Following mounting pressure from across the country, Stellenbosch University students say they are outraged at the lack of urgency by university authorities in dealing with the recent call by so-called white racist-Nazi propagandists. In Nazi imitation posters, widely shared on social media, individuals whose identities remain unknown promoted a group titled “The New Right”. The group called for a meeting that was scheduled to take place on May 11, 2017, this in a bid to ‘fight for Stellenbosch’s’ white nationalist identity.

Stellenbosch University’s Equality Unit and the Student Discipline Division has since investigated the incident and identified individuals linked to the posters. While the institution has not published their identities, it confirmed that three individuals have been temporarily suspended.

In an official statement released by the university, rector and vice-chancellor Prof Wim de Villiers confirms that the institution had no knowledge of the planned meeting prior to the “Nazi-like posters” being posted around the campus.

De Villiers further affirmed that campus security was deployed to remove the posters.

“The Equality Unit reported that the posters and advertised event promoting racial polarisation/superiority – combined with highly offensive references to Nazi propaganda and Neo-Nazism – were in breach of Stellenbosch University’s Policy on Unfair Discrimination and Harassment. It found that the behaviour and actions of the students in question had a demeaning and humiliating impact, and created an intimidating environment at Stellenbosch University.” – read a statement by the rector and vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University, Prof Wim de Villiers.

The incident has since sparked anger around the country, in particular amongst Stellenbosch students, who say that the call to end racism at the university is not isolated to this incident.

Stellenbosch students on Thursday hosted a mass meeting to raise their concerns, urging the university not to continue to ‘sit on the fence’, but to tackle racism at its core.

VOC’s Breakfast Beat spoke to Mishka Lewis, a student leader at the Stellenbosch University who organised the mass meeting.

Lewis explains that prior to the mass meeting, an urgent meeting was called due to fear cited by students who were shocked by the existence of so-called ‘white nationalist’ students who openly shared their plans to form a meeting based on racist ideology.

“From the mass meeting there was a rage that the university had no sense of urgency in addressing racism and hate speech and that the university did not reveal who the individuals are,” she stated.

Commenting on the outcome of the mass meeting, she says that the meeting called for the university to clamp down on the students in question, failing which would result in students placing pressure on the university “by any means necessary.”

Lewis notes that while she agrees with the university’s temporary suspension of three individuals purportedly involved in calling for what has been described as racist-Nazi dialogue, the university should have publish the names of the perpetrators.

“We need to know; are they our tutors, our lecturers, or is it someone who stays in our res? – this is important,” Lewis urged.

She asserts that while the posters reflect Nazi inspired ideology, the overall call is a fight for a rebirth of white nationalism in Stellenbosch at the university campus, an area which is synonymous with continued Apartheid tendencies.

Given mounting calls by the broader Western Cape community for Stellenbosch University’s authorities to find adequate recourse for the issue of racism, Lewis urges the university to treat the pleas with utmost seriousness and to engage with student leaders.

She says that the mass meeting revealed that 2017 first-years are experiencing similar racism that she experienced when she began her studies years ago, concerns which in essence inspired the ‘Open Stellenbosch’ movement.

“This is obviously hate speech against people of colour and the failure of Stellenbosch to radically transform has resulted in a safe haven for these white racists. The institutional culture is entrenched in these types of values that create an enabling environment.”

Describing the university as a “laboratory of Apartheid”, Lewis says that the University needs to take legal or disciplinary action against the alleged suspects of the posts in respect of the continued fight by people of colour to access their Constitutional rights, rights which she says is constantly being threatened by the culture of racism at the university.

Lewis says that if the university fails to address the matter, it will reflect a support of a racist ideology that white people are superior.

“If the university does not grasp the gravity of the hate of white nationalists, not just this group…[and] if the university does not take stronger sanction against those or lodge crimen injuria charges, then it will see more campaigns,” she added.

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