Ideas needed to rename UCT buildings

Sandiso Phaliso

in a victory for the Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) movement, UCT has announced it will rename buildings, roads and spaces on campus.

The university made the call to staff, students and UCT alumni this week.

One of the reasons RMF was established was to decolonise the university, which included removing colonial and offensive names, and the removal of Cecil John Rhodes’s statue from campus.

People have until May 30 to suggest new names, but there are a number of submissions that have to be made before then. Vice-chancellor Max Price said

first on the agenda is the Jameson Memorial Hall, and suggestions should be submitted by April 15.

The submissions deadline for Smuts Hall, Beattie Building, Wernher Beit Building and the Otto Beit Building is May 30.

Price said there was also a view that buildings should be named to signify ideas and values that the participants would like to see UCT represent and strive for.

RMF member Chumani Maxwele was sceptical, saying: “We welcome their actions, but their calls are not out of their will but from the pressure from the students.

“It is a bit troubling that they now want to engage the wider (UCT) community, but they suspended and interdicted students on something they knew they will agree on.”

Price, however, said he recognised that the university community needs to address debating about the changing of building names, citing the task team on the naming of buildings established last year. “I do hope that as many people as possible will take up this opportunity.”

Another RMF member, Mzwandile Zazi, said not enough time was given for the Jameson Memorial Hall submissions.