TRANSFORMATION AND LEGITIMATION IN POST-APARTHEID UNIVERSITIES, reading discourses from 'Reitz'

309pp., paperback, Bloemfontein, 2016

JC van der Merwe and Dionne van Reenen revisit the 2008 'Reitz incident', when white male students from the Reitz residence at the University of the Free State made a video of black workers kneeling to eat food that had been urinated on. They analyse the broader structures, positions, discourses and practices that made such an incident possible. They also examine the student and worker protests of 2016 and the resultant legitimation crisis facing South African universities, and ways that institutional legitimacy and reputation could be restored.

JC van der Merwe is Deputy Director of The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State.
Dionne van Reenen is a researcher at The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice.