Vavi warns against ‘Balkanising’ SA after Ngobese-Zuma calls for ethnic universities

General secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) Zwelinzima Vavi has criticised March and March Movement founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma over comments calling for universities to be established along linguistic and ethnic lines.

Ngobese-Zuma’s remarks were made during a recent protest in central Durban, where she led demonstrators through the CBD towards the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, the venue for the 46th Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Heads of State and Government Summit.

In a video circulating on social media, Ngobese-Zuma questioned why communities could not establish their own institutions, drawing comparisons with AfriForum’s links to a new university, its private prosecution initiatives and other structures.

Ngobese-Zuma said communities should consider establishing their own institutions and universities that teach in their respective languages.

“Why can’t we have our own stuff that we do for ourselves? If we need to learn from white people then we’ll learn from them, and if we have to learn how to have our own universities that use our own languages, so be it,” she said.

“There’s nothing [wrong] with us saying there is a university for Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Tshwana, Tsonga. Everyone can have their own university.”

What she is expressing is a dangerous desire to Balkanise South Africa along ethnic and linguistic lines, to turn our diversity into separate political and territorial enclaves—  Zwelinzima Vavi, Saftu general secretary

Her comments drew a strong response from Vavi, who rejected the notion of universities being established for particular ethnic or linguistic groups.

“There is no such thing as a ‘university of the people who speak isiZulu’ in the first place. Our universities are South African institutions, open to all South Africans regardless of language, ethnicity or province,” Vavi said in a social media post.

He accused Ngobese-Zuma of promoting a form of ethnic division that he said threatened the country’s unity.

“What she is expressing is a dangerous desire to Balkanise South Africa along ethnic and linguistic lines, to turn our diversity into separate political and territorial enclaves,” he said.

Vavi drew parallels between the proposal and the apartheid government’s use of segregation and ethnic divisions.

“Colonialism and apartheid tried precisely this through segregation, Bantustans and the deliberate manipulation of ethnic identities to divide and rule. They failed to permanently fracture South Africa and those attempting to revive the same poisonous politics of ethnic division will fail again,” said Vavi.

He said South Africa’s diversity should be regarded as a shared national asset rather than a basis for creating separate institutions or territories.

“We must defend a united, non-racial and democratic South Africa in which isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sesotho, Tshivenda, Afrikaans and every other language belong equally to all of us. No ethnic group owns a province, a university or any part of this country,” he said.

“South Africa belongs to all who live in it. We will not allow it to be Balkanised,” said Vavi.

The comments come shortly after Ngobese-Zuma met with AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel on Tuesday.

The meeting between Ngobese-Zuma’s March and March organisation and AfriForum resulted in an agreement to establish a joint working group.

The two organisations agreed to co-operate on issues including crime, illegal migration and socio-economic conditions despite their differences on a range of political and ideological issues.