Verwoerd’s grandson lacks orthodoxy

Press, 20 June 1980, Page 12

Verwoerd’s grandson lacks orthodoxy

By

JONATHON STEELE,

in Cape Town

for the “Guardian”

Francois Du Bois was only six when his grandfather was stabbed to death. To every Afrikaner the murder of Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966 was a shock and embarrassment. Here was the Prime Minister, the architect of separate development, with his baby face and white kiss-curl, snuffed out where he sat in Parliament. Although the killer was white, and certifiably insane, there was a sudden sense of fragility in what had seemed to be a rock-solid system.

At the time Francois was in Cologne where his father was ambassador. He rememgers how the family hurried back to South Africa for the funeral. Even now, 14 years later, in his second year at Stellenbosch, the university where his grandfather once

taught, he only has kind words to say about him. Verwoerd’s policy of creating separate “homelands” for Africans was “in the context of Afrikaner politics an important new concept, the introduction of the idea of giving political power to black people.” That said, Du Bois goes on to advocate ideas for which his grandfather would certainly have expelled him from the campus. “The homelands policy is no solution to South Africa’s problems. The solution is power-sharing." Du Bois rejects the notion that he is a militant or radical. “I see myself as an ordinary Afrikaner who would like to stay in South Africa as long as he lives and would like to see his children live here too,” he

says. Whatever the label. Du Bois is one of a small group of Afrikaner students and lecturers who have suddenly lifted Stellenbosch, nestling in its vineyards at the foot of a craggy purple ridge, out of its cliche image as the cradle of unchanging Afrikanerdom and turned it into one of the most intriguing places in South Africa. A few weeks ago the unthinkable happened. The Prime Minister, Mr P. W. Botha, was jeered and hissed by. students at Stellenbosch.

Times have changed. Three years ago Stellbenbosch opened its doors to a few non-whites, provided they could show that the non-white universities did not have the courses they wanted, and if they could pay the fees. Now there are about 100 non-whites in a student body of 11,000. They can eat in the student cafeteria but live in separate

halls of residence. Last year the student representative council called for two halls to be integrated but the university administration has failed to respond. Du Bcrts’s complaints about Stellenbosch have a familiar sound. Most students are apathetic. The administration is conservative. Indeed, if Stellenbosch had not been so rigid before, the degree of its present ferment would appear very mild.

Even now it has not moved towards political activism. But it has taken the first step of opening its ears to unorthodox views. Two months ago a studentrun current affairs body invited black leaders from Soweto to address a conference. Five hundred students gave them a warm reception. The same process is taking place in parts of the Afrikaans press the editors hosting private discussions

with African and Coloured leaders. Often they become heated evenings, described by a rugby-conscious writer on Die Transvaaler as “thinkscrums.” The Government's mistake, Du Bois believes, is that it does not tolerate real bargaining.' “It formulates a new constitutional plan, and tells Coloureds and Africans how they will fit in. It consults them about how they can accept it,, but it’s not bargaining about the real issues.”

His own solution is sweepingly radical, yet at the same time modest. “First I would abolish the Race Classification . Act and the Immorality Act, on which the basis of separation rests.” Then he would sit round a table and talk about a new political system, which should rest on proportional representation. “I don’t want to prescribe

a system. The only way it can develop is when everyone accepts it. The fact is there are distinct groups •in South Africa who don’t at the moment work together, whether they are ethnic groups, as the Government says, or whether they are farmed because they are black groups which do , not accept Government policy.” The • trouble is that the Government’s solution does not look like a solution. Over the next five years he expects the Government will continue to classify people differently while offering Indians and Coloureds a place in a confederation. Will blacks accept it? “It’s extremely: hard to say, because I don’t really know what they think. But if a new dispensation is not brought in, which is acceptable to blacks as well 'as whites, there will be a civil war.”