STATUE LOOMS HIGH ON NZIMANDE VISIT
Minister travels to university after protests
SHOULD King George V fall or should he remain?
This question is expected to dominate the agenda when Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande descends on the University of KwaZulu-Natal ’ s Westville campus tomorrow.
He will meet the university council, student formations, SRC and university support staff.
Higher education ministry spokesman Khaye Nkwanyana said: “The minister will have a consultative meeting with the university community, SRC, council and management.”
Nzimande ’ s visit was sparked by a student protest which has engulfed the university in recent weeks.
The protest spearheaded by the South African Student Congress (Sasco), an ally of the ANC, is demanding that a statue of King George V erected at Howard College be removed.
The students claim the statue resembles white superiority.
Sasco provincial secretary Phinda Mofokeng said they will intensify their campaign of doing away with monuments which do not represent democratic South Africa.
“We remain resolute. The statue belongs to a museum like other symbols and architects of apartheid. ”
Mofokeng said once they are done with the statue, next in the firing line will be the Mangosuthu University of Technology, saying it must be renamed because the IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi who the institution is named after did not contribute to the fight against apartheid.
Last week, UKZN students vandalised the statue of King George V and also painted it with whitewash.
Students at the University of Cape Town sparked the uprising when they staged a campaign calling for the fall of a Cecil John Rhodes statue at the institution.
Other student formations across the country have since followed suit.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said although they supported the removal of statues they did not advocate for vandalism.
“These statues represent the apartheid era which afflicted and subjected blacks in general and Africans in particular to conditions of squalor,” he said.
The debacle marks Dr Albert van Jaarveld ’ s first test since joining the university, replacing long-serving former vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba.