Asher Gamedze
UCT researcher

"This pressing question is at the heart of the movement: how can we reimagine and forge a university, the values and guiding principles of which diametrically oppose its historical and current status as a satellite remnant of colonial empire?

"I suggest that the most important thing in this undertaking is to listen to black voices. Blackness speaks from daily experience of institutional racism and it must dictate the terms of 'transformation'.

"UCT will never break with its colonial, elitist roots if 'transformation' debates give so much weight to the voices of those whose ancestors were Rhodes and his colonial cronies; history tells us that they are reluctant to break down the empire the benefits of which they inherited.

"That is why Rhodes still sits comfortably, and that is why he must fall."

Read more stories from the April 2015 edition.