A video of University of the Free State employees on their knees eating food which had been urinated on was condemned "in the strongest possible terms" by the university on Tuesday.
The video, made by the Reitz men's residence, surfaced on Tuesday morning and adds to an already tense situation at the UFS after student riots over the university's hostel integration policy. It allegedly depicts a mock integration of five black staff members, four females and a man.
The rector, Professor Frederick Fourie, said his management condemned the video in the strongest possible terms."It's a gross violation of the human dignity of the workers involved." He said criminal charges would be brought against those responsible.
Speaking to journalists in Bloemfontein, Fourie said there was a strong condemnation of the video by all members of the management who had been meeting for most of the day on the issue. "We have immediately started with a most urgent investigation on this matter," he said. The students involved had been identified and the university had taken steps to suspend them.
Democratic Alliance spokeswoman in the province, Liana Van Wyk, who had seen the video, described it as "shocking and inhumane". The video depicts four white male students taking black, elderly, female workers and making them down a bottle of beer, run a race, play rugby and then kneel and eat meat which had been urinated upon, she said.
"It looked like they were willing [participants] but they didn't know what purpose the video served... it was quite humiliating at the end to see the quite senior ladies on their knees eating the meat." The men's residence had chosen integration as the topic of the edited video they were requested to make.
Fourie said two of the students involved in the video were still studying and had since been barred from entering the campus grounds. The two other students identified on the video completed their studies last year. He said he was deeply saddened that some students apparently saw nothing wrong in producing such an offensive and degrading video.
Management had apologised to the workers on Tuesday morning for the video, which was recorded last year. "They were traumatised today (Tuesday). They unwittingly took part in something, in the context where they trusted people, and it came out very differently from what they surely understood," said Fourie.
Meanwhile, police had been notified about the incident and arrangements had been made for them to be present on campus on Tuesday night.
Workers union, Nehawu, had indicated that a march would be held on campus on Wednesday morning to protest against the making of the video.
DA leader Helen Zille condemned the incident and said the matter would be handed over to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to investigate the underlying causes of racial tension on campus.
The SA Students Congress (Sasco) also condemned the student's behaviour. "The barbaric behaviour of the Afrikaner students in that university still resembles the old apartheid order," the student body said in a statement. Sasco said sympathy strikes would be held across the country against the students' conduct.
The student body said the process of racial integration at the residences of the UFS should continue "whether Afrikaner students like it or not". Meanwhile the Freedom Front Plus condemned the incident in a statement on Wednesday.
Youth leader Cornelius Jansen van Rensburg distanced the organisation from the "atrocities screened on a video reportedly produced at the institution".
"The FF Plus Youth will never condone nor justify the violation of the human dignity of any person."If the video footage is real and the description thereof in media reports, correct, the event speaks of inhumane conduct which should not be left unpunished," Van Rensburg said.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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