EFFSC STATEMENT ON PROF P.L.O LUMUMBA PUBLIC LECTURE AT UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

Monday, 24 July 2023

The Economic Freedom Fighters Students' Command (EFFSC) notes the planned protest outside the EFF Public Lecture at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The instigators of the protest have opportunistically disguised it as a pro LGBTQI+ protest.

It must be noted that the ANC aligned youth and student organizations have no moral standing to speak on the human rights violations of Uganda against the LGBTQI+ community. When the EFF marched to the Ugandan High Commission against the regressive and homophobic laws of Uganda, it was their President, Cyril Ramaphosa, who welcomed the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, with open arms to South Africa.

President Yoweri Museveni not only signed homophobia into law, but he also demanded harsher sentences as far as the death penalty for "same-sex acts". There was no outrage when Ramaphosa welcomed and dined with the man at the helm of human rights violations.

Instead, the sponsored outrage has been directed at the EFF for inviting Professor P.L.O Lumumba to its public lecture. Lumumba, although outspoken about the regressive laws of Uganda, has no power to sign any of his views into law. Unlike Museveni, his words have no material impact on the lives and livelihoods of gay people. He remains an individual whose ideals can be canvassed for public engagement and scrutiny.

Academic freedom is the bedrock of all institutions of knowledge production. Intolerance breeds dogma and academic fascism. Universities survive on the production and contestation of ideas. Once we allow for our institutions to be converted into intolerant cult-like fiefdoms, which censor public engagement and discourse, that will be the death of democratic enlightenment and the beginning of fascism. The regressive anti-LGBTQI+ laws of Uganda are a product of this same culture of intolerance and academic fascism.

When we observe some of the people involved in the planning of this protest, we have reason to believe that this is nothing but an attempt to undermine and frustrate the programs of the EFF. The same white lecturers and academics who have vowed to protest are supporters of Israel's Apartheid against Palestine.

When the EFFSC called for the academic boycott of Israel, the same holier-than-thou academics rejected the calls under the guise of academic freedom. When programs are organized and endorsed by white people, they use academic freedom to hide their bigotry and chauvinism.

There is no honesty and genuinity in their selective and sponsored outrage. What frustrates white people, even more than the killing of gay people in Uganda, is that a fully black-owned political organization, whose policy and ideals they cannot control, is hosting an event in their white university. The mere presence of the EFF at UCT, irrespective of the nature of the program, was always going to trigger selective and sponsored outrage from those who believe that UCT belongs to them and their children.

There is no political party in South Africa that advocates for human rights more than the EFF. The EFF is always the first to respond to any form of injustice. Therefore, neither the ANC nor right wing racists can lecture the EFF about human rights.

We call on all progressive students, fighters, and all branches of the EFFSC to report to UCT at 4 pm today to defend academic freedom, tolerance and the good image of the organization which is being tarnished by agent provocateurs!

CMSR Sihle Lonzi (President)

CMSR Zwanga Dombo (Secretary General)

Masixole Mabhongo (Media Information Officer)

Issued by the EFF Students Command, 24 July 2023