Judgment in AfriForum Youth\u2019s appeal against the unfair disqualification of Jolene le Roux, a pro-Afrikaans member of Stellenbosch University\u2019s (SU) Student\u2019s Representative Council (SRC), is expected to be delivered today. The youth organisation maintains that Le Roux is being targeted due to her commitment to the promotion of Afrikaans at Maties and is ready to take the case further if the appeal fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Le Roux\u2019s disqualification follows allegations that she benefited unfairly from AfriForum Youth\u2019s National Women\u2019s Day celebration during the SRC election campaign and that \u2013 with a social media post about the event made on AfriForum Youth\u2019s Instagram page \u2013 she violated the university\u2019s Election Commission (EC) rules. The university\u2019s EC, however, notified her in writing in early September that it had been decided to dismiss the complaints against her, as a decision to disqualify her would have been unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, shortly after it was announced on 5 September that Le Roux had been elected to the SRC, she was informed that an application to disqualify her as a SRC member had been made to the Student Court. According to this court\u2019s judgment delivered on 5 October, Le Roux violated Article 3(7)(a) of the university\u2019s election rules. This article states that SRC candidates may not use their own money or sponsorships through social media for marketing during the SRC election campaign. AfriForum Youth\u2019s appeal follows in response to this ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis disqualification not only calls into question the merits of Le Roux\u2019s candidacy but also undermines the trust many students have placed in her to represent their interests. If the appeal process fails, it will result in serious exclusion of especially Afrikaans-speaking students, as their voice on the SRC will be silenced,\u201d says Yvonne Gerber, AfriForum Youth Development Officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wian Spies, member of AfriForum Youth\u2019s legal team and attorney at Hurter and Spies, believes that the decision to disqualify Le Roux after her successful election to the SRC and the original decision to dismiss the complaints raises questions about the transparency and fairness of the election process. \u201cThe Student Court\u2019s ruling raises serious concerns about fairness and due process. Because Le Roux did not benefit from the AfriForum Youth event, the agenda for her disqualification can rightly be questioned,\u201d explains Spies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Judgment in AfriForum Youth\u2019s appeal against the unfair disqualification of Jolene le Roux, a pro-Afrikaans member of Stellenbosch University\u2019s (SU) Student\u2019s Representative Council (SRC), is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":10186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[465,471],"tags":[776,950,949],"class_list":["post-10187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-statements","category-us-campusses","tag-src","tag-students-representative-council","tag-su"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":465,"label":"Media statements"},{"value":471,"label":"US"}],"post_tag":[{"value":776,"label":"SRC"},{"value":950,"label":"Student's Representative Council"},{"value":949,"label":"SU"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Stellenbosch_University-1024x717.jpg",1024,717,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"ilze.nieuwoudt@afriforum.co.za","author_link":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/author\/ilze-nieuwoudtafriforum-co-za\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":465,"name":"Media statements","slug":"media-statements","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":465,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":226,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":465,"category_count":226,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Media statements","category_nicename":"media-statements","category_parent":0},{"term_id":471,"name":"US","slug":"us-campusses","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":471,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":470,"count":7,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":471,"category_count":7,"category_description":"","cat_name":"US","category_nicename":"us-campusses","category_parent":470}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":776,"name":"SRC","slug":"src","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":776,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":950,"name":"Student's Representative Council","slug":"students-representative-council","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":950,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":949,"name":"SU","slug":"su","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":949,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Stellenbosch_University.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10190,"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions\/10190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriforumjeug.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}