VC’s plea to reopen UCT
28 September 2016
Dear colleagues and students
There can be no doubt that there are multiple valid reasons why people protest, and that we all agree on the need to make fundamental changes to both our education environment and the broader South African society. UCT has already changed in many ways over the last months and there is no doubt that much more change is necessary. We need to heed the call to transform ourselves and our institution and we should all accept this collective responsibility.
Today, however, I write with a plea that this transformation agenda, this responsibility to ensure change, are driven and insisted on in ways that do not include the shutdown of UCT operations.
There are numerous ways to bring demands to bear, to fight for specific causes, to insist on being heard, without bringing our institution to a close. Our best chance of succeeding and implementing changes is to do so with UCT in operation. The shutdown harms everyone. It will rob everyone of the opportunity to learn from this experience and to change in ways that make us better people, a stronger institution and an improved society.