A people's history of struggle

This Freedom Day, we mark the extraordinary turnabout in South Africa's history with reflections from a few UCT staff and former students on how the struggle against apartheid took shape on campus – their memories of student sit-ins, government spies, and the everyday indignities of apartheid.

• 'Despite the hardship, those were some of the best years of my life'
  Manie Fagan's office was a regular stop on campus for security police; and he recalls the days when the station manager of UCT Radio was a government informer. Read more.


• A government spy at UCT?
  Stuart Saunders – UCT's vice-chancellor from 1981 to 1996, and a member of staff from the late 1950s – remembers interrogating a government spy in his office, in his book Vice-Chancellor on a Tightrope: A personal account of climactic years in South Africa (2000). Read more.


• 'The SHAWCO name saved me'
  Joe Sadan from Kensington has been working for SHAWCO for 27 years, mainly as a driver. He well remembers the welcome SHAWCO received from those under siege in Cape Town's townships. Read more.


• The purple shall govern
  Stuart Saunders recalls how SHAWCO students were in Greenmarket Square on 2 September 1989 when police started spraying anti-apartheid protestors with purple paint – a day that became known as the Purple Rain Protest. The next day, graffiti around the city proclaimed, 'the purple shall govern'. Read more.


• You got your education, and you got out
  In 1981, Tasneem Essop, a former Western Cape minister for environmental affairs, needed a permit to study at UCT. Read more.


• 'Freedom in our lifetime ... for us it was always a dream'
  Saleem Mowzer – former special advisor to the minister of economic development – cut his activist teeth while studying at UCT. These are some his memories from his time at UCT between 1983 and 1987. Read more.


• 'Go to jail instead of the army'
  Mike Evans completed a law degree at UCT in 1986, and is currently the head of public law at Webber Wentzel. He remembers the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) as the first non-parliamentary organisation to really mobilise the white community in the struggle against apartheid. Read more.


• Opposing a chief
  When Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, arrived on campus in 1984, students were outraged – and printed posters of anti-Buthelezi placards, and photos of those who has been killed by IFP supporters. Read more.


• Breaking the academic boycott
  When Conor Cruise O'Brien – an Irish academic and politician – broke the academic boycott in 1986 to deliver a lecture series at UCT, students organised a vocal campaign against his presence, including protests and disruptions of his lectures. Read more.


• Timeline: UCT during the apartheid years
  Broadly speaking, what was happening at UCT during the struggle against apartheid?Read more

 

Are you a former student or staff member at UCT with a story to tell, a memory of a moment in time that shaped the world – yours, the campus community's or nation's? Whether it's an account of how students stood in solidarity, or the memory of a kiss that changed your life, we'd like to hear. Mail us newsdesk@uct.ac.za.

Curated by Abigail Calata.