Death Threats & Transformation

One senior academic gets death threats almost every week and says he is vilified constantly by the Afrikaans press.
A great deal of public debate has centred around transformation at South Africa's tertiary institutions. At the University of Cape Town (UCT) the focus has been on the proposed admissions policy, employment equity and succession planning - issues that speak directly to the higher education transformation agenda. The Journalist has captured the highlights from a recent panel discussion led by senior representatives from leading academic institutions.
The University of the Free State (UFS) is a founding partner of The Journalist and panelist Professor Jonathan Jansen told the audience that hardly a week goes by without him receiving a death threat. He said he was constantly insulted by the Afrikaans Press and that this kind of treatment could kill people. Prof Jansen has been in the transformation firing line for some time now.
The Moderator of the discussion was Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, Dean of UCT's Faculty of Humanities. The panelists were Professor Jansen, Rector and Vice Chancellor at the UFS; Dr Max Pryce, Vice Chancellor of UCT and Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice Principal Research and Innovation, University of South Africa (UNISA).
For the full story see The Journalist at www.thejournalist.org.za on Wed October 29th 2014.