Wilgenhof Alumni ask court to set aside the irrational closure of residence
4 October 2024
The Wilgenhof Alumni Association today approached the High Court to review and set aside Stellenbosch University’s decision to close Wilgenhof for 2025 and replace it with a "reimagined and rejuvenated" male residence. The Association also asked the court to review and set aside the recommendation of an investigative panel to close Wilgenhof permanently, as well as the decision of the Rector to accept the panel’s recommendation.
“The Council itself has indicated that the flawed report played a significant role in its decision on 16 September. The report made patently irrational, defamatory, and unsustainable findings regarding white supremacy, Nazism and Ku Klux Klan-related activities at Wilgenhof. This has damaged the names of the thousands of alumni who have been part of the diverse and inclusive community that Wilgenhof has been for many, many years,” says Jaco Rabie, spokesperson of the Wilgenhof Alumni Association.
The report, and the Council, also failed to engage with the immense work that Wilgenhof and the Wilgenhof Alumni Association have been doing in transforming the culture and traditions at the residence since 2001, and again with the University’s input since 2020.
The Association’s arguments in their legal papers also make it clear that, since January this year, processes and decisions regarding Wilgenhof have been procedurally flawed and irrational.
The University leadership has also been uncommunicative and intractable. They have repeatedly accused Wilgenhof of "secrecy", yet the court application lays out how the Alumni Association has been open and forthcoming, while the same cannot be said for the University:
The “experts” that recommended closure in the panel report have remained anonymous and their full opinions or submissions have not been made public
During the panel’s investigation necessary documentation on which Wilgenhof alumni had to respond was not forthcoming
The University has not shared the full minutes, recordings or notes of relevant meetings, as reasonably requested by the alumni
The University has not supplied all detail on planned “renovations” that are ostensibly the reason for a full year’s closure of the entire residence
The Council’s decision to close Wilgenhof in its current format will have far-reaching implications. The decision, in effect, disbands the Association and dismantles an entire support structure, including the awarding of the much-needed scholarships that the Association has painstakingly raised over decades for less affluent residents of Wilgenhof.
The Association is asking for an expedited review to ensure these, and other matters, are properly ventilated, while preventing far-reaching and permanent consequences for the Association and the students it supports. If the students can return to Wilgenhof in 2025, the scholarships can still be allocated for that year.
Wilgenhoffers, both past and present, agree that old practices and negative symbolism must permanently be resigned to the past. In fact, the residents have already abolished the "Nagligte" disciplinary system. It is therefore difficult to comprehend why the SU deemed it necessary to close Wilgenhof to put an end to the "Nagligte", when that had already happened. Systems and checks may however be put in place for good measure to give comfort to all stakeholders that these obsolete traditions will never re-occur.
"The University has made an unnecessarily extreme and hugely unpopular decision," Rabie said, referencing a recent poll conducted under the wider Stellenbosch alumni which found that 97% were against the closure of the residence. "All of this has long since stopped being about Wilgenhof. The misguided politics of vengeance and the willful trampling of heritage has unfortunately become a part of the situation. The Wilgenhof Alumni are much more hopeful that facts and rational thinking will prevail in a court of law."
Issued by Wilgenhof Alumni Association, 4 October 2024
