Racism in Higher Education: Privileges and Exclusions at Universities in South Africa

Abstract

This chapter examines racism in higher education institutions in South Africa with a focus on the exclusion of black academics. The central argument is that race-based privileges and exclusions in the South African Universities exist in post-apartheid South Africa because the post-1994 governments never interrogated the consequences of two historic apartheid education laws: namely, the Bantu Education Act of 1953 and Extension of University Education Act of 1959. These two Acts underpin the racial discrimination and racism at universities, and the legacies of these Acts permeate the post-1994 higher education landscape. The chapter deals with the continuing exclusions that blacks experience in the university spaces by examining some of the historical exclusions of black academics during the apartheid past as a background to a discussion of case studies of discrimination against black academics in post-apartheid South Africa. The chapter also describes the successful interventions of the students’ movements, #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall, in calling out the racism black students, academics and workers experience within the institutional cultures of the universities in the country.