Commemorating Rhodes Must Fall’s 10th anniversary

Dear colleagues and students

The University of Cape Town (UCT) will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) student movement, which marked a watershed moment in UCT’s history as well as student activism in South Africa and abroad.

The commemorative event will be held on Wednesday, 9 April 2025, the day the Cecil John Rhodes statue was removed from UCT’s campus after a month of protest, consensus gathering and support by Senate and Council. It will be hosted at the Centre for Africa Studies on upper campus from 15:00–18:00.

An intense era characterised by robust contestations within the university and broader stakeholders, this occasion marks a moment of critical reflection on a movement that profoundly challenged the higher education sector with impact far, wide and beyond academia, with both successes and limitations.

In conjunction with the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and the Faculty of Humanities, the founding leaders of RMF will host a symposium graced by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mosa Moshabela; Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Transformation, Student Affairs and Social Responsiveness, Professor Elelwani Ramugondo; Dean of Humanities, Professor Shose Kessi, who will be the keynote speaker; and the AC Jordan Chair and Director of the Centre for African Studies, Professor Suren Pillay.

The event will also feature a short screening of a movie, titled #RhodesMustFall Student Movement, and a panel discussion comprising various stakeholders with their reflections on RMF and its impact and lessons to be learnt from its legacy. The panellists will include RMF activists, the Students’ Representative Council, staff representatives, the Black Academic Caucus and the UCT Association of Black Alumni, who all collectively played an important role in the movement symbolised by the removal of the Rhodes statue at UCT but went far beyond.

This event will bring RMF knowledge to a new generation of students and staff who experience UCT with considerable curriculum change, insourced workers, renamed buildings, reviewed artworks, gender-neutral toilets, gender-neutral student cards, among some of the victories.

The event will end with a live performance by an improvisational Pan-African music collective called Kujenga, Swahili word for “to build” – and it is in this spirit a decade later that the RMF movement approaches this anniversary with the broader UCT community and beyond.

A final version of the programme will be available via the Faculty of Humanities website.

For any queries, please contact Joy Malaza-Ludwig.

Sincerely

10th Anniversary Rhodes Must Fall Planning Team

Read previous communications:

• From the UCT Executive
• Campus Announcements