Call for KZN college name change

Sne Masuku

The Students Representative Council (SRC) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal has this week added a new demand on top of their protest against statues of what they call “white supremacy” at the institution of higher education.

The students are calling for the removal of the name of one of its campuses – the Howard College Campus.

They indicated they want the campus to have a name relevant to the history of the country, and not of Howard who is not a South African. The campus is named after Howard Davis, a son of the man who had donated money to build the campus in 1931. Davis was killed during the battle of Somme in World War 1.

Speaking during a dialogue session organised by eThekwini Municipality following the xenophobic att acks and the debate about statues and monuments, SRC president Dithobe Mosana said just like statues of the apartheid legacy, the name Howard should be removed. “As students, we are against the name. It has no South African relevance. The campus was named after a son of a man who donated money to build a section of the campus, not even the whole institution. No-one in this country even knows the man,” he said.

The Howard campus made headlines last month after a statue of King George V was defaced by students calling for its removal. The statue was splattered with white paint and covered with a black and white cloth with “end white privilege” written on it.

Mosana was on panel of five experts within the heritage and history field who made presentations on how the country can best handle the issue of statues.