University of Witwatersrand SRC President Mcebo Dlamini. Photo:Screenshot

The vice-chancellor of a major South African university has become a “puppet” to Jewish funders and “alumni interests” after his sacking of a student government president, a prominent South African alumni group declared on Thursday.

“In capitulating to the interests of Jewish funders and alumni at the institution, Prof. [Adam] Habib has in our opinion rendered himself a puppet who has to sacrifice the academic future of student Mr. Mcebo Dlamini on the altar of political correctness,” said a statement from Higher Education Transformation Network.

The group called the decision by the university, and “particularly the Vice-Chancellor,” to expel Dlamini from the student government “erroneous and disproportionately harsh.” It accused Habib of “succumbing to the demands of the Jewish funders and alumni interests at the university.”

While ignoring an incendiary comment by Dlamini on his personal Facebook page a few weeks ago, which declared “I love Adolf Hitler,” the group said “It would be unfortunate if Wits university management now has adopted ‘Gestapo-type’ management tactics of summarily expelling students and staff merely because they hold dissenting views… in this age in our constitutional democracy.”

Dlamini was expelled, though, not over the Hitler remark, but over an assault against a senior staff member last year, according to South African news outlet Soweto Live. He may still face a second disciplinary hearing for the Hitler remarks.

HETN provided three examples where white students committed racist acts but remain “free as birds,” including one instance at University of Cape Town where a white student allegedly urinated on a black man’s face.

Over the last week, Dlamini has posted a picture of himself in front of the “Embassy of the State of Palestine” to South Africa, as well as an article titled:”Ashkenazi Jews are genetically European.”