Time is running out for Maties in SRC case; AfriForum Youth ready to approach High Court as appeals process drags on for more than 20 days

Five days – that’s how much time Stellenbosch University (SU) has to deliver a verdict in the controversial appeal against the unfair disqualification of Jolene le Roux, a pro-Afrikaans Student Representative Council (SRC) member from Maties. Today, AfriForum Youth instructed its legal team to approach the High Court if the university fails to deliver a verdict in this drawn-out case by the youth organisation’s deadline of 7 November 2024.

AfriForum Youth has therefore today, through its legal representative, Wian Spies, sent a letter to the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wim de Villiers, and informed him of the plan to approach the High Court to intervene in the case.

The demand to force the university’s Student Court to issue a verdict follows an urgent appeal application against Le Roux’s unfair disqualification that was already submitted on 8 October. Although the Student Court held that the case is indeed urgent, it has already dragged on for more than 20 days, among other things, because the respondent in the appeal case filed a cross appeal.

Le Roux was notified on 5 October that she had been disqualified as an SRC member. The Student Court found her guilty on unfounded allegations that during the SRC election campaign she took unfair advantage of a National Women’s Day celebration that AfriForum Youth presented and that – with a post about the event on AfriForum Youth’s Instagram page – therefore breached the university’s Election Commission rules.

“In the meantime, the university has appointed a temporary SRC member,” explains Yvonne Gerber, AfriForum Youth’s Development Officer. “It is worrying that the university’s priority lies in the appointment of a temporary SRC member rather than completing the appeals process. These persistent delays have serious disadvantages for Le Roux and the rest of the SRC, who are unable to carry out their duties.”