The University of Cape Town (UCT) Convocation AGM descended into chaos on Thursday evening. It was marked by shouting, interruptions, insults and booing. Some attendants criticised president of convocation Barney Pityana for his handling of the meeting, but it is unlikely anyone could have chaired it successfully.
The meeting was extremely noisy, with numerous interjections and heckles. Few speakers identified themselves by name. And there was not enough documentation for all the attendants, including this reporter. It is therefore impossible to report the event as accurately as we would like.
The meeting started at 5:30pm and ended at about 8pm. Little was achieved. The main concern was a motion of no confidence, proposed by Timothy Crowe, in vice-chancellor Max Price and the senior UCT executive for its negotiated agreement
with Fees Must Fall protesters on the eve of UCT’s exams. It’s unclear what the implications would have been had the motion passed. Council, not Convocation, employs Price. And although the meeting was well-attended — the lecture theatre on middle-campus was overflowing — it represented a tiny fraction of the university body, though it is possible Crowe wanted a further ballot put to the entire university. In any case the motion did not appear well-supported, based on the widespread applauds in response to a critique of it by Advocate Geoff Budlender, though we cannot know for sure because the meeting closed without it being voted on.
