The University of Fort Hare said on Monday that it will not support the proposal by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) to rename the university after the party’s founder, Robert Sobukwe.
University spokesperson Luthando Bara said the brand name Fort Hare is already significant worldwide as a place that produced progressive leaders who played a key role in the liberation struggle.
”As such there is no confusion about the legend of Fort Hare,” said Bara.
The PAC said this weekend that naming the university after Sobukwe, who was also a former student, would be a great way to honour him as his contributions to the struggle had been largely ignored.
Bara said that although the university’s name had been derived from the colonial period, it had become decolonised through the sacrifices made by former students such as Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo who went on to become renowned leaders.
Other political leaders who studied at Fort Hare are African National Congress leaders such as Govan Mbeki, ZK Mathews and Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
”No one in their right mind today would conflate the name of Fort Hare with anything other than the liberation legacy.
”It certainly has no colonial signification in popular imagination. And it is for the same reasons why we have not named the university after any of its other great alumni. As such, we strongly believe that any calling for the university to be renamed is misplaced,” said Bara. — Sapa