Three of the four former students of the University of the Free State (UFS), who made a video that threw the institution into a racial storm, appeared in court on Friday.
RC Malherbe, Johnny Roberts and Schalk van der Merwe appeared in the Bloemfontein District Court, where the matter was postponed to September 5 for a trial date to be decided. The four Reitz men’s hostel residents face a charge of crimen injuria.
They were released on a warning and are not expected to appear in court again before the trial starts.
The fourth accused, Danie Grobler, who is in Namibia, was not in court on Friday. It is expected that his case will be joined with the others’ before the trial starts.
The video, of a mock initiation of five black staff members into hostel activities, sparked a national and international outcry. It featured black university employees on their knees eating food that had apparently been urinated on by a white student.
In the video, students referred to the university’s integration policy for campus residences announced in 2007 and implemented this year.
The four women and one male worker who appeared in the video are expected to testify in court.
The UFS closed the doors of Reitz at the end of last month as a result of the video, saying the building will be changed into an ”institute for diversity”. — Sapa