Ex-UWC rector made his mark across the political divide
WHAT fitting tributes to former University of the Western Cape (UWC) rector Richard van der Ross from Ms Patricia De Lille, Narendh Ganesh and former mayor Gordon R O liver.
The background of each of the contributors shows the wide impact Van der Ross has had – as an intellectual, a teacher, an academic, a political actor, and an honoured citizen of the City (Cape Times, Thursday, December 21).
As a student at UWC during the turbulent 1980s, I experienced Van der Ross often maligned by the student body as a sell-out and a collaborator, for his ambivalence (and often downright silence) and perceived lack of action during the often violent protests on campus.
We were too politically naive to understand the delicate role he was playing in trying to balance the pressures of a volatile student body, desperately seeking signals to justify their naive political engagement, with the need to maintain the credibility of an institution of higher learning, and the assault of his campus by an oppressive state determined to silence and crush any dissent.
I remember the day he led a procession of staff (academic, administrative and support) in a protest march around the campus grounds.
It was a watershed moment for the campus, convincing the student body of the support of our institution in our endeavours to send a strong political statement.
Van der Ross was often in absentia during our protests and clashes with the Internal Stability Unit, even when they invaded the campus grounds.
His absence was seen as a cowardly cop-out.
But in retrospect, and with the wisdom that comes with maturity, one can only begin to appreciate the pressures he had to deal with, to keep his campus open and functioning normally under such abnormal conditions.
The generation of those days are today successfully graduated teachers, lawyers, social workers, musicians, scientists, etc, and UWC has retained its position as the “intellectual home of the left”.
Thank you, Comrade Van der Ross, for your behind-the-scenes actions, in ensuring that UWC withstood those assaults on its credibility (from both the outside and within), and was able to build a legacy that respected later leaders, such as the late Professor Jakes Gerwel, could build on and solidify.
Hamba Kahle, Comrade! Marc-André Daniels Atlantis