Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
Call for UCT academics to join march about events regarding #FeesMustFall
Today, the Academics Union and the Black Academics Caucus hosted a meeting of about 200 concerned academics about the recent events around the #FeesMustFall campaign. This group identified a number of shared points of concern, which we shared with the University community today.
We call on all academics to join a march from Jameson Hall on Upper Campus to Bremner Building tomorrow, Friday 23 October 2015 at 11h00, where we will deliver the following demands to UCT Management:
UCT ACADEMICS’ DEMANDS RELATING TO RECENT EVENTS ON CAMPUS AND #FEESMUSTFALL
We, the undersigned members of the academic staff of the University of Cape Town, stand in solidarity with the students and workers of UCT and the demands raised by those groupings. In light of recent events on campus and the ongoing campaign on #FeesMustFall, as concerned academics we further demand that:
1.The interdict issued on Monday be withdrawn unconditionally and with immediate effect, and charges against the students dropped.
2. Police brutality must stop. UCT Council urgently formulate a policy on the circumstances under which police are invited onto campus, together with possible limitations on their actions, so that the disproportionate reaction against students seen on Monday evening never occurs again.
3. An open forum for academic staff be convened by UCT Management by the close of business on 27 October at which each member of the UCT Executive must personally account on their role in seeking the interdict, and in allowing the violence on campus this week to take place.
4. The University reschedule exams, and consult and communicate with both academics and students about what the plans are to conclude the year.
5. The University engage, as a community of students, staff, workers and management, with government and other stakeholders to resolve the national funding crisis of higher education in South Africa. Holding government to account for its role in precipitating this crisis must be an important component of that engagement.
6. UCT Management makes transparent the University’s financial and budgeting processes, as well as the University’s current income and expenditure, so that academic staff can understand the long-term financial constraints faced by the University, as well we the implications thereof.
To add your name to the list of academics who sign the statement, please email kelley.moult@uct.ac.za.
Academics who wish to join the march may collect their gowns on Upper Campus between 10:45 and 10:55am, near the library stairs in Molly Blackburn Hall.
