Fury at the expulsion of two prominent women activists from Rhodes University for “criminality” is trending on social media.
Students are vowing to lay siege to the university when they return after the December vacation.
They want the university to reinstate the two students, who last year were prominent leaders in the protests against rape culture.
But, Rhodes says the students were excluded for criminality, not protest.
The university did not name the students, but one of them, Yolanda Dyantyi, this week unsuccessfully resorted to court to interdict her expulsion pending the outcome of an internal review application to set it aside.
She is now seeking leave to appeal the high court’s refusal to stop her expulsion.
Rhodes said yesterday that there was a clear distinction between pursuing a common objective of eliminating sexual and gender-based violence on the one hand and using such a “noble cause” as a cover to commit acts of criminality, which “served to undermine the noble struggle”.
Dyantyi was one of three students who were interdicted last year from kidnapping, assaulting, threatening and intimidating any member of the university community.
The Constitutional Court subsequently upheld the interdict and the high court’s finding that the three students had acted unlawfully during the university protests against rape culture.
Rhodes says its exclusion of the two women students was consistent with the findings of the courts.
The decision was meted out by an independent panel and was not related to their part in protest action.
“It is related, instead, to ‘unlawful acts’ which the courts found to have ‘made serious inroads into the rights and liberties of others,” said the statement.
On social media, students charge that the university has excluded those who protested rape while protecting the perpetrators.
But Rhodes recently pointed out that in 2017 it had excluded one male student for 10 years and another two for life for rape.
Rhodes has indicated it will respond more fully to the social media storm in due course.
Outrage at Rhodes expulsions
Students are vowing to lay siege to the university when they return after the December vacation.
They want the university to reinstate the two students, who last year were prominent leaders in the protests against rape culture.
But, Rhodes says the students were excluded for criminality, not protest.
The university did not name the students, but one of them, Yolanda Dyantyi, this week unsuccessfully resorted to court to interdict her expulsion pending the outcome of an internal review application to set it aside.
She is now seeking leave to appeal the high court’s refusal to stop her expulsion.
Rhodes said yesterday that there was a clear distinction between pursuing a common objective of eliminating sexual and gender-based violence on the one hand and using such a “noble cause” as a cover to commit acts of criminality, which “served to undermine the noble struggle”.
Dyantyi was one of three students who were interdicted last year from kidnapping, assaulting, threatening and intimidating any member of the university community.
The Constitutional Court subsequently upheld the interdict and the high court’s finding that the three students had acted unlawfully during the university protests against rape culture.
Rhodes says its exclusion of the two women students was consistent with the findings of the courts.
The decision was meted out by an independent panel and was not related to their part in protest action.
“It is related, instead, to ‘unlawful acts’ which the courts found to have ‘made serious inroads into the rights and liberties of others,” said the statement.
On social media, students charge that the university has excluded those who protested rape while protecting the perpetrators.
But Rhodes recently pointed out that in 2017 it had excluded one male student for 10 years and another two for life for rape.
Rhodes has indicated it will respond more fully to the social media storm in due course.
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