Letter calling for suspension of Oppenheimer and Ansara from council riddled with untruths, says Ernst Roets

UCT witch-hunt built on false claims about Lex Libertas

16 October 2026

Pretoria – The think tank and advocacy group, Lex Libertas, today rejected calls for the suspension of Advocate Mark Oppenheimer and Mr David Ansara, CEO of the Free Market Foundation, from the Council of the University of Cape Town (UCT). It described the campaign against them as a witch-hunt, based on grossly false and defamatory claims about the organisation.

In a letter to the Chair of Council published on 15 October, UCT Alumni for Palestine demanded the suspension of both Council members. Their alleged offence is that they participated in the White Cross Project conference in Washington, D.C., which Lex Libertas hosted in September.

‘This is a witch-hunt, plain and simple,’ said Dr Ernst Roets, Executive Director of Lex Libertas. ‘Two persons are being targeted, not for anything they did at UCT, but for the company they keep and the views they express. That is guilt by association and suppression of freedom of expression, and it should have no place at a university.’

The letter makes several claims about Lex Libertas that are false and defamatory:

• It claims that Lex Libertas advocates ‘minority rule’. Lex Libertas has never suggested anything to this effect. It argues for decentralisation and higher levels of self-governance for all peoples of South Africa, so that no community rules over...

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