Silent protest and other updates

25 July 2019 | Campus Announcement

Dear students and colleagues

This campus announcement aims to inform members of the University of Cape Town community about:

1. Silent protest against gender-based violence

As part of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Campaign, the campus community – with support from the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, the Office for Inclusivity and Change, the Student Wellness Service, the Sexual Assault Response Team and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation – will hold a silent protest on 2 August 2019. The intention is to publicly demonstrate the silence in communities and institutions around sexual violence and the silencing effect of rape culture.

The UCT community is invited to gather outside Sarah Baartman Hall on upper campus from 12:00 onwards to share stories of violation and survival, to support one another, and to call for an end to sexual violence and the improvement of services for those who have been affected by it. The silent protesters will tape over their mouths before marching silently through the campus. The protest affirms the university’s solidarity with survivors who have been silenced by sexual violence and rape culture. The first silent protest was held in 2007 with the aim of highlighting the epidemic of gender-based violence in South Africa.

View the silent protest programme.

2. The 2019 TB Davie Memorial Lecture

The Academic Freedom Committee is hosting the 2019 TB Davie Memorial Lecture at 18:00 on Wednesday, 7 August, in the New Lecture Theatre on upper campus. It will be presented by Palestinian-American scholar Dr Steven Salaita. This year’s lecture, titled “The inhumanity of academic freedom”, will explore academic freedom in relation to the conditions of humanity in the midst of brutal inequality and on the eve of ecological catastrophe. Dr Salaita will argue that academic freedom is often a myth that is prioritised over the political movements it is meant to protect.

Read the VC Desk: The 2019 TB Davie Memorial Lecture.

3. Extended cleaning schedule

Following engagement with faculties and departments in an effort to improve the level of cleanliness across campus, Properties and Services will be implementing a night-shift cleaning service. Subsequent to engaging with the cleaning staff there were several volunteers who opted to work this shift. This might mean operational and staff changes within your department. We thank you for your patience as we streamline our service, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions.

Please email Paulina.Johnson@uct.ac.za should you require further information.

4. ICTS launches service portal

Information and Communication Technology Services (ICTS) has launched a new online, all-in-one service solution that offers a streamlined way to get the IT help you need. The Service Portal ensures that UCT staff and students are able to access services and assistance from ICTS in the most efficient way possible. The portal also allows for logging support calls, placing hardware and software orders, and managing ICT requests from a single web page.