Transform UCT: It's about more than race

Transformation goes beyond issues of race. This is the message a group of student organisations wants to bring home with a series of events. The first of these, organised by the Student Representative Council (SRC) and RainbowUCT in collaboration with Ubunye and the Youth Empowerment Project, is a fun day on Saturday 21 March 2015.

According to Thato Pule, the SRC chair of transformation and social responsiveness, the fun day will be held on the Green Mile and starts at 09h30: "We have invited high school students to participate with us in various indigenous games. The event will serve as an outreach, as UCT students have the opportunity to answer the learners' questions about student life and hopefully start them on the road to being mentored."

A picnic aimed to integrate the UCT student body is planned for the next Saturday 28 March2015. The theme of the picnic is "gender bending" and speaks not only to integration along colour lines, but also gender.

#LetMeDefineMyself, a campaign being run by the SRC transformation and social responsiveness sub-committee, confronts students with questions of identity – whether race, religion, sexuality, culture, gender, sex or disability – and how it's defined and shaped.

On Thursday 19 March 2015, the SRC challenged students to imagine what it is like to exist outside of the gender binary. Have a look at the Gender Benders Facebook album of students who got a makeover on Jammie Plaza.

Story by Abigail Calata. Photo by Michael Hammond.