Cape Town - Stability at UCT is needed urgently, the Higher Education and Training Department says.
This follows three months of protests by students.
Khaye Nkwanyana, spokesperson for Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande, said on Monday while the ministry preferred not to comment on the internal processes at UCT, stability was urgent.
UCT and Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) - a movement which consists of students and staff from the university – have been embroiled in conflict since March. The conflict began after student activist Chumani Maxwele flung human excrement on to a statue of Cecil John Rhodes.
His action spurred the formation of RMF, protests to fast-track transformation at UCT and the eventual removal of the statue.
Maxwele has since been suspended twice - after his initial suspension was lifted - for allegedly racially abusing and threatening a lecturer. RMF has also faced disciplinary action after occupying UCT’s Bremner Building in March, then Avenue House on April 29.
RMF had requested a meeting space and UCT temporarily provided Avenue Hall with a view to replacing it with a permanent space.
The occupiers of Avenue House were charged, but then granted amnesty for all protest-related activities up to May 18.
Four students opted to stay in the building and were then suspended.
RMF then handed UCT management a document which listed the names of 240 students and staff members who stood in solidarity with those suspended.
The document, according to UCT spokesperson Kylie Hatton, claimed “support and were complicit in the occupation of Avenue House”, and exhorted the university authorities to charge the 240 along with the four others. UCT responded by issuing those on the list admission of guilt pleas last week.
Hatton said that if the students pleaded guilty, they would skip appearing before a tribunal, but would be reprimanded with 10 hours of community service at UCT.
Dr Mamphela Ramphele, the first black and first female vice-chancellor of UCT, between 1996 and 2000, refused to be drawn on the matter on Monday. “Dr Ramphele will not be offering comment on this story,” said her spokesperson, Rorisang Tshabalala.
Maxwele said: “We are being politically silenced by the university. They will never succeed. This is the project towards African revolution.”
RMF spokesperson Kealeboga Ramaru said RMF was due to meet on Monday night to discuss the way forward.
Cape Times