Proto-Fascism at the University of Cape Town (UCT): a tale of two meetings

Proto-Fascism at the University of Cape Town (UCT): a tale of two meetings

https://rationalstandard.com/re-racialization-proto-fascism-uct-tale-four-meetings/

Tim Crowe – UCT Emeritus Professor and Elected Fellow

At the ‘dawn’ of Apartheid, Prof./Dr Thomas Benjamin ‘T.B.’ Davie was installed as UCT’s first South African-born vice chancellor.  He transformed UCT into a non-racial “real” university, in principle.  Every member of the UCT community should read the first T.B. Davie Memorial Lecture honouring Davie.  It was given in 1959 by UCT Chancellor Justice Albert van der Sandt Centlivres.  He reinforced Davie’s legacy of “decent behaviour” saying that “advancement of knowledge” should involve “the untrammelled pursuit of the truth”. 

The Chancellor succinctly summarized Davie:

“He gave his heart and soul to the University.”

Sadly, 1959 was also the year during which Verwoerd’s Extension of University Education Act (which created separate universities for Blacks, Coloureds and Indians - excluding them from White universities) was promulgated.

It took 22 years of resolute struggle by the full spectrum of the UCT Community to enable VCs Prof./Dr Stuart Saunders and Dr Mamphela Ramphele to implement Davie’s principle of non-racialism as irreversible practice.  

They gave UCT non-racial ‘brain’ and ‘brawn’.

Extreme Fallist students and staff at UCT and its Executive have not only failed to emulate this commitment to non-racialism and extend its achievement.  They are aggressively undermining it, with lawbreaking Fallist elements adopting key attributes of fascists: authoritarian nationalism (under the guise of neo-Black Consciousness), irrationalism, violence in pursuit of ‘equality’, contempt for ordinary democratic politics, and intolerance towards critics and opponents. 

All that is missing is a Führer or Duce.  But, in the wings are “one settler, one bullet” EFF ‘Führer’ Julius Malema and Hitler-admiring Fallist Mcebo Dlamini.

This proto-Fascism is illustrated by events at two recent Annual General ‘Meetings’ of the UCT Convocation.

Round one

The first meeting, held on 15 December 2016, was attended by a record 400+ largely aged alumni gathered to consider my motion calling for the +-150000 UCT alumni to be:

“balloted (anonymously and, if willing, by fine-scale ‘self-identification – by ‘race’, gender, age, etc.) to consider a vote of no-confidence in Dr Max Price and his senior Executive acting as representatives of the interests of the UCT Community as a whole in negotiations with UCT students, staff and others who have been adjudged to have broken the law under the pretext of legitimate protest.”

At the meeting, alumna and former president of UCT’s Student Representative Council Gwen Ngwenya (current COO of the South African Institute of Race Relations) hoped to present an amendment to my motion, clarifying that it should call for an expression of Convocation’s view on UCT negotiating its future with violent lawbreakers as a violation of South Africa’s Constitution.

From its onset, the meeting was invaded illegally by obscenity-spewing Fallists (including a topless woman) who wrest the microphone from the meeting’s chairperson, Convocation President Prof. Barney Pitanya. 

For several minutes the invaders jeered at members of the Convocation and repeatedly called for the dropping of my motion.   After a motion by Advocate Geoffrey Budlender (chairperson of both the Council and selection committee that appointed Price as VC) and Lydia Cairncross (Faculty of Health Sciences)  -  supported by Chairperson Pityana – the invaders were allowed to attend and protest if they did so in silence.   

They reneged on this commitment. 

When President Pityana announced that long-serving, ‘legendary’ Hugh Amoore, the retired Registrar of UCT, was to receive the President’s Convocation Award for 2016, the invaders shouted in derision and continued to interrupt and deride speakers during the remainder of the meeting. 

Neither I nor Ms Ngwenya was allowed to communicate the motion or its amendment “untrammelled” at the meeting. https://www.biznews.com/mailbox/2016/12/16/uct-fallist-fiasco/  I was harassed persistently by invader Fallists (including lawbreaking, multi-pardoned, clemency-violating, ‘founder’ Fallist Chumani Maxwele) and labelled variously: “racist” and “Jim Crow” (cf laws implemented in post-Civil War USA to segregate and disenfranchise ‘black’ Americans), “apartheid activist” and “killer of black people”.  Ms Ngwenya was similarly interrupted and defamed as "a tame house negro".  In contrast, and Adv Budlender and Dr Cairncross were allowed “untrammelled” to ‘rebut’ the motion, misrepresenting it as a call for VC Price’s dismissal/resignation.

Another member of the Convocation, Dr Cathy Powell from the Law Faculty, who tried to speak about the failure of the UCT Executive to consult staff during negotiations with the protesters, was similarly shouted down with comments such as “Shut up you bitch”, prompting an admonition by Pityana.

Still another legitimate attendee, Faculty of Commerce lecturer Gao Nodoba, actually proposed a well-received, but inadmissible, no-confidence motion in Price and his Executive.  He accused them (to great applause) of not supporting transformation and student demands until they were forced to, offering only “indecisive, visionless fixes” and “inconsistently applying institutional rules”.

So, Fallist intimidation is no longer confined to “Old White Men”.  Women and ‘blacks’ are now fair game.

When chaos escalated further, Price’s colleague, former UCT DVC Hugh Corder, motioned to close the meeting, Pityana supported it immediately - calling for a vote without debate/discussion.  The vote was 102 for, versus 15 (many didn’t vote or had left by then)

Intermission

On the day after the meeting Nathan Geffen, editor of the cyber-journal Groundup, commented on the meeting.  http://www.groundup.org.za/article/uct-convocation-descends-chaos/  He:

1.     

1.        1. endorsed the Budlender/Cairncross misrepresentation of my motion as calling for the resignation/dismissal of VC Price and/or his Executive;

2.         

2     2.  stated, incorrectly, that I was “given an opportunity to explain and move his [my] motion”; and

3.    

            3.  also incorrectly described Pityana as “refusing” to allow Maxwele to speak when he, in fact, uninterruptedly harassed both me and Ms Ngwenya.

In “letters” Geffen appended to his piece: I was also accused of being a “supremacist” (‘white’?) racist; my motion was described as a “ludicrous stunt”; and it was revealed that VC Price “consoled” Maxwele after the meeting.  Neither I nor Ms Ngwenya have been consoled or received an apology (then or later) from Chairperson Pitanya and/or the UCT Executive for the hate speech they allowed us to endure.

On 22 December, UCT issued its first characterization of events at the meeting. https://www.uct.ac.za/dad/news/?id=105&t=int  The author, Communications Officer Ms Elle Williams, also endorsed the Budlender/Cairncross ‘misrepresentation’ of my motion and further misrepresented Pitanya’s actions:

 “The Chair spoke out against all forms of hate speech”.  Chairperson/President Pitanya (and Pillay/Price) said nothing while I was victimized by hate speech and Ms Ngwenya was defamed.  Pityana’s only action in this regard was to condemn the use of the word “bitch” during another incident.   Furthermore, Ms Williams minimized the invaders’ vulgar behaviour as “disorderly” and “holding up posters speaking against the militarisation of campuses, outsourcing and tuition fees, among other issues”.  Finally, she made no mention of Prof. Corder’s motion for closure, writing: 

“Prof Pityana, deciding to adjourn the meeting without voting”.

On 28 December, UCT issued a second, more detailed, characterization of the meeting, authored by Registrar and Secretary of the Convocation Royston Pillay.   https://www.uct.ac.za/dailynews/?id=10139  Despite the facts that many previous meetings, lectures and other legitimate activities at UCT (including those of its Council and Senate) had been violently invaded previously by Fallists employing violence and hate speech, Mr Pillay described the invasion of the Convocation AGM as “unexpected”. 

Like Ms Williams, he further endorsed the Budlender/Cairncross misrepresentation of my motion as a call for the Price-led Executive’s resignation/dismissal.  He also erred in literally repeating Ms Williams’ inadequate assessment of Pitanya:  “The chairperson spoke out against all forms of hate speech”.   However, Pillay ‘upgraded’ the aggressive behaviour of lawbreaking invaders as “provocative heckling” and “charges of racism against speakers supporting the motion”.   Also, like Williams, he made no mention of Corder’s closure motion and vote thereon.

As I write (3 March), Registrar Pillay has still not issued a draft of the official minutes of the AGM. 

Finally, on 13 February 2017, more than six weeks later, Registrar Pillay finally announced that the Convocation AGM would be reconvened on 28 February.   https://www.uct.ac.za/dailynews/?id=10177

On 22 February, I e-mailed Prof. Pitanya, VC Price, Registrar Pillay and Ms Ngwenya to clarify the meaning of my motion.  I wrote:

“I want to make my motion to be presented/debated/considered (unfettered and uninterrupted) at next week's rescheduled UCT Convocation AGM crystal clear.  It is as follows.

I would like the entire UCT Convocation to be consulted as to whether they have confidence (or the lack thereof) in the UCT Executive's policy of negotiating with individuals who have broken South African laws and UCT regulations/codes and/or those who refuse to condemn those (and any organizations) who do so or advocate such unlawful actions.

It’s as simple as that.  If you, or any member of the Convocation, has any issue with its content or requires any clarification, please contact me before the rescheduled AGM to be held on 28 February so I can have the opportunity to react timeously.”

Also, in this intervening period, based on the November 6 Agreement between the Price-led Executive and supporters of lawbreaking protest, a Steering Committee (comprised in part of supporters of lawbreaking protest) aimed at constituting an Internal Reconciliation and Transformation Commission had started to meet.  The actions of this committee/commission could have profound effects on UCT’s future.

Round two

The ‘good news’ is that the re-scheduled AGM was not disrupted violently.  The ‘bad news’ is that attendance dropped markedly from that of the sabotaged AGM.  Several previous attendees informed me that they would not attend for reasons of security.  Also, President Pityana and Registrar Pillay had made no effort to communicate my clarification of the meaning of how my motion was to be interpreted.  

Worse still, Chairperson Pitanya announced that he and the UCT Executive had unilaterally acceded to demands by Fallists to, once again, “peacefully” attend the meeting, make a 5-minute presentation and remain thereafter. 

This announcement was not well-received by attendees and a compromise involving the Fallists leaving after their presentation was rejected when the Executive stated that this would be “acceptable” to the Fallists.  I voted in favour of the admission of Fallists in the hopes that the presentation would be constructive.  It was not.

The speaker failed to stay within the allotted time.  He began by implying (without any explanation) that the AGM was illegitimate because the majority of attendees were “white”.  He then went on to describe UCT as” institutionally racist” and underpinned by “a system of rules designed to oppress blacks”.   On at least three instances, he issued hate-speech, once again referring to me as “Jim Crow”.

At no time did Pityana make any effort to “speak out against all forms of hate speech”. 

Finally, the Fallist speaker demanded that UCT disband the current ‘layover’ Student Representative Council or there would be “consequences”. 

So much for “peaceful”.

When I was allowed to speak to my motion and attempted to preface my statement by challenging the Fallist’s comments, he and his brethren (now in the audience) shouted me down, calling “read the motion”!  When I attempted to read the clarification of my motion ignored by Pityana/Pillay, they and a few members of the Convocation shouted: “The words are not the same”!  In the end, my address to the Convocation was restricted to half the length of the Fallist’s.

In the subsequent discussion, Dr Cairncross and a Convocation member (apparently an advocate) called for the motion to be dismissed without discussion because of the difference in wording between it and my ignored clarification.  It was also characterized as being motivated by the “real goal” of punishing lawbreaking Fallists severely in stark contrast to the spirit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.   My attempts to counter these scurrilous accusations were cut ‘short and sweet’ by Pityana. 

There was no, none, nada discussion of the merits of consulting members of the Convocation as to their views on Price et al. negotiating UCT’s future with lawbreakers.

In the end, my motion was voted down without serious consideration and discussion and there still is no consultation with UCT’s “silenced majority” about its views on UCT’s future.

Curiously, on the next night, the UCT Executive denied the Fallists’ demand to participate similarly at a UCT-controlled meeting addressed by Law Dean Prof. Penelope Andrews on the topic: Transformation and decolonisation at UCT: Capitulation to student protests or a constitutional imperative?.  Nevertheless, several Fallists vilified her as a racist supporter of militarism on campus during “question” time.

I, the still “silenced majority”, Prof. Andrews, the “illegitimate” SRC and the Price-led UCT Executive await the Fallists’ “consequences”.