Students brown off twitterati with cheeky charade

Two University of Pretoria students are in hot water after a picture of them dressed like domestic workers, with their faces and arms painted black and their bottoms padded, surfaced online yesterday.

Although not linked, it was reminiscent of the protest two years ago, by AfriForum Youth who wanted more space to be afforded to white students at the veterinary faculty of the University of Pretoria - so they went in blackface — theatrical makeup used to portray a black person.

It is unclear how many other students were involved, but it was allegedly during a 21st birthday party.

The seriousness of the matter seemed lost on other students, however, who enthusiastically pointed out the incident happened at a "private" party.

On Facebook a user by the name of Nolene Nokwanda Oosthuizen wrote: "Check yourself before you wreck yourself, it was a private 21st birthday party, not a residence social", while Marné Merbold said "black African friends helped them prepare for the evening".

Amelia Badenhorst commented on the DA Students Organisation's (DASO) post, which condemned the students' behaviour, by saying that it must "report correct facts otherwise your just as corrupt as the ANC [sic]".

Dan Guenther didn't see the fuss either, saying: "This is a bit silly- Leon Shuster did this all the time and it brought people together". Kayla Roux seemed to be one of a few singing from a different hymn book, saying the "the only people Leon [Schuster] brought together was racist whites with a terrible sense of toilet humour".

The University was swift in issuing a statement, chiding the students in the picture for their "unacceptable" behaviour.

"An immediate investigation was launched this morning when UP became aware of the photographs," it said.  "The event that they attended was a private 21 birthday party.  Because the students are registered UP students who by their actions brought the name of the University into disrepute, disciplinary steps against the students will be taken."

DASO also issued a statement saying, "There is no place for this kind of behaviour 20 years after democracy. In our future there will be no organised racial stereotyping".

On Twitter: 

@CrawlEvans: "One step forward...and now 40 back...its surreal...almost unbelievable if I didn't see it..."

@TOMolefe: "Wow. please tell me that is not real; that it is from somewhere else? something. anything."

@JordiGriff: "Residence traditions.....and people wonder why universities are clamping down.....jislaaik."

@Eusebius: "Shocking. But not surprising. 1994 was not a miracle."

@refsheric: "Someone slap those bitches please."

@bokhosi: "We shouldn't be surprised. It's Pretoria after all. In par with Bloemfontein and Potch...

The incident comes on the back of the SA Human Rights Commission's hearings, last week, on transformation at universities nationwide.

Commissioner Lindiwe Mokate said the SAHRC had received 529 complaints between April last year and February this year - the "k-word" featured in 45% of them.  

Recently two white University of the Free State students allegedly drove over and beat a black student on campus - almost six years after the so-called Reitz 4 made headlines when students recorded videos of black nonacademic staff members partaking in degrading activities, including eating food that had been urinated on.

The SAHRC also recently released a report on findings relating to Dr Viljoen Combined School in Bloemfontein, where some teachers were found to have called black and coloured pupils k*****s, “baboons” and “black b****es”.

Teachers allegedly told some black pupils to find "black schools in the location", and that some would "end up like their parents who work in chain stores". But the few teachers at the school to participate in the report denied the allegations, while principal Francois Schoon said he was unaware of a single report of racism there.

The SAHRC spokesman Isaac Mangena said they were now aware of the incident, but had not received any complaints as of yesterday evening. He said the commissioners would mull over the next step. The University of Pretoria is also part of the hearings into transformation at South African universities.