Students started beating bins and singing songs as the announcement by the University of Cape Town’s council on whether the statue of Cecil John Rhodes is to be removed or not was delayed on Wednesday evening.
As the sun set students started gathering on UCT campus to await the council’s ruling, but as the minutes passed clearly agitated students received no response.
The announce was due to take place at 18:30, but just before 19:00 the crowd moved outside Allan Cormack House.
One student was heard saying: “These people, they take long!”
On March 27, the university said its Senate had "voted overwhelmingly in favour of recommending to council that the statue of Rhodes be moved when council holds its special sitting on Wednesday, April 8 2015".
UCT Vice Chancellor Max Price wanted the statue moved and not destroyed, but his suggestion was rejected by some students.
The matter has also sparked defacement of other colonial-era monuments around the country, including a statue of King George VI at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the throwing of green paint on a statue of Paul Kruger in Pretoria.
The EFF has admitted to defacing Kruger’s statue.
Rhodes was a British colonialist, businessman, mining magnate and politician in southern Africa. He founded Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) which was named after him in 1895. Rhodes University is also named after him.
News24 - http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Decision-on-Rhodes-statue-delayed-20150408
As the sun set students started gathering on UCT campus to await the council’s ruling, but as the minutes passed clearly agitated students received no response.
The announce was due to take place at 18:30, but just before 19:00 the crowd moved outside Allan Cormack House.
One student was heard saying: “These people, they take long!”
On March 27, the university said its Senate had "voted overwhelmingly in favour of recommending to council that the statue of Rhodes be moved when council holds its special sitting on Wednesday, April 8 2015".
UCT Vice Chancellor Max Price wanted the statue moved and not destroyed, but his suggestion was rejected by some students.
The matter has also sparked defacement of other colonial-era monuments around the country, including a statue of King George VI at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the throwing of green paint on a statue of Paul Kruger in Pretoria.
The EFF has admitted to defacing Kruger’s statue.
Rhodes was a British colonialist, businessman, mining magnate and politician in southern Africa. He founded Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) which was named after him in 1895. Rhodes University is also named after him.
News24 - http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Decision-on-Rhodes-statue-delayed-20150408
