Cape Town - In what resembled the events leading to the removal of the Rhodes statue from UCT six years ago, a group of student activists have turned their focus to the Jan Smuts bust, calling for it to fall.
The students belonging to the EFF Student Command (EFFSC) defaced and covered the Smuts bust with plastic bags on Monday, saying black students could no longer be made to see the face of their oppressor.
This follows a meeting at the weekend where Council deliberated and approved a recommendation of the Naming of Buildings Committee to change the name of Smuts Hall, the student residence on upper campus.
Council said the interim name Upper Campus Residence would be used until the process of determining a new name was formally concluded.
But UCT EFFSC chair Mila Zibi said while the university “takes its time” to remove the statue, they decided to take matters in their own hands.
“We have been fighting for the renaming of this residence as we cannot have a situation in a transformative university, where we venerate racist colonial figures like Jan Smuts. This man believed that black people were child-like and with a child-like psychology. He is responsible for mass genocide against black people.
“As UCT takes its time to remove the statue, we have decided to deface him in the immediate moment by covering him with a plastic bag to unveil the new name as black students can no longer be made to see the face of their oppressor,” he said.
UCT spokesperson, Elijah Moholola said the institution noted the incident, urging students to address any matters at the engagement table.
“The UCT executive has worked very hard over the past years to create an environment of engagement on campus, a culture where we can speak with one another and across differences to shape an inclusive new space on campus where all members of the UCT community feel at home. It is this culture of engagement that led to a significant moment when Council agreed to the proposal for the change of the name,” Moholola said.
EFF Western Cape spokesperson, Wandile Kasibe said they were in full support of the decision to rename and called on other institutions to do the same, “and remove these symbols as an act of restoring the dignity of the African people.
“It cannot be that in a post-apartheid South Africa we still have these colonial symbols glorified in our spaces,” Kasibe said.
Black People National Crisis Committee national spokesperson Songezo Mazizi said the “historic” decision came at a time when presence of the “colonial symbols” in the public spaces provoked anger from the majority of South Africans “whose ancestors were murdered by people who are celebrated through these symbols”.
UCT Council chair Babalwa Ngonyama said the decision to rename the residence would allow the institution to move on “from the past while continuing to recognise the significance of our legacy”.
“The changing of names should not be seen as merely replacing what we do not like with what we feel resonates well with us or what we feel we relate better to. It should go beyond the view that the name we are changing is a source of discomfort or pain for those advocating for change. Nor should it be viewed as an act of diminishing, discarding or deviating from history by those who would wish that the status quo should remain,” Ngonyama said.
The ANC in the province said the renaming would, at a symbolic level, “further drive transformation of UCT”.
Other buildings that have been recently changed 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 efforts were kicked off by the Rhodes Must Fall movement led by student activist Chumani Maxwele, and started when Max Price was the vice-chancellor in 2015. It went on to become a global movement supported by students at Oxford University in London.
Cape Times