It was decided late yesterday by the University of Cape Town Council that the controversial statue of Cecil John Rhodes at the university will be taken down at 5 pm today.
Following weeks of debate and protests, the hot topic culminated yesterday after #RhodesMustFall protestors took to the streets and then stormed the UCT Council Meeting which was in progress – as seen in the video below:
Students blocked the doors of the meeting room, until eventually the announcement was made that not only will the statue be dismantled at 5 pm today, but also that the University will perform an audit on existing building names and symbols which could cause more drama.
#RhodesStatue Council chair Ndungane says the seriousness of the students forced them to make a decision. MK pic.twitter.com/AcDAVNy34T
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) April 8, 2015
Expect more changes to happen in time after today’s removal of the statue. Whatever is eventually put in place of the statue, let it be a symbol which all students can agree upon and take pride in seeing every day. On the flipside of that, we can only hope that next time something needs to change, it doesn’t involve flinging poo around to send the message.
Rhodes’ taxi is here. #RhodesMustFall #RhodesHasFallen pic.twitter.com/l4GkRabhos — Tiffany Kagure Mugo (@tiffmugo) April 9, 2015
Read more here.
Photography ThoughtLeader
What is it going to improve?
This one?
That’s the one!
Take away the bursaries as well
I haven’t been following the story – why exactly do they want it taken down?
Disgusting!!!!
A great shame that a higher learning organization like UCT is more focused on students petty demands than education!
Pity they don’t have a thumbs down on FB U0001f44eU0001f44e
U would think Students would be studying but here they are laughing singing and making a mockery of an institution. Are these the students that will one day be lawyers, Drs etc? Funny thing is the state of the nation address was performed in a similar manner. One has to wonder where our beautiful country is heading.
I think they are actually taking away the bursaries..
And with it the bursaries that they get through the Rhodes scholarship!!! You can’t hav your cake and eat it!
#ucthasfallen You will henceforth be judged rightly or wrongly on whether your UCT degree was achieved prior to 2015 in the job market.
They can remove the statue but history is history they can’t change facts!
Pathetic!! UCT – your decision to remove the statue and concede to the whims of a few disgruntled students, shows serious weakness. Prepare yourselves for more of this sort of thing, it will be happening all the time.
#StopTheRhodesScholarships!
#StopTheRhodesScholarships
#StopTheRhodesScholarships!
shouldn’t they then demolish the whole campus too???
No problem with the result as such. Serious problem wit the course/method that was taken.
What happened to civil discourse? Does the UCT now endorse mass protest and vandalism in order for society to move forward? Does this somehow condone the mining sector strike (which cost the country billions), or the many acts that take place during violent/illegal strikes in our various CBD’s around SA? Surely a higher institution of education should aim to divert and persuade students away from these actions, and encourage us, through example, how to achieve our goals in a non-disruptive manner.
Alas, ‘democracy’ has spoken.
Nelson Mandela is turning in his grave! These so called “Students” have made a mockery of everything he did to try and make South Africa a united nation. This is never going to happen with this kind of behaviour! Where is it all going to end? SHOCKING!
So so sad
How pathetic, to give in to their demands. It will only encourage them to continue trying to destroy reminders of our history. If they took the time to get an education, they would realise that removing statues does not change one single thing about our history. Nothing changes the facts. Why don’t they build something constructive for the future, instead of tearing down what others have built?
Shooting themselves in the feet. Remove the statue. . Bye bye Rhodes bursary.. for UCT students..that’s a smart move. Ridiculous that a statue that has been there for years can Jst be removed . Historical landmark is lost…
They build UCT on land donated by Rhodes, so UCT should get their own grounds and move immediately.
Do all the scholarships also stop today then too? It would only be fair.
Hulle is bedonerd man !!!
I highly disagree with this
Really not fair
Im glad they’re stopping the bursaries
This is pathetic!!!
Now No more scholarships!!!
It reminds them of colonialism
I Absolutely agree!
Read & educate yourselves.
I think it’s very sad that we bow down to unimaginative idiots wanting their 5 minutes of fame. A university student, and his first thought in protest is to throw human waste! Makes one question the current educational standards and worry for the future. Thank goodness Madiba is gone, he would be saddened to see this type of idiotic behaviour.
You had to see on the news how students disrupted the meeting last night. It’s so disrespectful. It’s seems like everybody wants to make history. Then the Student studying for a degree is no better than the person on the street fighting for a toilet in their own backyard.
It reminds them of the Apartheid era, it is said.. For eighty years (twenty years of which they have the power) the statue was invisible untill ANC decided they want Cape Town (the most profitable town that still stands in South Africa). This is only a political move of vote scoring for ANC. EFF is the military factiion of that party. Is alegedly doing all the farm murders and then, for sure all the destruction work. Paying for population shifting is the taxpayers, in order to score points for their cousin party.
As long as this stays a UCT thing and doesn’t become a Cape Town thing. Rhodes mem etx stays untouched
I have read that article, but what are we doing? It’s part of history. So who or what statue are they gona erect in place of rhodes? It’s been seen of a statue that has been place on lions head over the past weekend. Who said blacks are not the biggest racist party? Just saying. It’s our history not just students at UCT. Nelson Mandela is turning in his grave for this. But oh well it has been decided by a bunch of clever dumb people
Flinging poo at stuff you disagree with is exactly the kind of mentality you’re supposed to transcend with tertiary education.
Symbols are important. That is why we do not see any statues of a venerated Adolf Hitler towering over public spaces in Germany. Removing his statue does not mean that we are erasing him from history, but that we acknowledge the damage he inflicted on our common humanity. Contrary to the opinions of some of our elderly scholars (Prof Jonathan Jansen among others), and DJ’s-who-think-they-know-stuff (Gareth Cliff), who have trashed the noble energy of students calling for the removal of Rhodes and other symbols that glorify a racist past, I am fully in support of the #RhodesMustFall student campaign at our universities. It’s been inspiring to see students channeling their energy into meaningful activism. The article below, from 1967, gives some insight into the consciousness of Cecil John Rhodes and his ilk. Their place in history will not be erased. They have made absolutely sure of that. We don’t need statues venerating them in our public places to remind ourselves of their contribution to history. It’s not only inappropriate, it’s hurtful.
removing it wont change history it’ll only cause problems in the near future,UCT is so ignorant,they don’t listen to any of the students demands when it comes to improving the education experience ,like more parking ,or better food and more space in the food hall,and other problems, what a SHAME
Please stop the scholarship now
Weak weak weak. That the institution that has carried so many students with bursaries etc, gives in to racisit manipulation. Pay back all the monies you have been GIVEN and sponsored as well as your degrees. Stupid insanity. Wait till the tables turn on you. DOWN with all the new statues as well.
UCT succumbs ! What next ?
Demolish all that Rhodes gave.
i don’t think Rhodes would want to be associated with this establishment now anyway and would be happy to be placed elsewhere.
Shocking
What do you expect from a university that sells degrees, and students that only need 50% pass marks to get through… enough said.
Well, it seems that students (kids) dictate. Maybe the “adults” should stop the Rhodes bursary now too and let the “kids” pay for their studies. It will sure let the people who are serious about learning, learn and those you are there for a jolly, depart.
Man that was my hookup spot U0001f615 rip
Since when does the tail wag the dog. A student is there to learn. If he/she does not like it, go, go where you do like it. Nobody is forcing you to stay at uct.
why not just go to a university where the statues don’t offend you?
If the same rule applied to all of the monuments in Cape Town, I’m sure more than half of them will be removed. Our history includes slavery and oppression, nothing can change that. The question is how will removing a statue change the mindset of people or change the situation in our country today?
PATHETIC!….. Talking about biting the hands that supplies bursaries and education. ….. And “WONDERFUL” to see where the priorities lies…
I honestly feel that “white” people today should not be punished for what “white” did years ago. Accept our history. We can’t turn back time. Let’s all move on as a United nation.
It was there before they enrolled, they should have been offended then and chosen to rather go to another university. Destruction is not a sign of progression…
Seriously some people are just so pathetic…why must they now want to take down all the old statues that was there before my time and is of great History from the past…because I really do not have any thing good to say about what is happening around us today…once again pathetic:-(
I don’t care either way but seeing these students have all the time in the world and don’t have to study. Maybe they will donate there time to an organization that gives back to the community. Trees for schools they develops vegetable gardens in schools that are in our underprivileged areas. Schools that need food support as there kids are undernourished and struggle to concentrate due to having hungry stomachs. Or maybe because u have received something that few others have received you will pay it forward.
I totally agree with you.
I also wonder where our beautiful country is going…
Well, his remains are still in Zimbabwe (where I was born – Rhodesia in those days), for now, at a spot that he chose to be laid to rest. The locals there want them removed. He must be rolling in that grave…..
These people have nothing better to do then to complain about the countries statues.. its part of SA history.. whats next if they dont like someone, will they protest and burn there houses down ? Really pathetic
I find it stupid. ..erect another statue.. We can’t eradicate every statue from the old regime and what it stood for really now. … students should be focusing on their peers falling pregnant and ruining their lives. Teach one another to abstain instead of harping on the past and looking for fault
Pathetic. If it wasn’t for Rhodes the university wouldn’t be standing nor would Kirstenbosch nor would Cape Town have developed the way it has.
Pathetic
I have thought the same. How many students were arrested when the statue was vandalised?
I hope the bursaries stop too then. We are focussed on unnecessary things like a statue and street/school names. What about crime, corruption, power cuts. These students need to do some more growing up.
Why didn’t they just build their own statue somewhere on campus? Why must ours be removed? We do not break down we build up!
Which students have spoken??
So does the Rhodes scholarship also get scrapped now or is that still acceptable as are other convenient colonial influences such as wigs and false eyelashes
Take away their scholarships as well. What a bunch of total misfits..
Okay so after decades of the statue being there they decide only NOW it must be taken down?? Stupid
Completely disgusted
I agree with you when you say we need to acknowledge the damage he inflicted on others but the manner in which our youth (the leaders of tomorrow) decided to execute their #RhodesMustFall campaign was disgusting and as South Africans we should feel ashamed and not condone hooliganism by giving into these demands. If the campaign was carried out without this kind of hooliganism I would also support it. The youth of today is so quick to jump on the violence/vandalism/hooliganism ‘protests’ but do they even know the history of our country? They so easily use the names of some of our great leaders like Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu but their actions would be condoned by them. We are not on the brink of Civil War and should not give in to this kind of aggressive, violent protests. What kind of message are we sending to our youth? Everyone needs to be heard but the way we do this determines who we are as a society.
wondering that is why mugabe in town…
the students should think twice they can’t always have their own way especially with history though there were bad times but MOVE FORWARD not BACKWARDS. they only destroying what future generations won’t know aboit ungrateful that’s what they are shame on u UCT students
This is fantastic news! #Rhodesmustfall
Does anyone one know in what the decision was based on? This story only starts here…. #dominoes
I won’t say anything .. I will let Madiba speak for me.
and today life goes on like yesterday. Nothing has changed. no miracles….people are still without basic needs.
If we are serious about transformation and social cohesion then this is an important first step. The follow up steps are critical. In my view, this should have happened 21 years ago…..
Seen that (Ja Broer) Max Price has given in to these unproductive idiotic invaders of UCT, I hope he will replace Rhodes statue with our very own Struggle Activist “Dr Neville Alexander”
funny how a statue can affect ppl that weren’t even born that time yet alone bone in the struggle era
It’s onky the start
Give them matches to burn everything….get it over and done with. Tell them to leave the varsity as it is a colonial thing to be educated….take their cars invented by white people. Tore off their clothes it is also a “white” thing to wear clothes. Put off all electricity, as it is also a colonial thing! Let’s help them to go back to their roots..
And how many members of the DA and other political parties were dispersed outside of Parliament with water-cannons, while peacefully gathering?
Kieran Allen Michael Overall
The thing is, there are many people who played a part in this country’s history through violence and hatred and even racism. While I can completely understand the students’ point of view (Rhodes DID plant the seeds of apartheid, after all) – why do we choose to remember other historical figures like Nelson Mandela (for example) for their greatness instead of keeping into consideration the atrocities they’ve committed along the way? By rights, the Afrikaners must also be outraged with Rhodes because they also suffered under British occupation.
Oh really? So how are you going to return all those RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS?
Is that the same Evie from Afrox?
Highly disappointed that they have bowed to the demqnds of a small group. Sick and tired of the past being resurrected, it’s an old drum stop banging it. Get pro active in working for something worthwhile making an impact that’s positve for change in this new democracy.
Absolutely gutless human beings
Oh really? So will all the RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS be returned too and will there be any further RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS awarded to any future UCT students?
What a shame!I really expected UCT to be better than stooping down to this low level pity I think bursaries should not be given willy nilly any longer!
What I don’t understand is why people actively choose to remember certain historical figures in this country for their greatness instead of the atrocities they committed along the way. Exhibit A: Nelson Mandela.
Not yet qualified at ANYTHING but making decisions that SHOULD involve the nation!!???
So true they holding grudges 4 things tht happened b4 there tym. If Madiba held grudges he wud hav removed those statues wen he became president. He is luking down n very dissapointed. We dnt need to destroy them or take them down y nt just put others in our tym our history next to them our future
Ttagies
This makes me very very sad!!! We have bigger issues and they are intimidated by a statue.
So do I
A ver SAD day indeed!!! what impact will the removal of a mere STATUE have on their lives? Educate them? I think not!! monkey see, monkey do….FACT (y)
I say let them remove it together with the Rhodes Education Trust Fund and then the useless pieces of gut waste can pay for their own ‘education’.
There are more important issues to get in a bandwagon about. Time and money wasting is all they flippin know what to do…get on with your studies….thats what you there for. I guess those are the students who passed with 33%… cant cope now…
Pathetic.
Country going backwards. Cance all burseries for those involved.
The holy sPirit must really come down. . . I really stand against removals of anything tha’ was built ages back!. . . .DEAR Black chILD why cant we be like #MANDELA??. . .trow everything behind in-order for you to make he who fought for us to be free Proud!!. . . Do you think where he’s at is aplauding at what is happening??….if the statue is being removed I surely thInk that you will put down the walls too! :/ :/ 🙁
Shame…we could mean history is something important. Instead of appreciate it we destroy it. I’m sure it’s only the beginning.
Wondering if the UCT moves to another place now ????
Wonder how many of these students actually pay fees…
Pathetic UCT Chancellor and convocation. You give in to demands from students which sets a dangerous precedent.
Precisely
It the minds that need to change not fixed objects….
I hope they do take away the bursaries, very sad to see that statue is going U0001f622
Kak man,hulle kry f…. als regg
We need to move on. Trivial things…….
You will see….every time before exams…these fckrs starts any sort of disorderly behavior…we’ve seen it at other universities in the Western Cape as well…to think they come from other provinces and disrupt and breaking down our beautiful province…THEY FCKIN LAZY WANTS EVERYTHING FOR FREE…..GO BACK WHERE YOU COME FROM…Capetown…stand up for what is right and what belongs to you…don’t let these bush people come here and destroy our history….
Max Du Preez:To all those who have in recent days praised Cecil John Rhodes as the bringer of education, enlightenment and development to South Africa, a few bits of information. One: he did not launch the University of Cape Town as is claimed, nor did he donate the land for the university. He indeed talked about a university during the late 1880s, but abandoned the idea at the end of 1891. After his death the trust handling his money donated the land where the university is now.
Two: He, rather than Verwoerd or some other Afrikaner nationalist, should be regarded as the real father of apartheid. Here’s a quote from the most sympathetic biography of Rhodes in recent times, Robert Rotberg’s monumental (800 pages) The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power: “From his first months as premier [of the Cape Colony] Rhodes fashioned a pro-Boer, anti-African policy of enforced separation which was more politically (and thus more power-) motivated than anything the English-speaking empire in southern Africa had yet seen. (page 358). And then on page 688: “He defied liberal thinking in the Cape and, through the Glen Grey legislation of 1894, laid the basis for 20th century rural segregation in South Africa.” That was the Bantustan policy the old Nats based their apartheid ideology on. (His ‘pro-Boer’ sentiments did not include those Afrikaners in the old Boer Republics, especially after diamonds and gold were discovered.)
Three: He had his own private army (commanded by Leander Starr Jameson) which he used to subjugate the Ndebele of Zimbabwe and to try and overthrow the government of ZAR president Paul Kruger.
Just thought more people should know this side of a man who undoubtedly had a lot of energy, ambition and talent.
Really ??????
A concerned citizen what is happening guys are we not a democratic country where we practice fair and repect all religouse and cultures is the present goverment trying to wipe out the south african history pass or present we should really look at what is happening do u really think by removing the past statues that people are not going to remember what has happened it sad man sad
Petty petty ..
This sure solved all our poverty crime housing and poor governance nation building and economic issues didn’t it…… you don’t build a nation by removing history good or bad. You build a nation by creating a new future that will reflect is own history in time. Might as well remove all tributes to ceasar ghengis kahn napoleon I’m sure they peeved of a couple of people as well in their day.
Great example to students. Acting like children, gets you what you want. I thought university was about creating adults.
Leave all statues. It’s part of history good or bad.
disgrace. stop the funds from the foundation. Mandela would never have allowed this.
Ai!!! Shame that they feel threatened by a statue!!!!,
That is right
Rachel Dippenaar
🙁
What a shame!U0001f612
Sounds like he’s fit for president then? Right? 😉
Very, very sad ….. Hope they don’t put ZUMA up there …
Idiots
This is why academics never make good leaders. NO spine! It is not about the statue staying or being removed it is how this all unfolded. Max Price, you should be ashamed at the precident that you have created!
Time to dismantle UCT, as Rhodes built it?!
Yeah ALL the ‘ students’. We would have been expelled for bringing the varsity’s name into disrespect.
They will never be happy Once they destroyed all the statues They will find something else they not happy with and so it will go on
That students must concentrate on there studies… This is allotta polony .why do away with our history…Good or bad we have to live with it…
Bloody ridiculous and small minded , is this what students do now, I thought studying was their game not being yobs !?
Didn’t know People like Cecil John Rhodes could be so loved. History can never be destroyed. What is there to lose by the removal of his statue? I kinda understand that keeping it there open wounds of the past. To those who say that he built the varsity, was the land his? Was Rhodes african? I think south africa put the facts away & it’s always about black versus white. Now, that is #SAD
Nelson will be turning in his grave! The past is the past!!
I really think this is a very sad part of our new history. Will this generation not ever want to be remembered for doing good work????? Do unto others as you would have done to you – now and always.
If the government would deliver, perhaps peoples’ frustrations would stop expressing themselves as racial tension and we could get on with forgetting the irrelevant differences between us.
A very sad day…
If you going to play the blame game then ask yourself who’s land was it to begin with? Rhodes did a wonderful thing but it’s time to put Malemas statue there. Lag my klah what a joke.
Where would Africa be if people had not come and colonised and brought technology and European practice’s to Africa
It all rather a lot of bull…!!
Hope they happy now. Do they know themselves what makes them happy. Destroyers. They like things to be ugly and destroyed.
I agree.
Agree
What if this is part of the cANCer ‘s disruption campaign?? I doubt their strategy is that good but look at the divide it instantly creates (an us vs them, leave the University, stop education, stop scholarships). Possible??
Weak UCT, you have started a witch hunt
Mandela would never have allowed this
Well – stop the funds…
So now the few students who couldn’t study with the statue there can study again. Isn’t that why we go to university- to study? We realised what a privilege it was to study, but nowadays everything is a right, and when one uninformed idiot concerned him or herself with a statute (!!!) all the village idiots jumped on the bandwagon. Pathetic.
I have to agree Yvette it would be only fair
Take away all of the Rhodes scholarships!
One cannot delete what was, nor what is, our country as it is, is a show of weakness. If they think it gives them power to destroy, then sad for them
Take down the Rhodes scholarships as well then.
Wadji, the major revelation for me is not the removal of the statue that should have been considered 20 yrs ago, but the commentary surrounding the issue/removal. It exposes the fact that reconciliation was/is mostly talk and mostly one sided. Just can’t understand the anger from people who have lost nothing and will lose even less after all statues are removed. I hope it’s a commentary bias and does not represent the views of the people of SA at large, but I’m starting to have my doubts
A shame
Only white colonial recipients from now on! How’s that#
Time the youth grew up and went to history lessons to learn the real history of this land
Please take all the old statues down. I never noticed them and certainly, as a white somebody, didn’t worship any. I would love to see a statue of Steve Biko put in a pride of place.
More history of South Africa being swept away.
When will this end…..you cannot change the past (love it or hate it) and how can this type of behaviour bring the country together! Shameful behaviour…. instead of concentrating on their studies to help improve the lives of the less fortunate…… they are worried about a statue!!!!
Horror of horrors!
Let’s rewrite all the history books.
If they want all the white statues to be taken down why dont they demolish all the black ones too? Stupid and pathetic students if it wasnt for rhodes they wouldnt have had an university
Agree
Faried Manuel we as ordinary South Africans never had the chance to deal with the past or to reconcile. The TRC was for known Apartheid crimes etc. Our Ggovernment has failed us. I agree all Apartheid era statues etc. Should have been removed 20 years ago already & should be placed in an Apartheid Museum. I am also troubled by those who say this is a meaningless exercise yet are upset by the removal of these “meaningless” statues etc.
Even though I stand by my previous point, I must agree with you. The thing I do not agree with is the violence that supposedly educated students resorted to to get their point across.
I have so much too say abt “these people” but i might just land up in jail…
A travesty – embrace history, do not forget good or bad and make a better future – statues do not erase the past – they should serve as a reminder for us to behave better – shame on you UCT
All for having a voice and standing for something but I wonder how many if these clever people studying at such a fine institution like UCT actually knows what it was all about. Protesting and nit getting to the books, who they going to blame for failing their exams. Also, why must it always be violent and damaging things?
NO Rhodes bursaries and scholarships or financial help for these so called ‘student’s…take it away….blood disgraceful behaviour….
Should never have been approved. What has it changed?
Just the thin end of the wedge
Some of them pay fees to demand Others just demand
If you have no respect for others culture you can have no respect for own or yourself
Hahahaha!