The Wilgenhof Alumni Association said a recommendation to close the Wilgenhof men’s residence was made in a flawed investigative report. (Designer: Sharlene Rood)
Stellenbosch University’s (SU) council has decided to close the controversial Wilgenhof men’s hostel in its current form and replace it with “a reimagined and rejuvenated male residence”.
In a statement on Monday night, SU said: “A renewed residence would acknowledge the constructive aspects of Wilgenhof, while making a decisive break with the unacceptable and secretive practices of the past.”
To give effect to this decision, the residence will be closed for upgrading in 2025 to comply with the high education department’s policy on the minimum norms and standards for student housing at public universities.
“The residence will reopen during 2026 as a male residence.”
READ | ‘My best moments were in Willows’: Black Wilgenhoffers want Stellenbosch University to keep res open
On 24 June, the council invited submissions from interested and affected stakeholders to submit written representations on the issues that the closure or non-closure of Wilgenhof would raise and that would need to be considered.
The deadline for submissions was 31 July.
The council’s invitation followed a recommendation by the outgoing vice-chancellor, Wim de Villiers, which was unanimously supported by the rectorate, that the residence in its current form should be closed, based on the recommendation of a panel that investigated the contents of two rooms discovered in January.
One of the rooms, Hool 88, was where Wilgenhof’s internal disciplinary committee, known as the Nagligte, conducted its disciplinary activity at night, while the other room, “Toe Argief”, contained a trove of Nagligte costumes, shoes and paraphernalia.
In its report, dated 10 June, the panel recommended the permanent closure of Wilgenhof and said that it was seen, especially by black staff and students, as a beacon of SU’s troubled and racist history rather than as a symbol of change and progress.
