Opvattings van Stellenbosch universiteit‐studente insake politieke verandering in Suid‐Afrika (1978)

Abstract

Opinions of University of Stellenbosch Students concerning Political Change in South Africa: The South African political system is in a process of profound social and political change. Forces of change include both internal and external pressures of a political, military and economic nature on South Africa.

A survey of the opinions of White students at the University of Stellenbosch was undertaken to establish to what extent this atmosphere of change had already affected the attitudes of the students towards selected social and political issues in South African society. The results show that ethnicity (as measured by using the home language of the students as indicator), still remains the prime determinant of opinion polarisation, although the students’ academic fields of study may also have contributed towards this polarisation.

No indication of substantial deviations from prevailing Afrikaner cultural norms and values were found. This stability in White public opinion indicates a strong endorsement by the respondents of the social and political status quo in South Africa. Incremental differences with dominant Afrikaner student beliefs were found, however, in

1.	the students’ preference for a comprehensive so‐called South African Nationalism amongst Whites, instead of a more restricted and segmental Afrikaner Nationalism; and
2.	a greater degree of involvement with national political issues in South Africa than exists at other Afrikaans universities.

Cross pressures on the students from traditional Afrikaner cultural values on the one hand and a wider and more universal range of knowledge and philosophy on the other, cause widespread apathy, uncertainty, and inconsistency in their beliefs and activities, and prevent them from converting these basic attitudes and opinions into active, purposeful and consistent behaviour patterns. The Stellenbosch student can therefore at best only serve as a catalyst between different opposing forces of change and resistance in the political system, in order to initiate new developments in the attitudinal structures of the majority of Afrikaans speaking students in South Africa regarding social and political change.