Stellenbosch University in South Africa said on Wednesday that three people were being questioned after it opened an investigation into Nazi-inspired posters promoting an "Anglo-Afrikaner Student" event on its campus.

The posters, which copied Nazi propaganda images, sparked immediate complaints and public outcry when they appeared on noticeboards at Stellenbosch University, outside Cape Town, on Tuesday.

"The posters and advertised event promoting racial polarisation (and) superiority combined with highly offensive references to Nazi propaganda and Neo-Nazism are totally unacceptable," the university said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We cannot condone views, events, publicity campaigns or innuendo that undermine our innate equality as human beings."

The university said it "has so far identified three individuals linked to the planning of the 'Anglo-Afrikaner Student' event ... and the related posters that surfaced on the Stellenbosch campus".

I'm convinced studying at Stellenbosch University is emotional trauma. pic.twitter.com/DOviqgZOK2 — Andrei with an "i" (@AndreiDamane) May 9, 2017

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Wits called out the police and private security to education campus



Stellenbosch University has a sensitive poster in campus pic.twitter.com/VG6x9XzstS — Sefularo Keamogetswe (@Sefularo_Keamo) May 9, 2017

The images showed a blonde woman and man in poses copied from German Nazi posters.

Stellenbosch University was viewed as the intellectual home of Afrikaners during white-minority apartheid rule.

In recent years, students have protested against continuing alleged racism at the university.

Some students have campaigned for a ban on teaching in Afrikaans, saying it was the language of apartheid oppression and contend that its use as a teaching medium disadvantaged black South Africans.

Racial tensions have continued to endure in the country more than 20 years after the end of white-minority apartheid rule.