Rhodes statue removed at UCT

Following Chumani Maxwele’s radical protest through a political performance of throwing human excrement at the statue of Cecil John Rhodes situated on Rugby Road of the campus of the University of Cape Town, the statue was removed a month later on the 9 April 2015 at 17:37. The removal was voted upon by the UCT Council on the 8 April 2015 in consultation with Heritage Western Cape. The bronze statue had stood erect for eighty-one years serving as a dual representation of a figure that stimulated South Africa’s economy, but at the expense of the subjugation of Black people for the provision of cheap labour. The debate around the statue’s place on campus inspired the mobilization of protests, intense discourses, marches, sit-ins, and dialogue all beneath the umbrella of the #RhodesMustFall movement, which was stimulated by Maxwele’s initial protest. The so-called ‘Fallists’ argued that the statue was significant beccause it connoted White supremacy, institutional racism, Black oppression and patriarchy that they argued were all still highly visible at the time. On this day, masses of students, academics, workers and community members gathered around the Jammie stairs, rugby fields, and Madiba circle to witness the removal of the statue. The fate of the statue following its removal was in the hands of Heritage Western Cape.