[imagesource: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp]

There are some historical figures that, especially in recent times, have proven to be somewhat divisive.

Many believe that Winston Churchill is a wartime hero, for example, whereas others point to his long list of racist quotes as evidence that he doesn’t deserve such high praise.

Adolf Hitler is not that sort of figure, and unless you’re an anti-Semitic tool of the highest order, the man who led Nazi Germany is universally reviled.

That’s why University of Cape Town (UCT) lecturer Lwazi Lushaba, a lecturer in the department of political studies, has been called out for his statements during a pre-recorded lecture shared online with first-year political science students.

Via TimesLIVE, here’s what Lushaba had to say:

“Hitler committed no crime. All Hitler did was to do to white people what white people had normally reserved for black people.”

Click the image below and you will be redirected to TimesLIVE to watch the short video clip:

Lushaba’s comments were brought to the media’s attention after a Jewish student, who said his great grandfather was a victim of the Holocaust, spoke out:

“Hitler didn’t just persecute Jews. He also persecuted black people, gypsies and disabled people. Six million people died in the Holocaust and the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day has been a part of my life.”

…“If you are a professor or lecturer in political studies, you should know that it is a terrible thing to say and to say that in a lecture is super-unprofessional and just a bad move.”

Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, is being observed this week.

Other students also spoke out against Lushaba, with one saying that the lecturer “has been saying similarly egregious things since he got his doctorate”.

Lushaba was also in the news back in 2019, when he was reprimanded by UCT for a string of verbal and physical attacks after his preferred candidate for the dean of humanities position lost a vote.

The Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies considers the sentiments to be “deplorable”, with chairperson Tzvi Brivik saying that freedom of expression shouldn’t extend to views that undermine our national Constitution.

When contacted for a statement, Lushaba said “If you knew what university lectures are, you won’t be asking me that question you are asking me.”

UCT has yet to issue a public statement on the matter.

Lushaba’s comments about Hitler come just a few weeks after Professor Adam Habib, previously the vice-chancellor of Wits University, was suspended from his role as director at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London.

Habib used the ‘n-word’ in a Zoom meeting with student leaders at Soas, when referencing what action would be taken against anybody using that word.

[source:timeslive]