CAPE TOWN – A proposal has been launched to rename the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to Allan A Boesak University, honouring the liberation theologian’s sustained influence on the institution and South African liberation struggle.
The initiative comes from Bishop Dr Clyde NS Ramalaine, founder and leader of The Thinking Masses of South Africa Foundation (TMoSA) and a UWC alumnus. TMoSA approached UWC this week with the proposal.
It argued that Boesak had maintained a generational relationship with UWC that shaped students, faculty ethics and the institution’s moral compass. His work during the apartheid era, particularly in the 1980s, is seen as aligning with UWC’s ethos of academic pursuit, spiritual inquiry and social-justice activism.
“Boesak exemplifies praxis: scholarship fused with activism to challenge oppression, reimagine justice and model accountability,” the proposal stated. The renaming would tangibly link UWC’s identity to liberation-struggle history and signal institutional recognition of living legacies of justice.
UWC awarded Boesak an Honorary Doctorate in 2021, which the proposal describes as “long overdue” recognition of his contributions.
Academic support for the proposal
Professor Hein Willemse, emeritus Professor of Literature and Theory, has written about Boesak’s significance during crucial moments in South African history. Writing about the turbulent period of 1976, he recalled how Boesak, then a young Afrikaans minister who had recently completed his doctorate at the Theological University of Kampen in the Netherlands, addressed UWC students about the meaning of Soweto.
“When Dr Allan Boesak climbed onto a table at UWC in July 1976 and spoke to us about the significance of Soweto, doing so partly in Afrikaans, it was a small but important step in reclaiming Afrikaans,” Willemse wrote.
He described Boesak as “sparkling and dynamic with unsurpassable oratorial power”, who demonstrated that Afrikaans could be spoken with conviction in the struggle against oppression and for social justice.
According to Willemse Boesak gave theoretical substance to the “black experience” and “black consciousness,” where “black” referred not to skin colour but to a resistance identity prioritising self-respect, human dignity and solidarity with the oppressed.
The emeritus professor noted that while Boesak’s life had taken its course and his political career had its challenges “the self-confidence he gave to an entire generation of young people can hardly be overestimated.”
Boesak, who recently turned 80, is internationally respected as a theologian.
Call for support
TMoSA is calling for supporters to formally submit their commitment via email to clyder008@gmail.com, representing themselves and their organisations in backing the renaming proposal.
The foundation frames the renaming as grounded in “demonstrable, measurable influence” including mentorship, critical discourse facilitation, civic consciousness fostering, and advancement of social justice scholarship.
UWC’s Gasant Abarder responded to TygerBurger: “The university has received a proposal that has not yet been considered by its governance structures.
“We kindly request that the media allow the university the opportunity to follow its internal processes before any public discussion of a matter that is currently confidential, Gasant said on Thursday”
