On 8 April 2015, UCT’s council met to decide the fate of the statue of Cecil John Rhodes that had stood on the university’s upper campus since 1934. The meeting was disrupted by students who had been occupying the space around the statue for weeks as part of the Rhodes Must Fall movement. The council voted to remove the statue the following day. The campaign marked a turning point in a broader public debate across South Africa about colonial symbols in shared civic and academic spaces.
UCT council votes to remove the Rhodes statue. University of Cape Town, South Africa, April 2015.
On April 8, at the end of a meeting disrupted by students, UCT’s council ruled that the statue would be removed the following day.
