#RhodesMustFall movement was a painful period for many who were involved, says UCT's Moshabela

CAPE TOWN - The 2015 #RhodesMustFall student movement has been described as a painful period for the University of Cape Town's history and students involved.
 
On 9 March 2015, student activist Chumani Maxwele threw human faeces on the Cecil John Rhodes statue on UCT's upper campus, in protest against the lack of transformation post apartheid.
 
Exactly a month later, the UCT council resolved to remove the statue.
 
On Wednesday, the university held an event to commemorate the movement's 10th anniversary.
 
UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela said that the #RhodesMustFall movement represented a painful period for many who were involved.
 
"The people that were seen as strugglers, the agitators, or whatever title was attached to them at the time of #RhodesMustFall, you may have looked at them as though these are people who are causing violence and so forth. But for those I have engaged with, they also share moments of pain and trauma from those experiences."
 
Moshabela said he knew the journey to healing was a long and difficult process.
 
"And I am hoping that as we move forward in this journey, as we mark this anniversary, that we also open up the space for conversations that can allow everyone to heal from the pain that may have been carried from those days."