Abstract:
The problem of the South African university, and society in the same breath, is not so
much that of governance or politics but ideology. The deepening realisation of the
farcicality and impossibility of strategies, attendant ideologies and “master signifiers”
of transformation (such as diversity, multiculturalism and rainbow nation) of the South
African society and (whatever remains of) its institutions has never been more acute
than now, when the insistence at meaningful change and the unanimous rejection,
mostly by blacks, of the university (at least in its current form) have gained traction.
This paper draws on Žižek’s Lacanian theory of ideology to provide a counter-narrative
and reading of official transformation consensus and ideologies like diversity, by
highlighting their ethical liminalities. The underside of diversity’s official claims to
equality and justice are unmasked, and the terror and ironies of this liberal ideology are
exposed, especially its refusal to recognise that whiteness (as a system) and justice can
never coexist or inhabit the same space. Transformation discourse, of our kind,
fashioned under diversity’s register can never escape being appropriated by liberal
ideology and practice, as yet another means to reaffirm its priorities.
