afrikaans and stop subjecting us to quota systems,” is the message on the memorandum given to the Presidency.

AfriForum Youth representative Henrico Barnard said although Afrikaans students sympathise with the student protests that have been going on, their interests are not that of the protesters.

Barnard said AfriForum distanced themselves from the protests as it got out of hand and deprived some students of their right to education.

“Non-participating students were attacked, some had to barricade themselves in classes out of fear of being beaten, students writing exams were disrupted and others were forced to participate. Even university staff members were held hostage. We cannot associate with such behaviour,” said Barnard

AfriForum Youth national spokesperson Ian Cameron said some issues were highlighted in the memorandum such as that all Afrikaans students should be excluded from financial assistance, the race quota system of access to tertiary institutions and the position of Afrikaans as an instruction medium.

“Most Afrikaner students were born after 1994 but they do not have the freedom of their fellow students. Today’s Afrikaner students were not part of apartheid but have to bear the brunt of policies aimed to redress the effects of that system. Now, increasingly, we are faced with policies that seek to exclude us from education,” said Cameron.

Cameron said AfriForum intends to play an active role in these changes and made certain demands such as:

• A safe learning environment for all students and that measures are put in place at institutions to protect the rights of both protesting and non-protesting students.
•  Quality education for all.
•  The principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy be respected by government.
•  Race-based quotas with regard to university acceptance be disposed of in total.
•  Class-based and race-based quotas be disposed of where financial assistance is concerned.
•  Government fulfill its constitutional obligations and provide financing for mother tongue education and ensure that it is protected and applied at all institutions of learning.

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