**A South African university official has said four white students accused of racism have been allowed to resume their studies to help reconciliation.**The Free State University’s first black vice-chancellor told the BBC that the four would not face internal discipline but they would still go to court.
John Jansen’s decision has been condemned by both the ruling ANC and the opposition Democratic Alliance.
Fifteen years after apartheid ended, racism remains a problem in some area.
Mr Jansen said the university would open its doors to the four to continue their studies if they want to return.
“As an act of reconciliation, the university will say to the students: ‘You can come back, you can participate and complete your studies,’” Mr Jansen told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.
Opposition DA leader Helen Zille said the students should be held accountable for their actions, adding that the pardon could cause more harm than good.
“I think it is going to cause a lot of controversy,” she said, reports Talk Radio 702.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) agreed, saying the decision would “harden racial attitudes not only in the university but in the country broadly.”
The BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says student residences in the University of Free State in Bloemfontein, an Afrikaner stronghold, are still divided along racial lines - reminiscent of South Africa’s apartheid past.
Mr Jansen said that the university should take responsibility for failing to integrate black and white people in the institution, thereby deepening racial intolerance.
“This university has over 100 years excluded black people from participating as students or faculty By failing to integrate early and with determination [it] created the conditions in which such a racist act could occur,” said Mr Jansen.
He said the workers will be offered financial compensation.
The four are expected to appear in a Bloemfontein court later in October. They are accused of wilfully harming the employees’ dignity through the use of racial gestures.
‘Play-acting’
A video of the incident surfaced in 2008, causing a national outcry at the time and anti-racism protests.
In the video the campus employees - four women and a man - were allegedly forced to drink full bottles of beer and perform athletic tasks.
But it is the final extract of the film that most angered members of the public.
It shows a white male urinating on food, and then shouting “Take! Take!” in Afrikaans - apparently forcing the campus employees to eat the dirty food, and causing them to vomit.
The video is believed to have been recorded in 2007 in protest against the university’s plans to racially integrate students residences.
Lawyers for two of the students down-played the incident last year, saying the video was “no more than play-acting”.