Carl Niehaus calls Akademia an ‘Afrikaans fortress built on privilege’

EFF spokesman Carl Niehaus has strongly criticised the planned private Afrikaans university linked to Solidarity and AfriForum, calling it an “Afrikaans fortress built on privilege” that risks reproducing apartheid-era separation.

Niehaus rejects exclusive Afrikaans university

Speaking on the Akademia project, Niehaus said:

“I reject it utterly. I am an Afrikaans speaker. The language of my childhood and my deepest thoughts is Afrikaans. Yet I refuse to call myself an Afrikaner. That identity has been poisoned by those who turn it into a racial fortress. AfriForum and Solidarity’s Akademia project is the clearest current expression of that toxicity.”

Concerns about exclusion and privilege

Niehaus argued the planned institution was being established with private wealth he said is “rooted in historical racist divisions and advantage,” and warned the university would be effectively inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of South Africans.

He said the project was not about mother-tongue education but rather

“the construction of a parallel world that apartheid once enforced by law, now pursued with private capital.”

On the effect of such isolation, Niehaus said:

“A university that isolates its students from the majority of their fellow citizens does not educate them for democratic life. It prepares them for separateness. It keeps alive the bitterness and superiority that Prof Jonathan Jansen rightly called knowledge in the blood.”

Calls for inclusive campuses

Niehaus said he opposed using Afrikaans as a tool for exclusion and described his participation in the anti-apartheid struggle as driven by a refusal to let language serve white supremacy. He added:

“I will not watch a new generation educated into isolation. Transformation demands inclusive campuses where South Africans of every background learn together. An exclusive Afrikaans university moves in the opposite direction.”

Responses from project supporters and commentators

The source reports that Solidarity is building a R3.2-billion private university campus in Pretoria.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel dismissed Niehaus’ remarks, saying:

“It was clear to everyone Niehaus’ reaction was that of someone with little support, who finds himself in a shrinking party and is desperate for attention and relevance.”

Political analyst Piet Croucamp was cited as saying:

“If you look from the perspective of Niehaus, I think he is right in some way, it is a political project. Akademia is not an academic project primarily, it’s a political project driven by an academic narrative or academic institution. I understand Niehaus’ argument and the consequences of an academic institution being representative of a political culture. Language is being used to restrict the philosophy or underlying philosophy, language, culture and religion being used to restrict the educational philosophy to a very specific narrative.”

What’s at stake

The debate highlights deep concerns about language, access and the role of private funding in higher education. Niehaus framed the issue as one of social cohesion and the purpose of universities in a democratic society.