`The next step in the struggle to transform the university is to reclaim it from neoliberalism`
RDM Staff, 10 April 2015
The SACP has called for the transformation of UCT "to reclaim it from neoliberalism, reaffirm it as a public institution and completely eliminate all forms of racial domination, subtle or otherwise".
In an assault on its liberal academic tradition, party spokesman Alex Mashilo, writing in the SACP journal Umsebenzi said: "A neoliberal institution is not a public institution. It only operates under the mask of a public institution and enjoys public funding."
The remarks are to be taken seriously as the minister of higher education is Blade Nzimande, the leader of the SACP.
Mohubetswane said neoliberalism "defines the choking curriculum environment".
"UCT is a leading university in South Africa in excluding students from working class families, especially low earners and the poor in general who cannot afford the astronomical fees used to barricade access.
"This reserves access at UCT and makes it an elitist affair based on class discrimination in the context where racial domination, as the statue of Rhodes symbolised, continues."
He said that access to the university was wrongly limited to "a privileged few".