Stellenbosch probes halls abuse report ‘tampering’

One of South Africa’s top universities has appointed an independent panel to review allegations that a report into abuse at one of its halls of residence was doctored by senior leaders.

The announcement came in response to claims from Stellenbosch University chancellor Edwin Cameron, a retired Constitutional Court judge, that rector Wim de Villiers and council chair Nicky Newton-King tampered with the results of an investigation without notifying the council.

That report responded to claims published by News24 that Stellenbosch’s Wilgenhof hall of residence contained a “punishment room” where the accommodation’s first-year male residents were subject to abuse as part of “initiation” ceremonies, with white supremacist and Nazi symbols allegedly found on the walls.

The university announced in June that it had accepted the findings of the report, which recommended the accommodation be closed, and that its current students be moved elsewhere.

The report noted that the discoveries had caused “deep divides” on the university’s campus, and that the Wilgenhof residence, which until recently had effectively been “white male” accommodation, was “a product” of the country’s history whereby “South Africans who were not white were socially, politically, and economically excluded” from society.

However, at the end of October Judge Cameron claimed in an affidavit that Professor de Villiers and Ms Newton-King had altered the report, removing an option for the accommodation to stay open while engaging in “campus dialogue” with residents and the university community to create “deep and lasting changes”.

The university’s council has now tasked its social and business ethics committee and its audit and risk committee with appointing an independent panel to investigate the circumstances in which the report was changed and the university’s decision to close the accommodation, and to evaluate whether Ms Newton-King should have disclosed Judge Cameron’s concerns that the report had been altered. The investigation is set to conclude on 2 December.

The country’s Democratic Alliance party has called for Professor de Villiers and Ms Newton-King to be suspended over the matter, and criticised the “severe procedural violations and the lack of independence in the management of Stellenbosch University’s investigation”.

“Given the severity of these allegations and their potential impact on the credibility of Stellenbosch University, we urge the university council to suspend both implicated individuals with immediate effect, and to establish an independent inquiry into Justice Cameron’s claims,” a DA spokesperson told media.

The Wilgenhof Alumni Association said the allegations that the report had been altered “should be of serious concern to all SU alumni, current students and university personnel”.

The row appears to be the latest episode in which Stellenbosch has been forced to confront its past as a white-dominated institution. The university adopted English as its primary language of instruction in 2015, in response to concerns that the continuing importance of Afrikaans excluded black students.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com