Rector and vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers Picture: African News Agency (ANA) Rector and vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers Picture: African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town – Stellenbosch University (SU) has been rocked by the resignation of its convocation president, Jan Heunis, and two others, who left in protest of an investigation exonerating rector and vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers.
De Villiers faced allegations that he had attempted to interfere in
Constitutional Court litigation
related to the institution’s 2016 language policy by trying to convince Justice Edwin Cameron to accept the nomination for the election of SU chancellor.
An investigation by retired Judge Burton Fourie, appointed by the university's executive committee of council, found that there was no inappropriate interference by De Villiers when he approached Cameron for the chancellor nomination.
The investigation came after the apex court on October 10 unanimously found in favour of the university, which opposed an application by lobby group Gelyke Kanse to compel the institution to return to its 2014 language policy.
Fourie’s report was tabled at the last council meeting of the year and was accepted.
Heunis, as president of the convocation, Bernard Pieters, as secretary, and Daleen van Zyl, as an additional member, resigned from the executive committee of the convocation earlier this month.
Approached for comment, Heunis replied that the three of them resigned because the university’s council adopted the Fourie report.
In his resignation, translated from Afrikaans, Heunis charged: “Although the rector expressed the hope that the saga had now come to an end, that hope will be put to shame, not only because its shadow hangs heavy over the university, but also because the Chief Justice and the Acting Chief Justice's handling of the matter has left much to be desired.
“The senior university officials, as well as Fourie and the designated chancellor, had necessitated the search for new anchors, given the blatant breach of the most basic rules that should determine the content of proper administration of justice.
“This brings the Stellenbosch University into disrepute and I no longer desire to be associated with this institution.”
Heunis said aggravating circumstance included that he could not freely communicate with members of the convocation.
Fourie in his investigation had found that: “A conspectus of the evidence as a whole does not, in my opinion, point to improper conduct on the part of either of them in regard to the process of the nomination of Justice Cameron, nor that they had conducted themselves at any stage in a manner that reasonably conveyed that Justice Cameron was biased in the Gelyke Kanse litigation.”
De Villiers issued his response, which included a video uploaded to YouTube after the outcome.
“Both the high court and the Constitutional Court have now confirmed that our language policy is constitutionally justified.
“An independent investigation has found that we did nothing wrong. We remain committed to using English and Afrikaans as languages of tuition to promote inclusivity and multilingualism.
“The time has now come for everyone to accept this so that we can get on with what we're here to do in the first place - being the best possible university for everybody in our country,” said De Villiers.