Protecting the legacy of student protests

“Transformation at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has always centred on student protest. This is a very important thread to pick up on, which is very telling.”  

These were some of the opening reflections from UCT’s deputy vice-chancellor for People, Culture and Society, Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, as she spoke on the 16 June 1976 student uprisings. This year marks the 50th commemoration year since students took to the streets of Soweto in retaliation against Bantu education. 

“We have always relied on students to drive the transformation agenda. The link between student protests and societal issues is a very important one to think about,” Professor Ramugondo said. UCT itself has been shaped by key events over the years, some of which are succinctly captured in Emeritus Professor Howard Phillips’ book, which examined UCT from the period 1948 to 1968.  

That particular volume explored “operations of UCT; its construction; its interaction with the wider community; its ‘fraught relations’ with the apartheid state, students, and the core business of the university: teaching, learning and research”.  

“Protest at UCT is the [Archie] Mafeje sit-in, which follows engagements that one can label as protest, and which continue even today in the way students demonstrate in order to register their discontent with what’s happening on campus,” said Ramugondo. 

“Transformation occurs where decisions are made, and these decisions are premised on people.” 

This, she noted, points to a broader theme concerning how students shape the tone of their mobilisation: the enduring importance of mass meetings. Beyond serving as a mechanism for building support, mass meetings reaffirm the collective conviction that the issues at stake warrant the effort and risks associated with protest action. They were a ubiquitous feature of student activism in the 1980s, remained central during #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall and #Shackville, and continue to play a significant role in student mobilisation today.  

“For us at UCT, protest is not something to be squashed. It’s a very important lesson for us. When we have student protest action, for example, the work to be done from those in a position of leadership is listening. In 1976, young people were calling for the dismantling of Bantu education. Given how history is written and how there were many people who did not want the year to be remembered for what it was about, you have distortions about that moment,” she said. 

Humanising praxis 

Ramugondo used the example of #RhodesMustFall at the university to stress this point, noting that when you read about the events of the time in formal texts, it is difficult to find the same degree of clarity regarding what the events were fundamentally about. “Oftentimes it is collapsed and seen as #FeesMustFall. With the former, it is clear what must fall. With the latter, it was again clear.” 

She added: “It is important to stay close to what is being articulated when movements are led by young people. When you have students asking for something to be done now, as a leadership, you must respond to the acute nature of the issue and begin to plan for how to avoid the trigger in the first place.” 

“It’s not a conversation for UCT only – it’s certainly a national conversation.”

She concluded with a topic she knows all too well: transformation. “At its core, for us at UCT, transformation is based on a humanising praxis. It’s about understanding our responsibility to each other – whether it’s on student fees, accommodation or curriculum. It also has to do with our history of colonisation and apartheid, and if those two are our history, then it follows that we probably don’t know how to affirm each other’s humanity. Therefore, we have to learn. It’s not a conversation for UCT only – it’s certainly a national conversation. 

“We have also foregrounded redress. The work we do in that space has begun to show us clarity in relation to the new name that my portfolio has because … to think about redress, we must include society. Transformation occurs where decisions are made, and these decisions are premised on people.”