The following is a document posted on the University of Cape Town website in February 2017. It is a clemency form for students involved in violent action during the Fallist protests in 2016. According to the university by January 2017 all but one of the students subjected to disciplinary action had signed this form.

Declaration by student seeking clemency for him/herself

I, ……………………………hereby declare that:

I am a cadre of the ………………………which is engaged in protest action to gain the attention of those who wield the power to intervene in the fee and curriculum-setting process and to create a free decolonised educational system. It has never been the philosophy of the Movement that it would encourage wanton acts of violence and destruction.

I recognise that our cause is one which provides students with a means of giving expression to their marginalization, exclusion, pain and suffering. In doing so, students who have endured these hostile conditions become angry and frustrated. I also recognise that in any protest action there is a likelihood of undisciplined elements taking advantage and those elements often perpetrate violence, destruction and mayhem. I acknowledge that violence does not advance our cause and only serves to discredit it. I do not condone such conduct.

I accept that the university management is obliged to set a code of conduct and to enforce disciplinary procedures when it believes that the code has been breached. I hasten to add that, as part of the area of review of the task teams that will be looking at how to create a more widely representative student involvement, the code of conduct and disciplinary procedures should also be subject to further engagement and adjustment. We call upon management to be more even handed and to take the necessary disciplinary action against those who provoke and threaten us.

On ……………………………I was found guilty of the offence of ……………………………… in breach of the University’s Code of Conduct, and was sentenced to ...………………………

Whether I was provoked into reacting to people who baited us into conflict, or acted off my own initiative, or got caught up in the mood of the moment without thinking carefully of the consequences, I state unequivocally that nothing could justify violence, wanton destruction and damage to property. I deeply regret what I have done.

I accept that students who breach the code of conduct must be prepared to subject themselves to a just, fair and reasonable disciplinary process. Given the context in which I committed these offences, I ask the University to grant me clemency for these offences and