In its report, the commission said that it had found that the university violated the rights of Afrikaans-speaking students with the policy.
Cape Town - The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has recommended that Stellenbosch University (SU) issue a written public apology to any students who were negatively affected by their residence policies.
The university was accused of implementing an English-only policy in some of its residences during the 2021 welcoming period, prompting the DA and Freedom Front Plus (FF+) to lodge a complaint with the SAHRC.
In its report, the commission said that it had found that the university violated the rights of Afrikaans-speaking students with the policy.
The commission found that the university “unfairly violated the human rights of the affected students to freedom of expression, language and culture, equality and to not be discriminated against on the basis of language, and their human dignity”.
It further made the recommendation that SU should, through the office of the rector and vice-chancellor, issue a written public apology to any students who were negatively affected by these policies.
“This apology must make clear that the respondent (SU) recognises that SU is responsible for the conduct and policies of its residences and the human rights violations found by the commission to have been perpetrated herein; that SU undertakes to ensure that residences do not implement any policies or practices in future that will require any student to, or prevent any student from, speaking a particular language in residences and should, through the office of the rector and vice-chancellor, within 14 days, write to all residence leadership, directing them expressly to not implement English-only or similar language policies and should provide the commission with a copy of this correspondence,” read the report.
The university did not respond to requests for comment by deadline on Wednesday.
According to the DA, the violations were repeated again during last year’s welcoming period.
DA constituency head in Stellenbosch, Leon Schreiber, welcomed the findings, adding that the original complaint was lodged in March 2021 after reports by several students that they were prohibited from speaking any language other than English in their residences, in public spaces and even on park benches.
“The DA’s complaint came after DA leader John Steenhuisen and myself met with Afrikaans students who had approached the party for help after being threatened with disciplinary action if they dared to speak their mother tongue in university residences,” said Schreiber.
FF+ chief spokesperson for arts and culture, Heloïse Denner, said: “The ruling by the commission on the complaint that the FF+ lodged, as first complainant, is a great victory for Afrikaans in general.
“First-year students had been prohibited from speaking Afrikaans at the university, even in personal conversations.”
Cape Times