Litnet

"Jou mond het tuitgemaak
toe jy my soen, soos ’n tulp s’n"

"Wit mense is weer in die beskuldigdebank, het een van Suid-Afrika se voorste filosowe, Achille Mbembe, ’n paar jaar gelede geskryf. Hulle bevind hulle nog steeds daar." 

"As daar ’n Afrikaanse self is, is dit ’n gesplete self, want hoewel rasseverhoudinge onder wit en bruin Afrikaanspraters verreweg die mins gespanne is en die Afrikaanse taalgroep eintlik die verste gevorder het met integrasie, is daar nog diep klowe en ongelykhede tussen Afrikaanspraters en leef hulle nog grootliks net so apart as altyd."

"So, there are only really two options … in politics. You somehow make the changes in the interests of most of the big players. So, you would somehow persuade the ANC, the EFF and the DA that these pieces of change are in their interest – which is, at the very least, a complex process. It’s not reachable because, generally speaking, people in politics, and particularly in South Africa, have a conservative bent; they want to keep things as they are."

"Is Afrikaners ’n minderheid? ’n Mens sou nie so dink as jy na sommige sosialemedia-poste kyk nie – dié in die trant van 'So kan dit nie langer aangaan nie, ons moet nou van die man ontslae raak.'"

"Daar is 'n ekonomie van sorge – mense koop hulle by mekaar, in 'n soort ruilhandel ... sielkundiges, joernaliste, prokureurs, dominees." 

"When are our humanities sectors going to wake up to the importance of language? No matter which side you are on in the Afrikaans language debate, the mere existence of the Open Stellenbosch chapter of the uprising surely is evidence enough that language is a huge difficulty, even the primary difficulty, that alienated students have to negotiate."

"What Afrikaans has developed, what English developed over a period of time, is the way of being able to teach a complete foreigner the language, and that is what we need for Zulu."

"It will therefore be of relevance as a South African civil society in particular to emphasise our international law obligations to the government, to work more strenuously towards the domestication of international instruments and to integrate it in our litigation as well as judicial decision-making."

"Irrespective of whether fees have fallen or disappeared altogether, or even the merits of such a campaign, a university education is just not possible without universities – or university structures, like libraries."

"The drama we are seeing is that we are asking the university to do things it was never meant to do. I mean welfare is the domain of the state, it is not the domain of the university. We can’t be asking the university to do things it was not designed to do."

"While it is true that white racism and attitudes of supremacy are still present to an unacceptable degree, it is not the crucial problem in South Africa right now."

"The state's support is needed. Industry support is needed."

The vandalising of close to 30 schools through arson and other means in Vuwani from late in April to early May left the nation puzzled. Hans Pienaar spoke to a resident who prefers to remain anonymous, as he fears for his safety.

"Having come out of apartheid and decades of censorship, as a society we are incredibly wary of any kind of censorship, particularly if it comes from institutions. As we should be. But in almost every case where white South African visual artists have screamed 'censorship' I’ve struggled to locate institutional/governmental censorship ..."