Over the past week students have protested at the presence of the statue on campus because of what they say it symbolises.
Minutes after deputy vice-chancellor Crain Soudien opened the seminar yesterday by saying: "The events of the past week cannot be taken out of the equation but it is crucial that we leave this meeting with confidence in what a university is all about - a space fundamentally about position, counter-position, argument and counter-argument" the SRC representatives, led by their president, Ramabina Mahapa, walked out.
Before leaving Mahapa said: "We are not able to identify with the symbolism on campus because it celebrates white supremacists."
He said taking part in the seminar would imply that the SRC was condoning "business as usual".
He was followed by at least half the audience and one of the four panellists.
The students said the time for debating was over, draped banners over the walls and chanted: "We want a date, we want a date!" - for the statue to be removed.
This led to a heated discussion about transformation at the university in general, and whether the seminar should continue.
One academic, who did not want to be named, said that for at least a decade SRCs had been "cosy" with the university's management and the events of yesterday represented a turning point in the politics of power at the campus.
The statue divided academics.
University historian Howard Phillips said: "Do we whitewash those parts of history we don't like or do we confront them?"
Xolela Mangcu, associate professor in sociology, said: "UCT cannot continue to venerate the arch-architect of colonialism. As Cape prime minister in the 1890s, [Rhodes] laid the template for the native reserves, pass laws, Bantu education, and the disenfranchisement of black people. His racist utterances about black people as inferior would make Hendrik Verwoerd sound like a saint."
Vice-chancellor Max Price said a special council meeting had been called for 20 May.
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