Johannesburg — IN JANUARY next year the University of the Free State (UFS) will become the final South African public higher education institution to racially integrate its residences after the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) abandoned its court action aimed at halting the university's integration plans.

The FF+ warned, however, that it might instigate litigation regarding the UFS' residence plans at a later stage.

"We didn't want to drop it (the court application), but our lawyers advised us to do so. There are several technicalities and it would have got too complicated for both sides. This way we maintain our right to bring a new application, and we can maintain our standpoint," said FF+ Free State youth leader Jan van Niekerk yesterday.

The FF+, despite the university student body being 55% populated by black, Indian and coloured students, dominates the student representative council.

There was now no legal obstacle to student participation in the work being done to implement the UFS' council decision -- taken on June 8 -- to racially integrate the residences, said the university's vice-chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie.

The FF+ claimed in papers filed in the Bloemfontein High Court last month that the UFS had not properly consulted the broader university community on the proposed integration model.

Despite the pending litigation, the UFS council decided last month, just after papers were served, not to stop the integration process. Fourie said the process was well advanced. Students would take part in discussions on residence governance structures, the traditions and character of the residences, "diversity education", security, placement and recruitment.

"I would like to encourage all students in residences to make an input, " he said.

The university integration programme, through which next year's first-year students would be placed, would seek to achieve "a minimum diversity level of 30%" in junior residences, and hopefully an equal mix in the senior residences.