SAHRC Report_Transformation in Public Universities in South Africa

Pre-1994, institutions of higher learning, as with all other institutions of learning, were formally divided along racial and language groups. As noted by Universities South Africa (USAF (previously HESA)),“…inequalities of a class, ‘race’, gender, institutional and spatial nature profoundly shaped South African Higher education, establishing patterns of systemic inclusion, exclusion and marginalisation of particular social classes and groups.”1 It is for this reason therefore, that since the dawn of democracy in 1994, there have been persistent calls from students, academic staff and civil society for our institutions of higher learning to transform.