South Africa suffers from "
still daily racism
", President Cyril Ramaphosa regretted on Monday May 23, a week after the broadcast of a video which outraged the country, showing a white student from a prestigious university urinating on the books of a black comrade.
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“
Racism is still present on a daily basis in South Africa
,” the head of state said in his weekly letter, calling the incident in a dormitory at the University of Stellenbosch in the Cape region “
degrading and humiliating
".
This video of a freshman speaking English with a strong Afrikaans accent has been widely shared on social media.
In the early hours of Sunday, May 15, an off-camera student asks him “
why are you peeing in my room?
“, he replies laconically, without interrupting himself, “
I am waiting for someone
”.
“Destructive, hurtful and racist”
According to the South African Students' Congress, a student union, the young man with short hair and wearing a hooded jacket would have added: "
this is what we do to black boys
".
“
We need to understand why racist attitudes thrive in our schools and higher education institutions
”, as well as in workplaces and in all types of organisations, added Cyril Ramaphosa, calling for this “
despicable act
to be seized to address the issue of racial inequality.
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On the predominantly white Stellenbosch campus in a predominantly black country, several protests last week demanded the dismissal of the perpetrator.
The president also quotes Kwenzokuhle Khumalo, a fourth-year student who in a fiery speech, microphone in hand in front of a crowd of demonstrators, launched: "
this time, you are facing the wrong generation
", thirty years after the end of apartheid.
The university condemned "
strongly this destructive, hurtful and racist incident
" but has yet to decide on a possible expulsion.
