South Africa: White student expelled after urinating on black classmate’s belongings

The incident outraged a South Africa still marked by apartheid. A major university in the country on Thursday announced the expulsion of a white student who was filmed two months ago urinating on a black student’s books and laptop.

The prestigious University of Stellenbosch, in the Cape region (south) indicated in a press release that the disciplinary procedure had concluded “that there is no other alternative” than to “expel” the first-year student cycle, Theuns du Toit.

The disciplinary hearing of Theuns du Toit was concluded on 23/06/22. On 21/07/22 the independent Central Disciplinary Committee found Du Toit guilty of contravening clauses 3.1, 9.1, 9.3, 13.1 and 13.2 of the institution’s Disciplinary Code for Students. https://t.co/PDiLvzIzob

— Stellenbosch University (@StellenboschUni) July 21, 2022

“The university has zero tolerance for racism, discrimination, prejudice and behavior that undermines another person’s dignity,” Deputy Vice Chancellor Deresh Ramjugernath said in the statement. .

A humiliation that outraged the country

The humiliation of the black student in May sparked outrage in a country still grappling with deep divisions 28 years after the end of white minority rule. President Cyril Ramaphosa said the case showed racism still marred “everyday life in South Africa”.

The brief video that went viral shows a white freshman urinating on a black colleague’s books and laptop while speaking in English tinged with a heavy Afrikaans accent. In this brief video shot with a mobile phone, we see the white student from behind three-quarters. An offscreen student asks him “why are you pissing in my room?” “. The young man with close-cropped brown hair, beige hooded jacket, answers laconically “I’m waiting for someone”, without interrupting what he’s doing.

According to a student union, the victim was sleeping “when he heard noise in his room”. ‘When he woke up the racist white boy was urinating on his desk, books and laptop’ and when he questioned him, ‘the racist response was that’s what ‘we do to black boys,’ the South African Student Congress said in a statement.

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola called the incident “amount to urinating on the Constitution itself”. This Constitution cemented the transition away from white supremacist rule, and is often held up as a model of democratic values ​​– even though the implementation of those values ​​remains a work in progress.