The Rhodes graduation ceremony, taking place from 8 to 10 April, took unexpected turn when at the Commerce Graduation address on Friday 9 April, Vice-Chancellor Dr Saleem Badat publicly acknowledged and apologised for its regrettable actions towards Dr Rob Davies, the Minister of Trade and Industry.
In 1968, the Rhodes University Council refused to appoint the Reverend Basil Moore to a lectureship in the theology department, after the Rhodes Senate had recommended his appointment on two occasions.
Since Moore had been the first president of the anti-apartheid University Christian Movement, the refusal to appoint him was believed to have been politically motivated.
Some students and staff organised a sit-in to protest the decision of Council but the University got the Sheriff of the Supreme Court to serve a court order on them to vacate the building. Thirteen students were rusticated and a Politics lecturer, David Tucker, was dismissed from his post.
In his address Dr Badat said, “Two years ago, Rhodes University openly and publicly acknowledged and apologised for shameful and regrettable institutional actions on its part during the apartheid period – denying admission to black students when no laws prohibited this; practicing segregation on its own volition; conferring honorary doctorates on government officials that were deeply implicated in human rights abuses, pressurising a young woman student of Chinese descent to withdraw from a competition, and compromising academic freedom by refusing, for political reasons, to appoint the Rev. Basil Moore to a lecturing post.
“This evening it is necessary to again exercise strength and courage, and to publicly apologise to our guest speaker, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies.”
Click here for VC's Commerce ceremony address.
Click here for VC's Distinguished Research Medal