‘Our dreams go beyond black and white’
Around 400 University of Pretoria students came together for a prayer session aimed at restoring unity after fierce race-based clashes rocked the institution.
|||Pretoria – Chants of “Bind us together Lord” echoed near the closed main entrance of the University of Pretoria on Wednesday as hundreds of students of different races gathered for an afternoon prayer session.
The large group of around 400 students broke into smaller groups, holding hands and praying before hugging, shaking hands and taking selfies.
Some wrote messages of support and solidarity on a large white sheet. The students condemned the racially charged incidents they had witnessed at their campus in recent days.
“My biggest passion is people. It breaks my heart every time I see people fighting against each other. I believe God is our only answer. Like what my friend Paige who wrote there: ‘We do not dream in black and white, we dream in colour. Even when we are asleep, we don’t only see black and white’,” said 21-year-old third year student Tamra Golob.
“God loves all of us. We are made in his perfect image. We are colour blind. Black or white, we are all one,” she said.
Paige Leresche, a BSc environmental science student, said she had come “to talk to God” about the racial divisions rocking the Pretoria campus.
“I’m not here to make a statement, I’m here to pray. We are here to talk to God, asking God to come and cure us, to bring restoration and peace to our varsity which used to be peaceful. I feel that the divisions are unnecessary. The problems can be solved peacefully,” said Leresche.
Awelani Mudau said he hoped the suspension of classes would end soon as the students were losing valuable time.
“As the youth, this is our chance to show our elders that we are moving on. We want to bring South Africa to a new level. We are consistent in our prayers. We want to go back to school. Gathering here should show how serious we are and how fast we want things resolved. We have tests coming soon and we have not been in class since Friday last week,” said Mudau.
BSc actuarial and financial mathematics student Henrico Gouws said he believed that the current tensions would gradually pass.
“We cannot say we are a rainbow nation yet because we don’t stand together. We are here to prove that black, white, Indian, Chinese or whoever you are – we stand together and form the rainbow nation. Everyone is welcome here,” said Gouws.
Second year BSc microbiology and genetics student Uzithobile Sifuba said the students were now concerned about learning time being lost.
“We are running behind with our school work. We will keep on praying so that this situation can ease up. I feel that it’s no longer about the university language policy anymore. It’s now more about [lack of] racial integration. It’s now white versus black. We are pushing for ‘colour blindness’ – we are all one,” said Sifuba.
“This prayer has helped us a lot. I have found out there are still people who still care at this campus. We should solve our problems in a more mature manner,” Sifuba said.
The man leading the prayer sessions, student pastor at the Christian Revival Church, Khoatheli Sello said he was spreading a message of love.
“We want a peaceful South Africa, a rainbow nation. We are here asking God to heal the hearts of the people to reconcile. Above all, we are here to speak a message of love and hope for a new South Africa,” said Sello.
“The students have been showing immense interest in the prayers. We started on Monday with about 120 students and today I’m told we had about 450. Already we are growing in numbers. This is definitely making an impact,” he said.
On Monday, a case against 27 University of Pretoria students, who were charged with violence which erupted at the university’s Hatfield and Groenkloof campuses, was postponed to April 7 for further investigation.
The students were arrested when violence erupted at the two university campuses on Thursday and Friday last week during protests against the institution’s proposed language policy amendment.
Academic activities at the two campuses were suspended on Friday following clashes between AfriForum Youth and Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC) members a day earlier.
The proposals were that English be used as a primary language of instruction in all lectures, and that Afrikaans and Sepedi languages be used for additional support to students in tutorials and practicals.
However, some student organisations such as the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (PASMA), EFFSC and South African Students Congress (SASCO) indicated that they were not happy with the proposed amendments and want English to be used as the only medium of instruction in the institution’s academic activities.
The arrested students who are facing charges of public violence, trespassing and malicious damage to property were released on bail.
African News Agency
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.