A group describing itself as “the voice of the victims of wanton discrimination and racism in the tertiary education sector” on Monday voiced its support for the Rhodes Must Fall movement.

The Higher Education Transformation Network (HETN) said it welcomed “the willingness and sheer determination of UCT (University of Cape Town) students to take a stand against the slow pace of transformation at their university”.

 The HETN’s Hendrick Makaneta said the Cape Town students – “and many others across the country” – “would go down in history as brave young men and women who led from the front and refused to cave into pressure from those who use violence to perpetuate the status quo”.

“Their on-going struggle for the eradication of racism and all barriers to higher education for black students is a notable cause for celebration by the HETN and all other agents of meaningful change in the sector‚” he added.

Makaneta urged them to “escalate their commendable battle”‚ but qualified that call by appealing :to UCT students to refrain from voicing their genuine concerns through violent means because doing so would be to play into the hands of the enemy”.

 “We know that the enemy desperately wants to de-legitimise their struggle for transformation and portray protesting students as nothing but hooligans whose demands are far from genuine‚” he said.

UCT last week interdicted 16 students after protests turned violent and property was damaged.

 Makaneta said that the HETN had long held “that UCT remains one of the most untransformed universities in South Africa”.

 “The management of UCT‚ blinded by apartheid thinking‚ cannot understand the simple issue of prioritising the historically under-privileged students in their day to day interactions with students.”