Cape Town – Former Stellenbosch University student Dean Dart, who has maintained his innocence over controversial “Nazi-based” posters, says he will not be appealing a Western Cape High Court decision against him.
High court acting Judge Hanri Loots last month dismissed Dart’s application to review SU’s decision to expel him over the posters, which were distributed on campus four years ago.
Three posters appeared on campus in May 2017.
Two of these invited the “AngloAfrikaner student” to a meeting of the “New Right” and to “Fight for Stellenbosch”.
The posters were direct copies of Hitler Youth recruitment posters.
Dart, now 26, was a first-year student and, along with two students, participated in one or more actions relating to the conceptualisation and display of the posters.
They were found guilty of contravening the disciplinary code for students following public outrage and a subsequent hearing.
The three were required to complete 100 hours of community service before the end of the first semester of 2018.
Only Dart appealed the university’s central disciplinary committee (CDC) decision and his appeal at the subsequent disciplinary appeal committee hearing (DAC) was dismissed.
The CDC increased the sanction to one of immediate expulsion from the university, which Dart took to the high court.
Dart said he had lost his trust in the legal system and was not willing to attempt to appeal against the judgment.
He told the hearing an SU equity unit official who testified initially recommended preliminary suspension because he believed “that the posters and the advertised meeting on the posters promoted racial polarisation and had highly offensive references to ‘Nazi’ propaganda and ‘NeoNazism’.”
He said the official admitted under cross-examination by counsel that “if a person simply looked at the two posters with the persons depicted on them, one cannot see any reference to ‘Nazi’ Germany or ‘Nazism’.”
“The poster signified our abhorrence of what is well-known in past and contemporary history as the world’s most racist, brutal and destructive political system, namely communism.
“The CDC did not receive any evidence which contradicted our clear intention with the meme to indicate that the images on the poster were intended as satire,” Dart said.
SU’s Martin Viljoen said the judgment was confirmation of the university’s student disciplinary processes being correct and fair.
Cape Times