ABSTRACT
Earlier in 2015, after students occupied the main administration block (which they symbolically renamed, Azania House) and after sustained mass protest, the university removed a statue of Cecil John Rhodes from its plinth on the main square on UCT’s Upper Campus. The continued presence of the statue was largely a symbolic manifestation of a much more systemic and deep-seated frustration and anger on the part of many students who feel that not enough has changed, despite the end of apartheid more than 20 years ago. Protesters have mostly used the institutional spaces within local government first before engaging in protests. The black students who gathered in May 2015 in the Kramer Law Building to complain about their alienation would all have clicked their fingers – as the protesting students have a habit of doing to show their agreement.
