MEDIA STATEMENT: SAHRC RELEASES REPORT ON TRANSFORMATION AT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN

SOUTH AFRICA
09th December 2016
ATTENTION: Editors and Reporters
The South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) recognises progress made in
addressing historical inequalities in our public universities, however, patterns of systemic exclusion,
marginalisation and discrimination continue to persist.
Over the years, these patterns of systemic exclusion and discrimination have manifested themselves
in a number of incidents in our public universities. Incidents such as those at the University of the
Free State (UFS) where four black members of the universitys support staff were subjected to
inhumane treatment at the hands of white students - commonly referred to as the Reitz Four
incident.
These, and other concerns relating to transformation to public universities, prompted the Commission
to undertake a public hearing to investigate more broadly, the issues regarding transformation at
South Africas public universities. In particular, the Commission sought to determine whether
institutions of higher learning have sufficiently transformed in the last 20 years with regard to race,
gender, language, culture, disability and sexual orientation amongst others; and the factors, if any,
that have hindered transformation in institutions of higher learning in the last 20 years.
The Commission has concluded the report emanating from this series of public hearings and its
findings are contained in a report launched today 9th December 2016. The report has been provided
to Justice Heher, the Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training
(the Fees Commission), the Minister of Higher Education, the Portfolio Committee on Higher
Education in Parliament and other stakeholders.
The Commission recognises that a number of key developments have transpired since the conclusion
of the national hearing, including the Rhodes Must Fall, Fees Must Fall, Afrikaans Must Fall and
the Outsourcing Must Fall protests, and the setting up of the Fees Commission of Inquiry. The
Report constitutes a record of the systemic challenges that hinder the attainment of substantive
transforming in higher education and therefore constitutes an important tool in assessing progress in
the attainment of substantive transformation in higher education. Moreover, the recommendations
contained in this report may be used to contribute to the transformation processes currently
underway in many of our public universities. For this reason it is hoped that the report will receive due
consideration from all stakeholders involved in the transformation project.
It must be noted that whilst the report does refer, albeit in passing, to some of the developments that
transpired after the conclusion of the national hearing, the Commission does not deal with these
developments in any comprehensive way in this report. Given the nature of these developments and
their significance, the Commission shares its findings and recommendations for consideration with
the Fees Commission and the Department to enable holistic outcomes to transformation.

In essence, the Report finds that our public universities have not sufficiently transformed in the past
20 years and that discrimination remains prevalent in public universities in South Africa, particularly
on the ground of race, gender, disability, and socio-economic class. The Report also finds that despite
the relative gains, transformation in the higher education sector has been relatively slow.
In view of these on-going challenges, the Report makes a number of recommendations to
stakeholders, which are aimed at accelerating substantive transformation in the sector. Some of these
recommendations include calling for collaboration between sectors, students and interest groups to
accelerate transformation. In particular the Commission called on the Department of Higher Education
(DHET) to take a leading role in developing policies to support the transformation of the higher
education system and for it to use its powers to hold universities who fail to transform to account; the
DHET has also been requested to develop guidelines on appropriate transformation goals and
strategies within the higher education sector.
Ends
Issued by the South African Human Rights Commission