CAPE Town – UCT students have claimed victory after the institution removed the Jan Smuts bust on Wednesday.
In what resembled the events leading to the removal of the Rhodes statue from UCT six years ago, a group of 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 is after the council deliberated and approved a recommendation of the Naming of Buildings Committee to change the name of Smuts Hall.
The interim name Upper Campus Residence would be used until the process of determining a new name was formally concluded.
But the students said the university was “taking its time”.
UCT EFFSC chair Mila Zibi told the Cape Times that students were overjoyed that UCT no longer venerates a racist man like Jan Smuts.
“This goes some way towards decolonisation and transformation. This may not change the economic plight of black people and black students, but symbolically, it has a lot of positive effects on us black students.
“As the EFFSC we are proud and will continue to ensure that colonial heritage is not celebrated and shoved into our faces by the so-called number 1 university in Africa,” he said.
The university's student representative council president Declan Dyer echoed the same sentiment, saying Smuts was a racist and a strong advocate for segregation who had no place of being honoured in their campus.
“Not only is the decision a step towards advancing the decolonial project on campus, but it also seeks to address an institutional culture that has long harboured the protection of exclusionary relics and spaces.”
This is a developing story.
Cape Times