I don’t take back what I said. This is an editorial and is a space for me to raise my opinions about certain issues and events. This is also the only page where opinions are raised in the paper.
The ATKV sent me an email about it. Jaco van der Walt, who is the manager of the ATKV youth projects, raised some interesting points in his letter that I felt were important to mention. We published his letter to the editor below, but I have translated its main points for students who do not understand Afrikaans.
Firstly he mentions that the ATKV held a meeting about Serenade in 2011 where universities who took part in the competition discussed including a “multicultural song” in the competition, but this proposal was not accepted by the participating universities. The matter was brought up again last year and the ATKV and participating universities decided that each university should use this opportunity to add multicultural songs to Serenade, but that the changes needed to implement at an internal level first. The idea behind this was that after each university has included a multicultural song themselves, the ATKV can then include it as a rule for the national Serenade finals.
Van der Walt mentions other interesting points, but I think that these two are the most important when considering my last editorial. He adds that the ATKV is an Afrikaans organisation, but I wasn’t under the impression that it’s not. I just felt that our university, being inclusive, should allow for other cultures and languages to be represented. The fact that the ATKV is allowing universities who take part in Serenade to add a multicultural component to their internal competition is promising though. Van der Walt mentions in his letter that the 2013 Serenade rules stated that, “It is the responsibility of each university to promote multicultural songs on campus. The ATKV encourages universities to adjust their internal rules to allow for more than two South African official languages in their repertoire.”
So if you feel as strongly about this as I do, then transformation is more than possible. If enough suggestions are made to Stuku and the university, then I’m sure our internal Serenade can include an African-language song. With that change, ATKV will be able to make the change that they appear open to.
Now for this week’s paper, the Perdebate about changes in res is on page 4. We also tried something new in Sport this week with an article about Usain Bolt on page 15. The change was inspired by some surveys that we have gone through. And there is an interesting article about hangovers on page 8.
We have also opened applications for one more week. We are looking for sport writers in particular, so if you are passionate about sport and you love writing, then I would recommend signing up with Perdeby.
Margeaux
