The National Student Forum (NSF) for nursing students is calling for a law, which would define racism as a criminal act that should be harshly punished.

This call comes amidst ongoing tensions at the University of Free State (UFS) over the alleged racist video that has caused a national uproar and has since made international news.

The NSF has close ties with the UFS and also has a branch of nursing students at the university. The forum's headquarters are at the Free Sate School of Nurses in Bloemfontein - one of the biggest nursing schools in the province. The nursing forum said it was outraged by the video.

The NSF for nursing students has condemned in the "strongest terms the tortoise pace " of the UFS management; the police and the education minister in renouncing racism.

NSF National Chairperson Tsidiso Mmusi said: "In as much as we acknowledge the current investigation into the matter, we are worried that the investigations are conducted by the same management which promotes racism at the university."

Mmusi said his organisation believes that the video has trampled on individual human rights. "We understand that Parkroad Police in Bloemfontein have opened a crimen injuria case, but we call on the Director of Public Prosecutions to allow for the charging of these racists with attempted murder. As a nursing student organisation, we know that urine contains a lot of harmful substances in it, therefore we believe that some individuals' lives have been endangered," he said.

Director for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits University, Cathi Albertyn, said that there had been some discussion about making racism a crime when the Equality Act was being developed. "One would have to think about which forms of racism should be criminalised and what the impact of this would be. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development would be responsible for developing such a law and presenting it to Parliament.

Albertyn said, as things stand, the Equality Act allowed people to take claims of race discrimination and racism to the Equality Courts. She said the courts could make a range of orders, including an apology, awarding of damages, or an order for the racist practices of a particular institution to be investigated and recommendations made for change. These could be particularly effective in South Africa where racism is an institutional as well as an individual problem, Albertyn said.

She said that the criminal law could be used where racism amounted to an assault or a form of insult called 'crimen iniuria'. - By Nkosana Lekotjolo