FOUR WHITE male South Africans have pleaded guilty to humiliating their university residence’s black domestic staff during an initiation ceremony in 2007, in which the victims were tricked into performing degrading acts.
The case against former Free State University students RC Malherbe, Johnny Roberts, Schalk van der Merwe and Danie Grobler, who pleaded guilty to a charge of crimen injuria, has caused a national outcry in South Africa because of its racist connotations and because it was videoed and posted on the internet in 2008.
Consequently, the trial dealing with a minor charge has been viewed as deeply symbolic by a South African public still struggling to come to terms with its apartheid history.
An attempt last year by the university authorities in Bloemfontein to try and resolve the issue using restorative justice – where compensation and apologies would be given to the victims by the four accused – was rejected by the staff involved, as they wanted a criminal trial.
The video shows the four female domestic workers and male gardener being forced to kneel on the ground and eat food from bowls that had apparently been urinated on by one of the students. The defendants claim the scene in the video showing one of the accused with his back to the camera urinating in the food was faked.
According to defence lawyer Kemp J Kemp, the students said they wanted the video for new arrivals at the residence to show them what initiation activities and traditions to expect.
The four insisted the staff members, whom they considered friends, knowingly took part in the video.
Mr Kemp said that while the students did not set out to attack the dignity of the workers, they later realised their video had done exactly that.
“The accused did not realise the effect of the video and what it would have on the university and the plaintiffs,” he told the court. “They now, in retrospect, accept that the use of the workers for the video was insensitive, ill-considered and wrong.”
Although the young men’s conviction is for a minor offence and may only incur a small fine, it could have a significant bearing on a parallel case the domestic workers are taking at Bloemfontein’s equality court, where they are seeking approximately €100,000 in compensation from each of the four accused.