STUDENTS APPRAISAL*STUDENTS DEVELOPMENT*STUDENT'S THIS* STUDENT'S THAT*ALL IN HERE
Friday, 25 March 2016
Cecil John Rhodes
#RhodesMustFal
Rhodes statue
The statue being removed
The students of the university of Cape Town introduced a protest movement called #RhodesMustFall(Background about the protest) which was originally aimed at forcing the removal of a large statue of Cecil John Rhodes(Biblography about Cecil John Rhodes) from the University of Cape Town upper campus. I totally get it why students are protesting against a statue something that doesn’t even breathe is because nobody wants to see a statue or be reminded on how their great and grandparents were treated nobody wants to be surrounded by negative energy. The management of the University will be expecting students to get along whereas the University is busy advertising ruthless and cruel people such as Cecil John Rhodes. Racism will never perish on campuses because the Institution itself upholds racism. The racism symbols or signs around the campus say a lot about how the University operates(Student being abused)
The good that came out of the protest is an agreement was reached and made about the removal of the statue and the statue was finally removed(UTC agrees to remove the statue). International institutions like the University of United Kingdom joined the protest meaning they also understood why the students were protesting and they were touched. Students voice was heard and the right thing was done. The protest was a success.The bad that came out of this protest is, it created conflicts among students, students were arrested and some ended up in hospitals(Students arrested and assaulted). Lectures had to be paused because classes were interrupted and examinations had to be excused or moved.
The stories I have heard and seen on social media could fill a book but there two particular hashtags #FeesMustFall (Background of FeesMustFall) and #RhodesMustFall (Background about RhodesMustFall) caused me to lose sleep these stories plagued my mind for far too long writing this out in my sickly level best to make a sensation of something my sober mind refuses to perceive. The fees must fall protest started in 2015 by a group of students who felt that their rights of studying and actually building themselves brighter futures was taken for granted. Students across the country have shaken the country this ended year in their declining of fees increment, For me this entire grounding took me back when I used watch Sarafina (Sarafina the Movie), whereby students were fighting for their education in the movie police “mellow yellow” would pick the students up line by line they would enter the vans peaceful knowing very well there was more to come, in my perspective this was the highlight of student activism across the country in the year 2015.
The good that came out of this protest is that negotiations were made and there was no fee increment for the following year. Organizations were by touched by this whole issue whereby they started contributing nor donating certain amounts to help students that were struggling to settle their fees.(Students getting help) Something good came out of this protest and finally students voice was heard.
The Bad that came out of this protest as a whole is Institution’s property was damaged, students got arrested and some students got injured during the protest.
I think this whole issue could have been handled more differently maybe if Minister of higher education would have called at least a press release stating what is the way forward Before things got out of hand solutions could have been made and addressed to fellow students. Minister of higher education’s public relations team could have posted more about the protest to show that they took it seriously.(Blade Nzimande should have been more civil)
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