JAN SMUTS FALLS AT UCT RES
IN WHAT has been hailed a milestone in advancing the decolonial project, Jan Smuts’s name has fallen at UCT.
The men’s residence, known for decades as Smuts Hall, is now the Upper Campus Residence.
The removal of Smuts’s name was given the green light by the university’s council this weekend following a meeting to decide whether Smuts Hall residence should be renamed.
Founded on January 1, 1928, the men’s residence took Jan Smuts’s name after his death in 1950. Smuts, UCT’s chancellor, was also the former prime minister of South Africa.
The university’s student representative council (SRC) had made a submission to the council following a students’ proposal last month supported by residence stakeholders for a change, saying it was an insult to honour Smuts.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said the UCT council’s decision would allow the university to move on from the past while continuing to recognise the significance of the country’s history and legacy.
“There are many creative possibilities for re-imagining the UCT campus in ways that will build inclusivity and look to the future. Over the coming months, UCT will be holding discussions across our community about the new name for the Upper Campus Residence, as well as for other buildings.”
SRC president Declan Dryer said the decision advanced the decolonial project within the university and took another step forward towards removing names and spaces that honoured racist and colonial figures like Smuts.
“The decision brings to a close a hard-fought battle, by the SRC and residence council.
“We extend our thanks to all spaces of the university that rallied behind our call for Smuts to fall, and for the efforts of all progressive forces involved.”
UCT’s Black Academics Caucus’s (BAC) Dr Tiri Chinyoka welcomed the long overdue decision, saying: “The renaming of such buildings is an important symbolic step in the right direction on the long road to genuine transformation and decolonisation at UCT.
“We hope that the UCT council will move to speedily finalise the other outstanding renaming requests that have been subject of discussion for quite some time at UCT.”
Student organisation Sasco said it appreciated the positive psychological effect the change had had on many students and commended the institution for responding to the calls of decolonising spaces of learning.
“We call on the university community to partake in the renaming process when it is under way. While we commend UCT for taking this first step, we call on the university to further its commitment to transformation by removing the Smuts statue, as well as any other symbols of the apartheid and colonial era.”
EFFSC UCT branch chairperson Mila Zibi the university was living up to its decolonial pronouncements and commitment.
“The university community cannot allow a residence to be named after a man who believed in and advanced the racist Native policy.
“In his defence of this racist policy, Jan Smuts made pronouncements that black people are ‘child-like with a child-like psychology’. To have such a man who held such beliefs rewarded with a name of a residence is an institutional endorsement of racism and segregation.”
Zibi also applauded the different structures that supported the cause.
Other buildings that have recently been renamed include the JP Duminy (former UCT principal and vice-chancellor) residence, renamed to Philip Kgosana residence after the liberation Struggle stalwart; and the Health Sciences Library to Bongani Mayosi Health Sciences Library in honour of the scholar.
These changes occurred after the Rhodes Must Fall movement, led by student activist Chumani Maxwele, and started when Max Price was vice-chancellor in 2015.
It went on to become a global movement supported by students at Oxford University.