By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Stellenbosch University has announced that they are in the final stages of appointing a three-person panel to review the items discovered in two rooms at a men’s residence earlier this week.
When university management accessed the rooms they found a disturbing history of drawings and photographs that appeared to reference many decades of assault and sexual abuse at the all-male residence. It appears senior students may have been using their seniority to abuse younger students.
Management said that the secret rooms were discovered during a audit. However it is not clear how often such audits are held as the practices seemed to span decades. It is also not clear if all other Stellenbosch residences have been audited.
The ‘House of Horrors’ that the university staff found there, as it has been called in a number of reports by News24, suggest abusive practices going back decades.
“Crude drawings depicting what appears to be male sexual assault, black hoods and a toxic mixture of linseed oil and aloe crystals allegedly used to bring on acute diarrhoea. These were among the shocking items discovered in two rooms at Stellenbosch University’s oldest men’s residence.
“Also among the items confiscated from the residence was an “indemnity form” signed in 2023 that gave a private company owned by former Wilgenhof students the authority to conduct “boot-camp style exercise programs” that may lead to injuries “and possible death’.
A student told the publication that ‘the first room can be described as a ritualistic/ discipline room’ where ‘nagligte’ (the Wigenhof residents student’s ‘disciplinary committee’) conducted initiations and ‘nights of punishment’.
The student said the second room consisted of ‘very meticulously organised records of what went on in that room’
One of the rooms, the ‘strafkamer’, is covered in graffiti while the other room has the number 88, believed to possibly be associated with white supremacy, painted in black above the door frame.
A decision was taken to remove the photographs and other evidence from the rooms and to paint over the walls.
The Rector of the University, Professor Wim de Villiers, has released a video statement where he calls the pictures discovered in the rooms, “deeply disturbing.”
He added that the University is in the final stages of putting together a panel of experts to review the items found and to advise the University on the appropriate next steps. The panel will be asked to submit their report and findings by the end of February. “We are committed to acting on receipt of that report,” confirmed the Rector.
The Rector confirmed that Management had engaged with the Wilgenhof House Committee and had received communication from the Wilgenhof alumni.
The story has sparked widespread reactions and commentary from South Africans on social media platforms, with past and present SU students commenting on their experiences regarding the residence and others expressing their views on the incident.