UCT’s top management the ‘biggest challenge’

Perturbed by removing of statues... there were other ways of dealing with issues

A MEMBER of the Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) movement, Brian Kamanzi, has said the biggest challenge at UCT was the way the institution’s senior management dealt with transformation.

Kamanzi was speaking at a debate titled “Heritage symbols in post colonial contexts: How do we interpret and manage living history in South Africa?”

The debate took place at the District Six Museum in Cape Town last night.

Kamanzi, Gcobani Sipoyo, from the South African Heritage Resource Agency (SAHRA), and Dr Ashraf Jamal and Mohammed Shabangu from the Open Stellenbosch Collective were panelists during the debate.

“I don’t think that Max Price ( UCT Vice-Chancellor) and all other members of the senior management are capable of fulfilling the changes we think are necessary,” Kamanzi said.

“We are not simply talking about statues, we are talking about experiences, we are talking about the memory of people.”

Kamanzi said Rhodes Must Fall was “simply an accident of history” which caught the public imagination.

“Some people are not looking into black movements with any degree of complexity. To them we are simply savages or barbarians who are throwing poo and we can never move beyond that,” he said.

Jamal said he was perturbed by the removing of statues and that there were other ways of dealing with such issues.

A National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union member in the audience said: “While there is support for RMF there are bigger things that need to be addressed at universities.

“Even though we got rid of the apartheid system, we are still living under apartheid’s legacy. The Rhodes memorial on the mountain above the university must be the next to fall.”

The debate was aimed at finding ways in which the nation could deal with statues and buildings that represent an oppressive past.