Rhodes now in a box

Inter2CAPE Town — The Cecil John Rhodes statue, which has occupied a prominent spot at UCT for more than 80 years, has been boarded up and is now out of sight.The statue, which has been overlooking the campus rugby fields and the Cape Flats since 1934, was boxed in with wooden boards on Saturday night.

This came after UCT vice-chancellor Max Price tabled a motion to the university’s Senate on Friday, on behalf of the Senior Leadership Group, to remove the Rhodes statue from its current position.

The Student Representative Council, which is spearheading the Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) campaign, proposed the statue be permanently removed from campus.

“This amendment was supported, as was a further amendment that while awaiting a final decision from the UCT Council and Heritage Western Cape, the statue should be boarded up. The final amended proposal was supported by 181 votes, with one against and three abstentions,” Price said.

Student activist Chumani Maxwele, who initiated what has become a nationwide campaign to “decolonise” universities when he flung human excrement on the statue on March 9, said Friday’s vote was a victory for the students.

“It came as a result of a narrative of student power, which has been reawakened. It was never going to be the willingness of the Senate; that statue has stood there for over 80 years. This is a victory for the students who have shown that there is power in unity.”

Price said the Academics Union had also confirmed its support for the statue’s removal.

“The University Convocation will meet on Tuesday to express their view and Council will make the final decision at a specially called meeting on Wednesday.”

Asked on Sunday how many times the University Council had gone against a decision voted for by the Senate in the past, and if the decision to board up the statue was ratified by the Council, UCT spokeswoman Pat Lucas replied: “It’s important to note the independence of Council on all matters that come before it, and Council’s decision on the statue, as on any other matter, cannot be assumed to go one way or another.”

Lucas said questions about Senate and Council decisions, and about the Senate discussion around boarding up the statue, would require her to consult colleagues who may not be accessible on a Sunday. “The minutes from the Senate meeting may not be ready yet, or they may require signing off before they can be available.”

Following three weeks of protests and students’ current occupation of the Bremner Building, which houses the university management’s offices, UCT has committed to transformation.

Maxwele, 30, said the RMF collective, who described themselves as an independent collective of students, workers and staff who had come together to end institutionalised racism and patriarchy at UCT, would remain in the Bremner Building, which they had unofficially renamed Azania House, until the statue was removed.

“There are to 300 of us and about 100 students sleep in the building overnight. Our next step is to mobilise the workers at UCT — the ones who are outsourced and don’t get benefits, and to tackle the curriculum and the percentage of black academia.

“We cannot still have a situation where  there are no black female lecturers at UCT,”   he said. — IOL.

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