Stellenbosch University Excludes White Candidates from Internships – DA

Stellenbosch University is under fire after its Department of Agronomy advertised internships that limited eligibility by race and explicitly excluded white applicants.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said the advert amounted to discriminatory race quotas and cited the line in the original notice that restricted who could apply.

The university later acknowledged an error in the wording and said it would correct the criteria, but the DA rejected the institution’s explanation that funder requirements were responsible. DA national spokesperson Jan de Villiers said universities should not, in his words: “bend on principles to the whims of those with money.”

The party argued that public institutions should not treat South Africans as demographic categories and warned that race-based criteria risk dividing citizens. It added that addressing historic injustices should be done through investment, training, and fair access rather than by excluding candidates based solely on race.

The DA said it expects the revised advert to be free of any racial restrictions and urged the university to abandon policies that reduce students to quotas.