Mafeje affair

Archie Mafeje (1936–2007) enrolled at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1957, joining a minority of less than twenty non-white students on a campus of five thousand. At {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}}, he initially enrolled for a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in biology, but failed to pass the required courses.{{Cite thesis |last=Nyoka |first=Bongani |title=Archie Mafeje : an intellectual biography |date=June 2017 |access-date=2023-02-09 |degree=PhD |url=https://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/23899 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228173345/https://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/23899 |archive-date=2022-12-28 |url-status=live}}{{rp|28}}{{Cite book |last=Mafeje |first=Archie |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/870104768 |title=Africanity : a commentary by way of conclusion |oclc=870104768}} He then switched to social anthropology in 1959. In 1960, he completed a Bachelor of Arts in urban sociology with honours, followed by a Master of Arts (MA) with distinction in political anthropology, before leaving the university in 1963.{{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Heike |title=South African student protests, 1968 to 2016 {{!}} International Socialist Review |url=https://isreview.org/issue/111/south-african-student-protests-1968-2016/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229155821/https://isreview.org/issue/111/south-african-student-protests-1968-2016/index.html |archive-date=2022-12-29 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=International Socialist Review |language=en}}{{rp|30}}

Mafeje then moved to the UK initially as a research assistant at the University of Cambridge after being recommended by Monica Wilson (his MA supervisor), but then completed a Doctor of Philosophy under Audrey Richards at King's College, University of Cambridge, in the late 1960s.{{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Heike |title=South African student protests, 1968 to 2016 |url=https://isreview.org/issue/111/south-african-student-protests-1968-2016/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229155821/https://isreview.org/issue/111/south-african-student-protests-1968-2016/index.html |archive-date=2022-12-29 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=International Socialist Review |language=en}}

Mafeje sought to return to UCT and applied for a senior lecturer post that UCT widely advertised in August 1967.{{Cite journal |last=Hendricks |first=Fred |date=2008-12-03 |title=The Mafeje Affair: The University of Cape Town and Apartheid |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00020180802505061 |journal=African Studies |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=423–451 |doi=10.1080/00020180802505061 |issn=0002-0184 |s2cid=145251370 |access-date=2023-02-09 |archive-date=2023-02-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209164149/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00020180802505061 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} He was unanimously{{Cite web |title=White Cape Town University Students Sit-in for Reappointment of Black Professor, 1968 {{!}} Global Nonviolent Action Database |url=https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/white-cape-town-university-students-sit-reappointment-black-professor-1968 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229133308/https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/white-cape-town-university-students-sit-reappointment-black-professor-1968 |url-status=live }} offered a post as senior lecturer of social anthropology by the UCT Council.{{Cite journal |last=Plaut |first=Martin |date=2010 |title=South African Student Protest, 1968: Remembering the Mafeje Sit-in |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239860497 |journal=History Workshop Journal |volume=69 |issue=69 |pages=199–205 |doi=10.1093/hwj/dbp035}}{{Cite web |date=2018-08-15 |title=The 1968 "Mafeje Affair" sit-in, 50 years on {{!}} Libraries Special Collections |url=http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228164425/http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |archive-date=2022-12-28 |access-date=2020-11-09 |website=University of Cape Town Special Collections |language=en }} By law, the {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} could only admit white students unless suitable courses were not available at black universities, but the law did not explicitly bar UCT from hiring non-white faculty.

Mafeje was scheduled to start on 1 July 1968, but the {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} Council decided to withdraw Mafeje's employment offer because the Government threatened to cut funding and impose sanctions on {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} should it appoint him.{{Cite web |date=2018-08-15 |title=The 1968 "Mafeje Affair" sit-in, 50 years on {{!}} Libraries Special Collections |url=http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228164425/http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |archive-date=2022-12-28 |access-date=2020-11-09 |website=University of Cape Town Special Collections |language=en }}{{Cite journal |last=Plaut |first=Martin |date=2010 |title=South African Student Protest, 1968: Remembering the Mafeje Sit-in |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239860497 |journal=History Workshop Journal |volume=69 |issue=69 |pages=199–205 |doi=10.1093/hwj/dbp035}} The Minister of National Education, Senator Jan de Klerk, told {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} Council about the{{Cite web |title=Student sit-in of 1968 the 'final straw' |url=http://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2020-01-10-student-sit-in-of-1968-the-final-straw |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=www.news.uct.ac.za |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229172807/https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2020-01-10-student-sit-in-of-1968-the-final-straw |url-status=live }}

government's intense displeasure at the decision to appoint an African, which is tantamount to flouting the accepted traditional outlook of South Africa. Should your Council disregard my appeal and give effect to this decision, the government will not hesitate in taking such action as it may deem fit to ensure that the tradition referred to above is observed.

File:Protests_UCT_1968.jpg Hall (today's Sarah Baartman Hall)]]

The Council decision angered {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}}'s students and led to protests to pressure the council to reverse the decision.{{Cite web |title=The 1968 "Mafeje Affair" sit-in, 50 years on {{!}} Libraries Special Collections |url=http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years#lg=1&slide=0 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228164425/http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years#lg=1&slide=0 |url-status=live }} On 15 August 1968, Duncan Innes (National Union of South African Students, NUSAS,{{Cite news |author=|date=1968-08-07 |title=Mafeje Protest Today |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/The_Mafeje_Affair%2C_Varsity_Excerpt_2.jpg |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325194846/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/The_Mafeje_Affair%2C_Varsity_Excerpt_2.jpg |archive-date=2023-03-25 |access-date=2023-03-25 |work=Varsity |page=1}} and Student Representative Council, SRC, president),{{Cite journal |last=Plaut |first=Martin |date=2010 |title=South African Student Protest, 1968: Remembering the Mafeje Sit-in |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239860497 |journal=History Workshop Journal |volume=69 |issue=69 |pages=199–205 |doi=10.1093/hwj/dbp035}} Philip van der Merwe (SRC vice-president){{Cite news |date=1968-08-21 |title=Swing to the left in UCT student poll |page=2 |work=The Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/ |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160814/https://uct1968sitin.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/ |url-status=live }} and Raphie Kaplinsky (from Radical Society),{{Cite web |title=Natasha Kaplinsky on Who Do You Think You Are?: Everything you need to know |url=https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/episode/natasha-kaplinsky/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Who Do You Think You Are Magazine |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229175459/https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/episode/natasha-kaplinsky/ |url-status=live }} among other students, organised a mass meeting that surrounded Jameson Hall (today's Sarah Baartman Hall) with over 1,000 students, before marching a long column from the campus to the university's administration building (Bremner Building) while chanting "We shall overcome" and holding banners and placards that read "Council foin us." They surrounded and occupied the Bremner Building for a sit-in in the UCT Council/Senate meeting room. The students demanded Mafeje be reinstated, declared 20 August Mafeje Day, and petitioned for measures to be put in place to protect academic freedom.{{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Heike |title=South African student protests, 1968 to 2016 |url=https://isreview.org/issue/111/south-african-student-protests-1968-2016/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229155821/https://isreview.org/issue/111/south-african-student-protests-1968-2016/index.html |archive-date=2022-12-29 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=International Socialist Review |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni |date=2016 |title=Why are South African Universities sites of struggle today? |url=https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/discovery/delivery/27UOJ_INST:ResearchRepository/124457980007691?l#136314170007691 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=ujcontent.uj.ac.za |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229135113/https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/discovery/delivery/27UOJ_INST:ResearchRepository/124457980007691?l#136314170007691 |url-status=live }}

The sit-in forced the University Council's to call for an emergency meeting on the eight day of the sit in. However, the Council did not reverse its original decision.{{Cite news|author= |date=1968-08-28 |title=Council rejects demands |page=1 |work=Varsity |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/The_Mafeje_Affair%2C_Varsity_Excerpt_4.jpg |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325194846/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/The_Mafeje_Affair%2C_Varsity_Excerpt_4.jpg |url-status=live }} Prime Minister John Vorster attitude toward the sit-in was on display during his speech for the Nationalist Party meeting in Holborn where he warned universities to put their own houses in order otherwise he “will do it thoroughly". Vorster attacked NUSAS and University Christian Movement,{{Cite news |last=Guelke |first=Adrian |date=1968-08-21 |title=University vs. Vorster |page=1 |work=Varsity |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/The_Mafeje_Affair%2C_Varsity_Excerpt_3.jpg |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325194846/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/The_Mafeje_Affair%2C_Varsity_Excerpt_3.jpg |url-status=live }} and warned students that "the holiday is over."

File:Protests_UCT_1968_sit_in.jpg

In an interview in London, Mafeje said "the whole thing is so superficial, [as] the student [were] talking about this university autonomy business. But do they think they can have a free university in a society that is not free". He continued, "suppose I had been allowed to join the faculty of Cape Town University would they have protested against the fact that I would be forced to live off the campus? ... that I would have to have a permit to stay in Cape town? So long as I can sit with them for a few hours a day in the university canteen, many of them would call that academic freedom."{{Cite news |date=1968-08-21 |title=Mafeje sees protest as lost cause |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc082.jpg |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214161717/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc082.jpg |archive-date=2023-02-14 |access-date=2023-03-25 |work=Cape Argus}} However, Mafeje was surprised by the number of protesters.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-21 |title=BBC interview with Mafeje |page=1 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity008.jpg?w=1100}}

While the sit-in was on its way, Mafeje applied to other jobs at universities in Tanzania, Zambia, and Uganda, stating that he "can't fight the Vorster regime".{{Cite news |date=1968-08-20 |title=Mafeje is seeking new job |work=The Cape Argus |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc042.jpg?w=1100}}

{{quote box

| quote =

Sir Richard has heard our clarion call

And soon will be joining us at Bremner Hall,

He's leaving Sydney by an early flight

And we hope to see him by Friday night.

Chorus

Please, Sir Richard, don't be late,

We've sung folk songs till we can't see straight.

When it's hot we perspire, when it's cold we freeze,

soon we'll be contracting Kaplinsky's disease.

Dear Sir Richard, you are probably aware

We were frightened yesterday by a petrol-bomb scare,

But we feel pretty safe from such disasters

Since Vorster rounded up the pylon-blasters

Follow the example of Mr. Clive Corder

Who rushed straight here from across the border;

| source = Bremner Calypso, 28 August 1968

| width = 30%

| bgcolor = #c6dbf7

}}

216 members of the staff and 10 professors at {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} supported the sit-in. Lectures from across UCT signed three petitions expressing support for the students action and called on the council to appoint Mafeje.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-11 |title=216 UCT staff back sit-in |work=The Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc009.jpg?w=1100 |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160839/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc009.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live }} 'Teach-in' was organised during the sit-in by staff supporting the students.A section of the building top-floor was repurposed for cooking meals using donations received from supporters.{{Cite news |author= |date=1968-08-18 |title='Sit-in' leaves time for study |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc022.jpg?w=1100 |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160816/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc022.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=1968-08-18 |title=Gift of food for UCT 'sitters' |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc074.jpg?w=1100 |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160826/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc074.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live }} The student also received letters of support, one of which containing a composition entitled the "Bremner Calypso".{{Cite news |date=1968-08-28 |title=Fruity advice |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc085.jpg |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214161105/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc085.jpg |url-status=live }}

Support in South Africa came from Helen Suzman, founder of the Progressive Party, and University Christian Movement,{{Cite news |date=1968-08-21 |title=Prominent South Africans give support |page=3 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity010.jpg?w=1100}} and internationally from the Guardian{{Cite news |date=1968-09-05 |title=Guardian supports sit-in |page=3 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity018.jpg?w=1100}} and Newsweek.{{Cite news |date=1968-09-05 |title=NEWSEEK supports UCT situ in |page=3 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity018.jpg?w=1100}} The sit-in gained international coverage{{Cite news |date=1968-08-21 |title=World focuses on sit-in |page=4 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity011.jpg?w=1024}} and was considered part of the global protests of 1968.{{Cite web |author= |date=2018-05-29 |title='Power to the People': the 1968 Revolt in Africa – ROAPE |url=https://roape.net/2018/05/29/power-to-the-people-the-1968-revolt-in-africa/,%20https://roape.net/2018/05/29/power-to-the-people-the-1968-revolt-in-africa/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-02-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209164207/https://roape.net/2018/05/29/power-to-the-people-the-1968-revolt-in-africa/ |url-status=live }} Students at other universities, including the University of Natal and the University of Witwatersrand, voted for full support of UCT student action and staged demonstrations in solidarity.Varsity, Student Newspaper of the University of Cape Town, Volume 27, numbers 20 and 21, August 14 and 21, 1968; UCT archives However, on 19 August, Vorster successfully intervened against the University of Witwatersrand's sympathy march even after Johannesburg's City Council approval.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-20 |title=To sit on – or not? |work=The Cape Argus |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc027.jpg |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214161045/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc027.jpg |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=1968-08-21 |title=Voster steps in at Wits |page=3 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity010.jpg?w=1100}}

File:Afnc071b.jpg

Following the cancellation of their planned march across Johannesburg, some 600 students demonstrated at the university's gate. Paul Reuvers and Alant McKenzie, two University of Witwatersrand students, were splashed with paint while participating in the picket demonstration in Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg. Eggs, fruit, and paint were thrown at other University of Witwatersrand's students; two of them were detained.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-20 |title=Paint-daubed pickets |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc071b.jpg?w=1100}} The next day Afrikaans students from Pretoria University forcibly shaved the heads of Witwatersrand students.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-20 |title=Student fracas in Pretoria |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc071a.jpg |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214161058/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc071a.jpg |url-status=live }} Afrikaans students from the Goudstad College of Education and the Rand Afrikaans University were allowed to counter-protest.

Support protest gathered outside St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town; however, Sailors of the South African Navy disrupted the support protest and torn their posters.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-18 |title=Sailors break up protest |page=1 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity021.jpg?w=1100}}

The sit-in lasted for nine days, with participation from approximately 600 students, despite intimidation and counter-protests.{{Cite news |date=2008-09-06 |title=Belated apology for Apartheid casualty |language=en-GB |work=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7598781.stm |access-date=2022-12-29 |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229152641/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7598781.stm |url-status=live }} These intimidations were in the form of smoke bombs,{{Cite web |date=2018-08-15 |title=The 1968 "Mafeje Affair" sit-in, 50 years on {{!}} Libraries Special Collections |url=http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228164425/http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |archive-date=2022-12-28 |access-date=2020-11-09 |website=University of Cape Town Special Collections |language=en }}{{Cite news |date=1968-08-16 |title='Bombing' incident disturbs sit-in |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc011a.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160816/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc011a.jpg?w=1100 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |access-date=2023-03-25 |work=Cape Argus |page=2}} a false bomb threat,{{Cite news |date=1968-08-19 |title=Night bomb scare dusrupts the UCT sit-in |work=The Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc007.jpg?w=1100 |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160819/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc007.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live }} shots being fired at the doors, Afrikaans students from Stellenbosch University (fifty kilometres away) being sent to beat the students at the sit-in, and Prime Minister John Vorster calling the protest leaders and threatening them. Intimidation did not result in casualties but scared away potential supporters.{{Cite web |title=White Cape Town University Students Sit-in for Reappointment of Black Professor, 1968 {{!}} Global Nonviolent Action Database |url=https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/white-cape-town-university-students-sit-reappointment-black-professor-1968 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229133308/https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/white-cape-town-university-students-sit-reappointment-black-professor-1968 |url-status=live }} Counter-protesters flattened the tyres of many student-owned cars,{{Cite news |author= |date=1968-08-20 |title=students to end sit-in |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc031.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160820/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc031.jpg?w=1100 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |access-date=2023-03-25 |work=Cape Argus}} and the photos of some of the protesters were passed around to create targets for the counter-protesters.

File:Counter-protestors on 22 August 1968 during the Mafeje affair 02.tifOn 22 August night, Police and security guards with dogs intervened when the counter-protester started throwing fruit, eggs and stones that knocked out one student and shattered the doors' glass.{{Cite news |author= |date=1968-08-20 |title='Avoid violence' pleas call by Luyt |work=The Cape Argus |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc042.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160819/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc042.jpg?w=1100 |archive-date=2023-02-14}}{{Cite news |date=1968-08-23 |title=UCT 'Invasion' |page=2 |work=The Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc043b.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160817/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc043b.jpg?w=1100 |archive-date=2023-02-14}} Later, a large crowd of counter-protesters, estimated at 1,000 including Maties, began to move towards the Bremner building main entrance.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-23 |title=Suzman in Wits picket line of fire |page=2 |work=The Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc004.jpg?w=1100}}{{Cite news |author= |date=1968-08-23 |title=Maties invade sit-in, Police and dogs at Scence |page=1 |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc043.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160817/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc043.jpg?w=1100 |archive-date=2023-02-14}} Donald Inskip, {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} Acting Principal of UCT, and G. E. McIntyre, Western Cape's divisional inspector, appealed (to no end) with the anti-protesters to disperse.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-21 |title=Appeals to reason |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc037.jpg?w=1100}} The counter-protesters chanted "Kom uit Ikeys", Afrikaans for "come out Ikeys (students of UCT)", and pushed past security guards and gathered on the front door's steps. Professors, administrators, and security personnel formed a barricade in front of the doors and once more pleaded for calm.File:Counter-protestors on 22 August 1968 during the Mafeje affair 03.jpgThe counter-protesters give the "sitters" a 30-minute ultimatum. Women student "sitters" were locked into one room within the Bremner Building for protection, and the Senate Chamber was sealed. One student managed to scale the balcony rail of the Senate Room and tear down a protest banner while the counter demonstrators were waiting for a half-hour. A student shouted, "Time's up," and the crowd moved ahead. Someone else yelled in Afrikaans, "Don't foul the good name of Stellenbosch!" One group yelled for support when discovered the rear entrance was damaged from two nights ago by another demonstrator. They started to tug and shake at the doors; however, the crowd started to disperse as police dog units arrived.

Then Colonel McIntyre, commanding a group of roughly 40 police officers, addressed the counter-protesters over a loudspeaker and ordered them to go. The crowd began to withdraw while shouting "bangbroeke" (Afrikaans for "scarepants") and "If you are not out tomorrow we'll come back and make a job of it".

Inskip told the students that many people had sacrificed not only their energy but might also have "sacrificed their lives" for the sitters. "It is your duty, therefore, to leave this building by tomorrow morning (Friday) at the very latest. If it had not been for the police, Stellenbosch students might have broken in." "The hard core who have proclaimed that they will not leave have placed the lives of all of you in danger to-night. Whether you felt afraid at their coming is not my concern, but we felt real fear on your behalf," he said.

The next day on 23 August, the protest's ninth day, the NUSAS called an end to the sit-in.{{Cite news |date=1968-08-22 |title=Students to end sit-in to-morrow |work=Cape times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc098.jpg |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214161109/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc098.jpg |url-status=live }}

Following the end of the sit-in, Maurice Pope, head of the classic department for 12 years and former Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, resigned and left South Africa in protest.{{Cite web |url=http://www.rfksafilm.org/html/doc_pdfs/DanielVale.pdf |title=SOUTH AFRICA: WHERE WERE WE LOOKING IN 1968? By John Daniel and Peter. Vale. Page 142 |access-date=2023-02-09 |archive-date=2014-05-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521060343/http://www.rfksafilm.org/html/doc_pdfs/DanielVale.pdf |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=2021-06-13 |title=My Father Prof. Maurice Pope's Farewell to Apartheid South Africa |url=https://hughpope.com/2021/06/13/my-father-prof-maurice-popes-farewell-to-apartheid-south-africa/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Hugh Pope |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229174018/https://hughpope.com/2021/06/13/my-father-prof-maurice-popes-farewell-to-apartheid-south-africa/ |url-status=live }}

The Security Police began acting against the student protest organisers under the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956. Some were convicted by magistrates but later acquitted on appeal. Hans Joachim Brünger and Virginia Gass left the country after being questioned by the Security Police.{{Cite news |author= |date=1968-08-28 |title=UCT students quit after police visit |page=13 |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc086.jpg?w=1100 |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160822/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc086.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=1968-09-05 |title=Foreign students leave UCT |page=2 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity017.jpg?w=1100}}

Passports were withdrawn from Duncan Innes (NUSAS president) and Raphie Kaplinsky,{{Cite news |author= |title=Passport is taken from sit-in man |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc008.jpg?w=1100 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214160824/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc008.jpg?w=1100 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |access-date=2023-03-25 |work=Cape Argus}} but they managed to flee the country. One executive member and the vice president of NUSAS were instructed to depart from South Africa before the end of 1968. Both were Rhodesians enrolled in universities in South Africa.{{NoteTag|In the past, students from Rhodesia were automatically permitted to remain in South Africa.}} Police officers questioned the Rhodes University Student Union's president, who was later informed that his citizenship had been revoked.{{Cite journal |last=Morlan |first=Gail |date=1970 |title=The Student Revolt against Racism in South Africa |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4185088 |journal=Africa Today |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=12–20 |issn=0001-9887 |jstor=4185088 |access-date=2023-02-09 |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229202324/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4185088 |url-status=live }} Rev. Basil Moore's, president of the University Christian Movement, passport was also withdrawn.{{Cite news |date=1968-09-05 |title=EX-UCM head has passport withdrawn |page=3 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity018.jpg?w=1100}}

Prime Minister John Vorster warned that next time he would "send his boys," and introduced a legislation to allow racially-exclusive organisations to operate in the English-language universities.{{Cite news |title=UCT students see Prime Minister |work=Cape Times |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc018.jpg |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214161043/https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/afnc018.jpg |url-status=live }}

Martin Plaut, BBC Africa Editor and one of the students to participate in the sit-in, said it was not a failure as it refuted the government's assertion that all white people backed its discriminatory policies and said that many of those who participated in the sit-in actively participated in later movements that led to the end of apartheid.

Students who participated in the sit-in later insisted that they had never met Mafeje and never sought to learn what had become of him. Lungisile Ntsebeza asserts that, in the eyes of the students, the Mafeje affair was not about Mafeje, the individual, but rather about academic freedom and the autonomy of universities.{{Cite journal |last=Ntsebeza |first=Lungisile |date=2014-05-04 |title=The Mafeje and the UCT saga: unfinished business? |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2014.946254 |journal=Social Dynamics |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=274–288 |doi=10.1080/02533952.2014.946254 |issn=0253-3952 |s2cid=144275150 |access-date=2023-02-09 |archive-date=2023-02-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209164159/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533952.2014.946254 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}

Student elections on 31 August 1968 was dominated by leftist candidates, with what was described as a "conservative wipe-out". Philip van der Merwe (previous SRC vice-president and one of the sit-in leaders) was elected president.{{Cite news |date=1968-09-05 |title=Van Der Merwe elected president |page=1 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity017.jpg?w=1100}}

On 28 August, more than 400 student at University of Fort Hare organised a sit-in before the administration building to protest the appointment of Johannes Christiaan de Wet as rector. The sit-in ended on the 30 of August.{{Cite news |date=1968-09-05 |title=Fort Hare sit-in also |page=1 |work=Varsity |url=https://uct1968sitin.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/varsity017.jpg?w=1100}}

{{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} Council argued that they were "coerced" and "duressed" by the government, and complying with the government's request meant that they retained the theoretical right to hire non-white academics. However, until 1980, UCT did not appoint another black person.{{Cite web |title=White Cape Town University Students Sit-in for Reappointment of Black Professor, 1968 {{!}} Global Nonviolent Action Database |url=https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/white-cape-town-university-students-sit-reappointment-black-professor-1968 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229133308/https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/white-cape-town-university-students-sit-reappointment-black-professor-1968 |url-status=live }} In Mafeje's honour, UCT created the Academic Freedom Research Award, which was not awarded to anyone, and erected a plaque acknowledging that the government had restricted the university's authority to choose its academics.

Shortly thereafter the protests, Mafeje left South Africa to pursue a career abroad.{{Cite web |date=2018-08-15 |title=The 1968 "Mafeje Affair" sit-in, 50 years on {{!}} Libraries Special Collections |url=http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228164425/http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |archive-date=2022-12-28 |access-date=2020-11-09 |website=University of Cape Town Special Collections |language=en }} During the negotiations to end apartheid in the early 1990s, {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} offered Mafeje his 1968 senior lecturer position back on a one-year contract, but he declined the position as he was already a well-established professor. Mafeje said he found the offer "most demeaning".{{NoteTag|Mafeje wrote, "I fail to see how after 18 years of being a professor internationally I could be offered a research fellowship at the rank of senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town. This becomes even more incomprehensible when one recalls that one had been offered an appointment at the same rank by the same university as far back as 1968 ... After 27 years in exile I do not intend to return to South Africa under any conditions. Some of the senior staff at the University of Cape Town should have understood this".|name=Lungisile Ntsebeza, The Mafeje and UCT saga: unfinished business?}} In 1994, Mafeje applied for the A.C. Jordan Chair in African Studies at UCT, but his application was rejected as he was deemed "unsuitable for the position". Mahmood Mamdani, an Indian-born Ugandan professor, was appointed instead.{{cite web |date=11 March 2011 |title=UCT in war over 'bantu education' |url=http://mg.co.za/article/2011-03-11-uct-in-war-over-bantu-education |access-date=22 March 2013 |newspaper=Mail & Guardian |archive-date=13 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813182529/http://mg.co.za/article/2011-03-11-uct-in-war-over-bantu-education |url-status=live }} He left after having disagreements with the administration on his draft syllabus of a foundation course on Africa called Problematizing Africa.{{cite web |title=Is African Studies at UCT a New Home for Bantu Education? |url=http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/mamdani.pdf |access-date=22 March 2013 |archive-date=21 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421111121/http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/mamdani.pdf |url-status=live }} This was dubbed the Mamdani affair.{{Cite web |date=2018-06-05 |title=20 years after the 'Mamdani affair', the old adversary rejoins UCT |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2018-06-05-20-years-after-the-mamdani-affair-the-old-adversary-rejoins-uct/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229181504/https://mg.co.za/article/2018-06-05-20-years-after-the-mamdani-affair-the-old-adversary-rejoins-uct/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal |last=Kamola |first=Isaac A. |date=2011 |title=Pursuing Excellence in a 'World-Class African University': The Mamdani Affair and the Politics of Global Higher Education |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jhigheducafri.9.1-2.147 |journal=Journal of Higher Education in Africa / Revue de l'enseignement supérieur en Afrique |volume=9 |issue=1–2 |pages=147–168 |access-date=2023-02-09 |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229181504/https://www.jstor.org/stable/jhigheducafri.9.1-2.147 |url-status=live }}

In 2002, {{Abbreviation|UCT|University of Cape Town}} Vice-Chancellor Njabulo Ndebele re-opened the matter of the Mafeje affair. In 2003, UCT officially apologised to Mafeje and offered him an honorary doctorate, but he did not respond to UCT's offer. Mafeje died in 2007.{{Cite web |title=Mafeje, Archie – LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies {{!}} Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress) |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79006719.html |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=Library of Congress |archive-date=2022-12-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228173342/https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79006719.html |url-status=live }}

In 2008, on the incident's 40th anniversary, UCT formally apologised to Mafeje's family.{{Cite news |last=Farber |first=Tanya |title=UCT leaders gather to remember student sit-in |language=en |website=www.iol.co.za |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/uct-leaders-gather-to-remember-student-sit-in-412848 |access-date=2022-12-29 |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229155823/https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/uct-leaders-gather-to-remember-student-sit-in-412848 |url-status=live }} In a citation, emeritus professor Francis Wilson wrote:{{Cite web |title=Archie Mafeje: never to be forgotten |url=http://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2017-03-30-archie-mafeje-never-to-be-forgotten |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=www.news.uct.ac.za |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229165352/https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2017-03-30-archie-mafeje-never-to-be-forgotten |url-status=live }}

{{Blockquote|text=This then is the man, armed with a Cambridge PhD and a classic published urban study, whose appointment as a senior lecturer was rescinded by the university Council after pressure from the apartheid government in 1968. This is also the man for whom in the early 1990s we (and I include myself) at UCT all failed to provide the appropriate space to enable him to come home to teach and write as he so badly wanted to do.|author=Francis Wilson|title=Archie Mafeje: never to be forgotten|source=UCT}}

Mafeje's family accepted the apology. UCT posthumously awarded him an honorary doctorate in Social Science, established a scholarship in his honour, and renamed the sit-in meeting room in the Bremner Building the Mafeje Room with a plaque honouring Mafeje, that now presides in front of the Senate meeting room that the protesters held throughout their action.{{Cite web |title=Plaque will commemorate renaming of Senate Room |url=http://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2008-08-19-plaque-will-commemorate-renaming-of-senate-room |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=www.news.uct.ac.za |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229165345/https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2008-08-19-plaque-will-commemorate-renaming-of-senate-room |url-status=live }} UCT also established the Archie Mafeje Chair in Critical and Decolonial Humanities.{{Cite web |author= |title=Archie Mafeje Chair in Critical and Decolonial Humanities : University of Cape Town |url=https://mellon.org/grants/grants-database/grants/university-of-cape-town/31600705/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=Mellon Foundation |language=en |archive-date=2023-02-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209164207/https://mellon.org/grants/grants-database/grants/university-of-cape-town/31600705/ |url-status=live }}

UCT alumni commemorated the 40th and 50th (golden) anniversary of the sit-in.{{Cite web |date=2018-10-19 |title=Commemorating Archie Mafeje in London |url=https://martinplaut.com/2018/10/19/commemorating-archie-mafeje-in-london/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=Martin Plaut |language=en |archive-date=2022-12-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228173339/https://martinplaut.com/2018/10/19/commemorating-archie-mafeje-in-london/ |url-status=live }}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Mafeje affair}}

{{University of Cape Town}}{{Cape Town}}{{Political history of South Africa}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1968 protests

Category:University of Cape Town

Category:Student protests in South Africa

Category:1968 in South Africa

Category:Protests in South Africa

Category:Higher education in South Africa

Category:Nonviolent occupation

Category:Nonviolent resistance movements

Category:Progressivism in South Africa

Category:20th-century political riots

Category:1968 in politics