Stellenbosch University should not treat this latest barbaric act as an isolated incident, but investigate the institutional culture that allowed it to happen, writes Adriaan Basson.
Twenty-two years ago, I was working as a reporter for Die Matie, the student newspaper of Stellenbosch University. Our big story of the year, which led to us appearing before the university's so-called "media council", was about an initiation scandal in a men's residence, called Huis Marais.
This was 2000 and I remember speaking to young men who were frightened out of their minds about what they had to endure in the name of "culture and tradition". I vividly remember the one "tradition" these 18-year-old kids were made to endure: getting down on their knees and looking down while seniors urinated in front of them.
