15 October 2013
SACP Western Cape rejects neoliberal
university admission policy
The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Western Cape recognises the
proposed changes to the University of Cape Town's (UCT) admission policies
as a neo-liberal and anti-majoritarian offensive that parallels the policies
of the DA ("democratic alliance"). These policies are being pursued by the
provincial government that the DA leads in the Western Cape.
The UCT proposal is to remove race as an indicator from its admission policy
and replace it with a range of "socio-economic factors". Substantively this
will replace the imperative of historic redress, amounting to opting out
from our national constitutional order.
The current proposal will have a negative impact on the number of black
youth qualifying for admission, while further skewing the demographics in
favour of white students who already monopolise a disproportionate share of
the available space. The outcome will directly compromise the interests of
the South African working class, comprising of blacks in general and
Africans in particular as its majority.
The SACP views the proposed changes by UCT as a confirmation that the
university has always prioritised the reproduction of neo-liberal ideas and
in promoting them it has been willing to perpetrate the right-wing and
anti-majoritarian onslaught based on old order racial disparities.
Behind this policy change is a concerted effort, by those who have never
accepted real and fundamental change in this country, to arrest progressive
developments not just at UCT, but also in the Western Cape Province and
eventually in Higher Education as a whole if they can. In place of redress
for the past, these reactionaries advocate for what amounts to a regression
to the past.
Since the democratic dispensation from 1994, transformation at UCT has been
uneven and limited, with only conservative changes in the demographics of
the student body and insignificant achievements in transforming the profile
of the academic and technical staff.
To change horses mid-stream and retreat to the racist policies which have
been consistently overturned since the democratic breakthrough in 1994 just
because the current makes progress difficult, is no indication of strength
and resolve, but a cowardly retreat to mediocrity and complacency albeit in
the name of maintaining UCT rankings in to top 200 universities.
The SACP recognises in the proposed change of policy a reaction against the
ANC-led National Democratic Revolution, and against national policies,
founded on the principles of redress.
The dangers of neo-liberalism is not that it posits as an alternative
ideology to that which inspired the liberation movement, but that it
proposes a retreat from the worthy ideals of a more egalitarian and
ultimately non-racial society enshrined in the Freedom Charter.
The new proposals forces UCT to face a choice whether it joins the
mainstream of South African society in pursuit of a future genuinely
democratic and non-racial South Africa, or it retreats into privileged
complacency because it prioritises an inappropriate ideology over genuine
engagement with the real world.
UCT's proposals seek to undermine policies that are meant to address the
imbalances of the past in favour of a status quo based on mediocrity and
complacency. The direction proposed by the university's management will not
only be a victory for a conservative, unrepresentative, historically
privileged minority, but will tragically defeat the aspirations of at least
the present generation of South Africa's young people as well as future
generations. On that history will judge UCT and find it to be, not a
world-class university in Africa, but an increasingly irrelevant legacy that
the continent's colonisers failed to experiment with racial engineering.
The SACP in the Western Cape is calling on the Department of Higher
Education and Training to speedily introduce the Central Application System
in order to reduce the barriers of access to institutions of higher
learning. We also call on the department to ensure that universities, as
institutions funded by public money, should report annually to Parliament's
Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training.
As the SACP we will join UCT students led by the Progressive Youth Alliance
- SASCO, YCLSA and the ANCYL - on their protest march scheduled to take
place on Friday, 18 October 2013, starting 9:00AM from Liesbeek gardens
Students Residence in Mowbray. We call on the people of the Western Cape to
support this demonstration which aims to prevent an attempt to replace
redress with a regressive policy designed to defend the privileged few.
Issued by:
SACP Western Cape
Contact:
Khaya Magaxa, Western Cape Provincial Secretary, 083 721 0221
or:
Masonwabe Sokoyi, Western Cape Media Liaison, 076 524 3242
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