Jonathan Jansen, vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, came under fire from the higher education ministry and Cosatu on Wednesday, for his decision to drop the complaint against the "Reitz Four".

While the ministry called for the suspension of the decision to drop the complaint, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) called for Jansen's dismissal from his position.

"We are annoyed by the fact that he was aware before the decisions could be taken that the decisions might divide the nation, but continued with it," said Cosatu Free State secretary Sam Mashinini.

"This leaves us with no other option than to believe that he knew what he was doing and that was to divide the nation. "It is clear that he is not the right person to assist us in changing the institution — rather he intends to worsen the situation," said Mashinini.

Four former students of the now-closed Reitz Men's residence in Bloemfontein — RC Malherbe, Johnny Roberts, Schalk van der Merwe and Danie Grobler — are accused of filming a mock initiation of five black staff members into hostel activities.

Black university employees were seen on their hands and knees eating food which had apparently been urinated into by a white student.

The students will go on trial for crimen injuria on October 26, but in the meantime, Jansen decided to reopen the hostel and withdraw the university's internal processes against the students in the interests of racial reconciliation.

But the Department of Higher Education believes the decision was insensitive and taken without consultation. It said Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande had not received a report on the matter by close of business on Monday, as expected.

"We had hoped that the report would explain the circumstances and processes which led to the announcement.

"Contrary to public assertions by Professor Jansen, neither the minister nor any member of his staff was consulted nor informed of this decision prior to the announcement last Friday."

When making the announcement, Jansen said he had consulted people across the country.

Cosatu also disputed Jansen's statement that he consulted with all stakeholders. "We wish to place on record that the statement made by the Professor is a complete lie and basically misleading the people, citizens and parents of the Free State and the country at large," said Mashinini.

"We believe that the intention is basically to try and influence the court case that is coming before the equity court next week Monday."

Cosatu said their understanding was that one cannot talk about reconciliation in the absence of justice "because the dignity of a human being has no rand value".

This opinion was shared by an international jurist on Wednesday.

"When a student at the University of Free State does something against people that know nothing, he must be punished," Prof Michelo Hansungule, who teaches law at the University of Pretoria and is a member of the International Commission of Jurists, told an Africa Human Rights Day meeting in Cape Town.

"You must punish, and then reconciliate. You don't start by reconciling. Because if you don't punish, what are you doing? You are developing impunity. It will be repeated again and again."

Nzimande and his colleagues left the university after a recent visit inspired by Jansen's vision and plans for transformation.

"However the minister wishes to express his strong disapproval and shock at the decision by the university to withdraw its complaint against the former students and intention to re-admit them," the ministry's statement said.

This had caused further divisions and would open wounds which were "still very fresh".

The ministry also wanted clarity on talk of compensation for the workers, saying there had been no consultation on that either.

"The view of the department of higher education and training is that we cannot allow victims of racism to be unconditional unilateral forgivers."

They feared that Jansen had decided to absolve the students on behalf of the victims and compensate the victims on behalf of the students.

"This would constitute a superficial trade off which further impugns the dignity of the victims and is unfortunately an apology for the perpetrators of racism."

University spokesperson Lacea Loader said: "Professor Jansen is busy studying the statement and he is not going to give comment now."

However, she said in a later email that with reference to whether Jansen consulted with the workers, he was advised by the university's legal team not to talk to the workers about his decision to pay reparations to them as it might jeopardise their case.

"He did, however, talk to their union representatives on campus (Nehawu) about the possibility of mediation between the students and the workers and Nehawu responded by saying that the charges should go ahead in court," said Loader.

Loader said this conversation took place before Jansen's inauguration.

The SA Human Rights Commission said this week it would still pursue civil action against the university and the students.

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