Carlo Petersen
RHODES Must Fall has decided to turn its back on student activist Chumani Maxwele after he allegedly assaulted a feminist during a protest at Wits University this week.
Maxwele, regarded as one of the founding members of the movement at UCT, came under fire after pictures of him tussling with Wits student Thenjiwe Mswane went viral on social media.
Student activists protested under the banner of #FeesMustFall (FMF) at Wits University on Monday, shutting down the university.
Men were photographed accosting Mswane after she attempted to disrupt the protest.
She said at least five men choked, kicked and punched her.
Yesterday, RMF member Mohammed Abdulla said the movement no longer regarded Maxwele as a member.
However, Chumani said the RMF fallout was all due to a power struggle. He still considered himself part of RMF.
Abdulla said RMF was not a partisan movement and it was time to call out those who did not believe in equality for all, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual and intersexual people.
“Basically we are calling out all partisanship in Rhodes Must Fall. The protest at Wits on Monday was being led by EFF and PAC members under the banner of Fees Must Fall.
“The men participating in that protest admitted that on Friday they had discussed a strategy to deal with feminism and that manifested during the protest on Monday when we saw Thenjiwe being assaulted,” Abdulla said.
Asked whether the movement has distanced itself from Maxwele, Abdulla replied: “We have been distancing ourselves from him and other partisan members for a long time now. He has never actually been a fallist.
“It is safe to say RMF has turned its back on Chumani now.”
Maxwele hit back, saying RMF had always been strongly driven by a political agenda.
“There has always been a political eye in the movement, but we have always discouraged our members from wearing their T-shirts.
“There is a drift happening where members are going back to their natural political homes,” Maxwele said.
Members of #FeesMustFall and other student movements, including Rhodes Must Fall, which played an instrumental role in spurring the FMF campaign last year, said political parties had hijacked the protest, and had excluded feminist and queer members.
Mswane said Maxwele had assaulted her by dragging her away from the protest.
She said five men then assaulted her while she was “out of the way”.
Maxwele has denied assaulting Mswane, saying he tried to prevent her from being assaulted.
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