Jansen, J. (2017). As By Fire: The End of the South African University. Pretoria, South Africa: Tafelberg Publishers

Abstract

Jacob Zuma chose to mark the Day of Reconciliation by reaching out to protesting students and promising free higher education, an unsurprising but contentious move. That act spurred me to finish reading As by Fire, Jonathan Jansen’s analysis of the responses of South African university vice-chancellors to the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall (and associated) movements. By pure chance, I happened to be on the UCT campus on 9 March 2015, the day Chumani Maxwele decided to douse the statue of Cecil John Rhodes in excrement, kicking off a protest movement that called not only for the removal of the offensive statue, but for a removal of the hostile organisational climate that many black students felt permeated UCT and other Historically White Universities (HWUs).