‘White people must be killed’ comments dangerous: Jansen
When a “staggering number” of blacks tell him he should “understand the meaning of anger in their culture”, Professor Jonathan Jansen replies, “Well, I say to hell with it”.
The Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS) was speaking at a meeting of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday, Netwerk24 reported.
All cultures generally respect others and were friendly with each other, he said.
Jansen was referring to recent calls by students in Cape Town and on various campuses in Limpopo that the statue of Cecil John Rhodes be removed from the University of Cape Town’s campus. It was removed on April 9.
“It was allegedly said by someone who is supposed to be educated, and I must say it was alleged, to protect myself and the university, that ‘white people must be killed’.
“Then, twice, someone else allegedly said on two campuses, ‘I love Adolf Hitler because he let white people suffer’.
“Have we forgotten where we came from? What worries me is that there was applause for those words. It is bloody dangerous. Why has nothing been said about this?” he asked.
“I am ashamed to be in a country where no one has condemned it. Read the book Why the Germans? Why the Jews? and then you will see it happened because people remained silent.”
Black professors
Jansen said the anger was fuelled because of a lack of black professors on university campuses, specifically black women professors.
But, Jansen added, people should only be made professors if they had earned it.
“I lead my students as you train pilots. If you do it wrong, the damage is great. Otherwise, you follow in the footsteps of some post-colonial universities that are now empty shells.
“You cannot be a professor and aim to publish in Landbouweekblad. You must aim for leading academic journals.”
There was a lot of pressure on universities to admit more students, Jansen said.
He said by 2019 the UFS could admit 39 000 students, but not at the expense of quality.
Source: Netwerk24
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