Billionaire Johann Rupert demands Stellenbosch chair must go

Two of Stellenbosch University’s most prominent former chancellors have gone public with a blunt message: the institution’s council chair must not be allowed to serve another term.

Johann Rupert and retired Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying Nicky Newton-King had lost the confidence of the university’s donor constituency and was unfit to continue leading the council. The statement signals a direct intervention by South Africa’s wealthiest individual in the governance of one of the country’s most prestigious universities.

“The term of office of the Stellenbosch University council chair Ms Nicky Newton-King will shortly end. She acknowledges that the constituency that nominated her to council, the donors, no longer want her to represent them. This evidences the breach in trust between her and the stakeholders she has represented,” Rupert and Cameron said in their statement.

They said Newton-King had indicated she intends to seek re-election through an alternative pathway, a move they described as regrettable.

“Ms Newton-King’s tenure as chair was marred by grave lapses of judgement and candour in governance. These damaged trust in the council and the university,” they said. “The future wellbeing and stature of the university indicate that Ms Newton-King should not be considered for re-election. This would risk undermining the progress made in repairing the damage done during her term as council chair.”

Rupert, who chairs Richemont and is Africa’s second richest person with an estimated net worth of $16.1 billion, served as chancellor of Stellenbosch University before being succeeded by Cameron in 2019. Cameron, a former Constitutional Court justice, served as chancellor until recently and is himself a Wilgenhof alumnus.

Newton-King was appointed council chair in April 2023, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the 106-year history of the university. She is a former CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and sits on the boards of several JSE-listed groups including Investec, MTN and AngloGold Ashanti.

Her position came under sustained pressure in late 2024 after a scathing independent report by retired Constitutional Court Justice Johann Kriegler, advocate Karrisha Pillay SC and Professor Themba Mosia found that the university’s leadership had interfered in an investigation into the Wilgenhof men’s residence. The panel found that the original investigative report had been materially altered at the behest of then-rector Wim de Villiers, with Newton-King’s support, before it was submitted to council. The altered version removed a recommendation that closure of the residence was not the only option available.

The Wilgenhof matter had first come to public attention earlier in 2024 after News24 published a series of reports exposing abusive initiation rituals at the residence that had left some former residents scarred for decades. The university ultimately decided to close the men’s residence, a decision that triggered a legal challenge by alumni and current students. The matter was eventually settled, with the residence set to reopen in 2026 as a male residence.

When the Kriegler report was released in November 2024, the university council acknowledged governance lapses by both De Villiers and Newton-King but stopped short of taking disciplinary action, accepting that neither had acted maliciously or in bad faith. Both remained in their positions at the time, though De Villiers subsequently completed his term as rector and vice-chancellor.

Rupert and Cameron said those findings could no longer be set aside.

“Ms Newton-King and the then rector managed to persuade the majority of the then council, in effect, to ignore or overlook the findings of the Kriegler report. But they can be ignored no longer,” they said. “The Stellenbosch University community deserves new and transparent leadership with integrity.”

The dispute echoes a similar confrontation at the University of Cape Town, where donors also played a decisive role in the removal of vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng and council chair Babalwa Ngonyama. The pattern points to the significant leverage that major donors wield over governance at South Africa’s leading universities, a dynamic that provokes its own questions about accountability and transparency in higher education.