Cape Town – The start of the 2016 academic calendar at the University of Cape Town (UCT) kicked off with a protest by the Rhodes Must Fall Movement with “Shackville”, a symbol of an alleged lack of accommodation for black students.
Prominent member of the RMF movement Chumani Maxwele on Monday explained the reason for the corrugated iron and wood protest structure which was erected on UCT’s upper campus.
“Black students do not have a place to stay,” he said.
Maxwele said that black students constantly struggled to secure accommodation for their time at UCT, whether it was because of the cost, or because they were put on a waiting list.
“If you go to the housing queue, you will see for yourself, there is no white person there,” said Maxwele.
Black students, said Maxwele, were put on the waiting list while American and European students who were at the institution for short periods of time were prioritised.
“Logically, politically, and economically that does not make sense,” he said.
According to Maxwele, the protest – which was taking place at upper campus between the residences Smuts and Fuller – was gaining momentum. Black students who were on the waiting list were reportedly part of the protest.
Traffic in and around the university was moving slowly on Monday morning as campus security and traffic officials had to redirect cars away from the protest site.
African News Agency
[ View the story "#Shackville highlights UCT's student housing problem" on Storify]