Supreme Court of Appeal finds in Yolanda Dyantyi’s favour
29 March 2022
Today, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has upheld Yolanda Dyantyi’s appeal against the Grahamstown High Court decision to dismiss her review application. The SCA accordingly set aside the outcome of a disciplinary hearing process instituted by Rhodes University in March 2017. Ms Dyantyi was found guilty of committing kidnapping, assault, insubordination and defamation during the #RUReference List protests in April 2016. She was permanently excluded from the University and interdicted from attending the University for any purpose from November 2017.
In the appeal, SERI argued that the postponement of the disciplinary inquiry to a date when her counsel were not available had resulted in an unfair disciplinary process.
In its judgment, the SCA finds that:
“In the particular circumstances of this case, a proper balancing of the relevant considerations would have dictated that the inquiry had to be postponed to the dates on which counsel for Ms Dyantyi were available. The failure to do so violated Ms Dyantyi’s right to procedural fairness under PAJA”