Dear Editor
The DA calls for the fiasco around the tenure of Stellenbosch University Vice Chancellor and Rector, Wim de Villiers, to be escalated to Parliament for accountability before the Higher Education Portfolio Committee.
Last night the Stellenbosch University Council inexplicably failed to hold de Villiers to account for a finding of impropriety against him, and Council Chairperson Nicky Newton-King.
A report by retired Constitutional Court judge Johann Kriegler into the conduct of de Villiers and Newton-King found that they misled, or withheld information from the Council. Yet, in the face of this, a majority of members of the University Council voted against holding them to account.
The report follows an investigation by Kriegler, who was a jurist of impeccable integrity.
Any student at the University who was found to have acted with such impropriety would have been suspended, and likely academically excluded from the University, and for the leadership to get away with such conduct sets a dangerous and obnoxious precedent.
The Committee on Higher Education in Parliament should now hear submissions on the findings of the report into the conduct of de Villiers and Newton-King, hearing from the retired judge who investigated the matter, and hearing how and why the Council has failed to hold them to account. The committee may then make recommendations to the Minister to intervene, to uphold and restore the rule of law at Stellenbosch University.
Regards
Willie Aucamp MP
DA National Spokesperson
Nutmeg
Syria: You have two cows. They have been fighting for as long as you remember, but it is hard to remember anyway, because you are in Sweden.
RZR
With enough thrust, pigs, can in fact fly