Universities defend hiring of foreign staff

Academics say claims by politicians and on social media are fueling xenophobia and could compromise their safety

- Aarti Bhana

Claims by politicians that South African universities are hiring more foreigners than locals for posts are stoking xenophobia and creating an unsafe work environment, foreign academics say.

In parliament earlier this month, Patriotic Alliance MP Ashley Sauls took Pamela Zibuyile Dube, the vice-chancellor of the Central University of Technology in the Free State, to task for hiring a foreigner over a black South African woman for the position of dean.

Reports of this sparked outrage on social media, with some users accusing institutions including the University of Fort Hare, University of the Free State, the University of Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand of being biased against local academics.

Some posted lists of the names of foreigners they claimed had been hired.

"If a narrative such as this begins to take hold, if it becomes something that people believe to be true, then my concern is that that would generate a hostile environment — for international academics, specifically for African international academics — which can make life and work in South Africa profoundly difficult," said Alf Nielsen, a Norwegian professor and director of the Centre for Asian Studies in Africa at the University of Pretoria.