Duarte has jumped to the defence of Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga after Free State University rector Jonathan Jansen described her as "lazy and incompetent".
Duarte is correct, Jansen did get it wrong.
In an open letter, ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte on Friday demanded "nothing less than a public apology" from Jansen. "He has insulted the minister of basic education in a manner reminiscent of the utterances made by the apartheid ideologues of the old order." "How often did we not hear, African people in particular being described as lazy and stupid by stupid half educated professors with no internationally recognised credentials?" This is a description illustrative of ignorance and prejudice."
The "unwarranted and misplaced" insults could not go unchallenged, she said, adding that Motshekga's academic background befitted the position she held. The minister completed her studies at the University of the North and the University of the Witwatersrand, where she obtained her Masters Degree in education. "She has dedicated her life in the service of developing our youth. Angie Motshekga is a firm believer in a non-racial, non-sexist and united South Africa."
Jansen's utterances may serve to exacerbate the racial tension at the university, which made headlines last year after a racist initiation video by UFS students was made public. It was produced by residents of the now-disbanded Reitz men's hostel and showed students mocking the institution's integration policy by initiating five black workers.
Duarte reminded Jansen that the UFS was subsidised by the ANC-led government and took a keen interest in transformation. "Transforming the UFS is not an option any of us have. We owe that to all the students who are there today and who will attend the UFS in the future."
ANC MP Neels van Rooyen recently told the Free State legislature that the ANC would intervene if transformation at the university did not proceed according to its wishes. "The UFS is a national asset and not the exclusive property of a group of South Africans who are unwilling to transform and adapt to a democratic South Africa," the Times quoted him as saying on July 2. Jansen said part of his job was to develop a positive working relationship with all spheres of society, including political parties, with whom he wanted a "positive, honest and open relationship". "I count all political parties in the group of stakeholders, but I will not be beholden to any of them," he was quoted as saying. Jansen officially took up his new position at the university this month. He recently reportedly described Motshekga as a "lazy and incompetent minister, if one takes into account her record as provincial minister in Gauteng".
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