OPEN LETTER TO UNIVERSITY OF FREE STATE RECTOR AND VICE-CHANCELLOR JONATHAN JANSEN FROM ANC NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON JESSIE DUARTE
Dear Professor Jansen
The history of the struggle for liberation in South Africa has shaped many people to become politically engaging, vibrant and committed to progressive change.
Among those behind that change is Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga - an activist with a positive track record of having committed herself to the transformation of our education system. Her academic background - from the University of the North and the University of the Witwatersrand - where she obtained her Masters Degree is in Education make her quite suitable in the current position she holds.
As activists, she was an executive committee member of the National Education Union of South Africa and conducted research on the methods to undo the long-term impact of Apartheid Education on young people. She has dedicated her life in the service of developing our youth. Angie Motshekga is a firm believer in a non-racial, nonsexist and united South Africa.
Unwarranted and misplaced insults leveled at her by University of the Free State (UFS) rector and vice-chancellor Professor Jonathan Jansen - writing RECENTLY in The Times - cannot go unchallenged (see article).
Of course, we know that Professor Jansen is a learned man. That is, he is a recognised academic and has written books about reparation and reconciliation. In our society, we have learned the hard way through the misogynistic approach of the highly educated academics that acclaimed Apartheid never existed. It appears that Jonathan Jansen belongs to this ilk.