'Spit or swallow?' Outrage over sexist poster scandal at the University of Pretoria

19 May 2017 - 15:11 By Petru Saal
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
The University of Pretoria.
The University of Pretoria.
Image: Google

The University of Pretoria's annual song and dance competition has been cancelled after students waved around derogatory posters about women during the event.

TUKS spokesman Rikus Deport told TimesLIVE: "It wasn't the university that decided to cancel it. It was the student leaders‚ in light of the posters that displayed offensive and derogatory remarks towards women."

The posters were displayed by a group of male students in the audience while female students performed on stage at a preliminary round of the event on Tuesday evening.

Some of the posters read 'Spit or swallow', 'Nice thigh gap, can I fill it?' and 'I'm not Asian but I'll eat your cat'.

  • UCT leads UKZN on global research rankingWith a score of 393‚ the University of Cape Town has won recognition from an influential Dutch ranking for its academic research output. 

Known as "Serrie"‚ the event is a longstanding tradition in which male and female residences compete against each other. "The students who held up the posters have been identified and a disciplinary process is currently under way. They will be suspended pending the disciplinary. We have identified 12 students but there might be more‚" said Deport.

 

Afriforum strongly condemned the decision to cancel the finals‚ saying that the competition should go ahead while the guilty parties were dealt with.

"Students who complained about the inappropriate posters never intended for Serrie to be scrapped‚ but only that the guilty persons should be brought to book. For this reason it is clear to us that the university's management only listens to the whims of politicians and does not care about the students who are affected by these decisions‚" said a statement issued by Renier Goosen‚ Afriforum Youth’s Tuks branch chairman.

  • WATCH: Students in limbo amid campus housing crisisHe boarded a train with bags ''full of hope'' on a 1‚467km journey to study computer science‚ *but Howard Collins goes to bed hungry and sleeps among boxes at the University of the Western Cape. 

Afriforum suggested that the posters could be linked to a political plot to scrap the competition‚ which is deeply ingrained in the culture of the university.

The Tuks' Student Culture Committee welcomed the decision to cancel‚ saying: "The decision is further informed by the context of the current national campaign against rape and violence against women."

- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now