AfriForum Youth instructs legal team to act on behalf of Afrikaans SRC candidates at Stellenbosch after uproar over elections
According to AfriForum Youth, efforts to displace Afrikaans even further at Stellenbosch University (SU) reached new heights this week when an uproar erupted around a group of Afrikaans Student Representative Council candidates (SRC candidates). AfriForum Youth has meanwhile instructed its legal team to act on behalf of this group who may be expelled from the SRC race after they were promoted on social media platforms as pro-Afrikaans candidates.
The platforms known as “Stellenbosch staan op” and “Studenteplein” acted in their own capacity to encourage their social media followers to participate in this year’s SRC elections and to vote specifically for this group of Afrikaans students.
In response, the SU’s Electoral Commission lodged a complaint against the group with the Student Court and asked that the group be disqualified from the election. According to the Commission, the students’ election campaign was in contravention of the Student Constitution and the university’s Electoral Act. The complaint was lodged with the Student Court without any notice and it was demanded that the candidates be disqualified from the election.
However, due to a lack of evidence, the Student Court ruled against the Election Commission. Despite the decision, the Commission took matters into its own hands and notified the students on 28 August that they would be given 24 hours to provide evidence as to why they should not be disqualified. This notification was the first information that the students concerned received about this debacle. Meanwhile, the period for feedback expired at around 11:30 yesterday.
Wian Spies, lawyer at Hurter Spies and member of AfriForum Youth’s legal team, maintains that the burden should not rest with the students to prove their innocence. “It is the Election Commission’s responsibility to prove that the group, with the sole purpose of promoting their election campaign, was involved in the platforms that marketed them as candidates,” says Spies. In his letter to the Commission, he pointed out that the students did not violate the Student Constitution or the university’s Electoral Act and that the process that has been followed so far in this regard is irregular and illegal.
“This is not the first time that SU has attempted to oppress Afrikaans students,” explains Yvonne Gerber, Youth Officer for Development at AfriForum Youth. “The process that the Electoral Commission has followed so far is indicative of the university’s partiality, unfairness and discriminatory approach towards Afrikaans and Afrikaans students.”
Meanwhile, the results of the SRC election will only be announced after the investigation into the matter has been completed.
