Political Science researchers, thinkers and activists from across Southern Africa came together recently at the Wallenberg Centre at STIAS in Stellenbosch for the annual regional colloquium of the South African Association of Political Science (SAAPS).
The SAAPS was established following the merger of the South African Political Studies Association (SAPSA) and the South African Chapter of the African Association of Political Science (AAPS-SA) in 2001. It is the official body of the disciplines of Political Science and International Relations in South Africa and is affiliated to international organisations like the International Political Science Association (IPSA), the African Association of Political Science (AAPS) and the World International Studies Committee (WISC).
The colloquium on 3 September was hosted by the Political Science Department of Stellenbosch University (SU).
The main panel discussion, which focused on 50 years of Political Science at SU, included the likes of Jannie Gagiano, a political scientist connected to the department since 1967 and one of a group of academics who engaged in secret talks with the then banned ANC in Dakar; Prof Willie Esterhuyse, an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Business Ethics and a well-known ethical and socio-political commentator, also involved in the talks in Dakar, and who has over the years published widely on politics in South Africa; Prof Willie Breytenbach, an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at SU and another academic who were involved in talks with the ANC in the UK; and Prof Hennie Kotzé, a professor of Political Science who was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for 10 years.
Speaking about the year in which he joined the then Public Administration and Political Studies Department (better known in Afrikaans as Departement Openbare Administrasie en Staatsleer) Gagiano said that there was an unspoken "affiliation and association between this Department and the political debates in the country as well as the University's association with government at the time".
"So, while the Department was detached from the country, it certainly was still involved in what was happening in the country. The Department did not necessarily endorse the way the politicians defined the situation of the time, but it did concentrate on public administration at the time and did train government officials to enter public administration," said Gagiano.
However, the Department operated in a dichotomy of sorts. While it was involved in training government officials, its staff members, including the likes of Prof Ben Vosloo, who served as Head of the Department from 1966 to 1981, was known to raise the ire of government and even receive death threats for amongst others suggesting that the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act should be abolished.
"While all of this was happening, we were looking at innovative ways to exit from the model South Africa found itself in constitutionally and looking at various ways in which different races could be accommodated in a different governing structure," added Gagiano.
Referring to the Department at the time as a "rather sketchy type of enterprise" run by three people – himself, Vosloo and Dr Gerard Totemeyer – he said: "Totemeyer was not a trained political scientist and neither was I. I came from a political philosophy background while Vosloo was trained in Public Administration. Political Science at that stage had no tradition at Stellenbosch University and the only emphasis towards political analysis was political philosophy and sociology."
Kotzé, who is now retired, said that he first entered what is today the Political Science Department as an undergraduate student of Gagiano. After completing an Honours degree in Political Science at SU, he completed an MA in Politics at Unisa. "However, what always worried me, was the research base here. So, when I started my MA at Unisa, I ensured that I had a good research background and then went to Manchester in London to complete another MA in government," explained Kotzé.
He would however return later and become a staff member of the Department and implement a research methodology course with academics like Prof Amanda Gouws, who was the first woman to be appointed to the Department in the mid-1980s.
Kotzé, who would become Chair of the Department in later years – a position he held for 13 years, recalled how he first applied for the position, but was overseen because "the climate wasn't right and SU was still very conservative".
"I had also already made statements which had offended PW Botha at the time," joked Kotzé.
During his time, the Department's name was changed to "Political Science", courses were updated and made more contemporary, and more research was introduced with a particular focus on research methodology. By 1988, the number of students had trebled, a BA International Studies degree was introduced, postgraduate programmes were expanded and a Centre for International and Comparative Politics established.
"Today we have ten teaching staff members and offer Comparative Politics, International Relations and many other Political Science programmes. We have 80 postgraduate students at present. Things have changed significantly," interjected Gouws.
Esterhuyse came to SU in 1976 and remembers that at the time there was hardly any institutional support for the Department, and research was sorely lacking.
"There was no incentive to do research, so no research was done," said Esterhuyse.
"It was only at a later stage when Kotzé and Prof Pierre du Toit joined the Department that a research culture was established and the Department developed its own image."
Breytenbach said he clearly remembers joining the Department in the same year that Botha made his Rubicon speech. As Head of the African Studies Department, he approached Kotzé and suggested that his Department be absorbed into the Political Science Department.
"This is how African Politics became part of this department," he said.
But it is the "years leading up South Africa's exit from apartheid" that Breytenbach particularly wanted to reflect on during the discussion.
"Thanks to Willie Esterhuyse and other academics like Sampie Terreblanche and myself, a range of secretive talks with the ANC started happening during that time. There were public talks too which had been organised by IDASA and people like Alex Borraine and all those discussions took us up to the point where President FW de Klerk made the speech in Parliament which would see the unbanning of organisations like the ANC. The majority of those who were involved in the discussions I am talking about were Stellenbosch University academics. It is an interesting dimension of that time which is not often commented on, and this University took pride of place at those talks even if it is not often talked about today."
Commenting on the discussion, Gouws said that the Department had a "very complex history" transforming from a structure which was narrowly involved with the state bureaucracy through the training of administrative officials to an environment with a strong research background, sporting a cohort of academics today who "have never been part of that history of apartheid and who are now change agents living in a new democratic social order".
Papers presented on the day by academics and postgraduate students from the universities of Stellenbosch, the Western Cape, Cape Town, Pretoria, and even Limpopo focused on various topics such as Measuring Levels of Trust in the SA Political System: Do we have reason to worry?; Political, economic and social values in democratic South Africa: An elite-mass comparison; The complex roots of our Afrophobic rage; Re-imagining territorial statehood in Africa: The making of an economic borderland zone on the Ethiopia-Somaliland border; Black borgeoisie or "patriotic bourgeoisie": Is there a difference?; Un-blurring the myths and realities of women and children's rights in South Africa and Campaigning in political party strongholds: A case of opposition parties in Imizamo Yethu.
During the colloquium, SAAPS members also decided to hold a short discussion on transformation at universities in light of a boycott of the colloquium by some who did not feel it would be appropriate to attend the event in light of recent allegations of racism and violence at SU made by students interviewed in a documentary entitled Luister. Luister was produced by Open Stellenbosch (OS), a "collective of students and staff working to purge the oppressive remnants of apartheid in pursuit of a truly African university", and Contraband Cape Town.
"Some of our colleagues at UWC has withdrawn because of the Open Stellenbosch protests, issues related to transformation at SU and violence on the campus after the Luister video went public," explained Gouws as she opened the floor up for discussion.
"We are facing an interesting time, but also an uncomfortable history which is some ways are being reflected in some of the issues being raised on campus right now."
Audience members offered their own input, with a colleague from UWC saying that it was time that SAAPS and academics at other institutions as well as UWC start recognising that discrimination and prejudice are a "reality for many black staff members".
Esterhuyse also shared his own recent experience of how he realised for the first time what it actually meant to be excluded through language and culture while attending a conference in a predominantly Spanish country. "That experience made me reflect on how language and how the culture of an environment can create a feeling of being excluded. It made me think, how does one bridge this feeling of not feeling part of the team?"
Others felt that while student organisations across South Africa were raising legitimate issues of discrimination, political scientists and by default SAAPS also needed to have deeper discussions about the current struggle for political power which was taking place in South Africa and infiltrating campus politics. "There is a power struggle going on here which threatens to hijack legitimate and real issues concerning discrimination and transformation at universities," said an audience member.
Photo: Profs Amanda Gouws (far left) and Pieter Fourie (far right) from the Political Science Department are pictured here with former colleagues who participated in the panel discussion about 50 years of political science at SU. From the left are Prof Hennie Kotzé, Prof Willie Breytenbach, Mr Jannie Gagiano and Prof Willie Esterhuyse. (Hennie Rudman, SSFD)
