Varsity's Mangope renaming put on hold

PLANS to rename a residence on the Mafikeng campus of the North West University after former Bophuthatswana leader Lucas Mangope have been suspended, the university said yesterday.

NWU spokesperson Louis Jacobs said council decided to suspend the renaming of Lost City residence until approved policy on the naming of parts of the university were available.

Jacobs said the council felt the decision to honour Mangope was taken in the absence of a clear and approved policy.

"The consultative process followed by the Mafikeng Campus since 2008 regarding the renaming of residences did not include all the relevant stakeholders, including the council," Jacobs said.

The NWU recently announced that it had held a consultative process to give more personalised names to campus residences at the Mafikeng Campus. The campus student representative council had asked the student body to suggest names and give motivations for them. The Lost City residence suggested Lucas Mangope and said in their motivation that he was the founder of the former University of Bophuthatswana.

The renaming and unveiling of the bust to honour Mangope would have been part of the campus's thirtieth birthday celebrations starting today. The Congress of SA Trade Unions, SA Communist Party and the SA Students Congress in the province strongly condemned the renaming.

Jacobs said a planned prestige lecture by Mangope during the anniversary celebrations would go ahead as planned as it formed part of a series of four public lectures. He said the renaming issue would be further discussed with stakeholders.