Page 43 - Transformation Report 2021

the summer recess on 15 December, as opposed to 21 provided to female GBV survivors.
December, and re-opened on 3 January 2022.
The work of the Gender Transformation Working Group,
In addition to the above, the HR Directorate, in co-chaired by the CWGS and the Transformation Office, is
collaboration with the office of the DVC Engagement ongoing. This includes mapping postgraduate theses that
and Transformation, co-developed and launched a intersect with gender in an effort to establish an internal
wellness survey that focused on Burnout and Resilience. network of gender scholars. While focusing on research
The responses from this survey will be used to help on gender transformation, it has been critical for the
promote institutional wellness at the University and build CWGS to connect gender with educational reforms and
resilience capability within our employees to help them curriculum transformation processes. In 2021, both the
better cope with significant adjustments and to manage Chair and CWGS produced scholarly material on issues of
disruption. Based on the findings and data from the gender, local languages and Gender-Based Violence and
survey, future wellness activities and interventions will broader gender equality issues facing the continent.
focus on combatting experiences of exhaustion, stress,
promotion of healthy sleep, and sustaining healthy diets. One of the critical focuses of the CWGS and the Chair
Wellness activities would also focus on physical wellness in African Feminist Imaginations continues to drive
and targeted interventions relating to food and diet, which intergenerational and inclusive engagements on what
are primary elements in the promotion of healthy eating gender transformation means for Higher education.
habits and the establishment of patterns of behaviour that These interdisciplinary engagements have been shaping
encourage sufficient sleep and rest. the knowledge and systems of thinking of different
stakeholders. Ever since the launch of African Feminist
5. Student Engagement Platforms Imagination on 05th June 2021, the Chair has been
to Promote Social Cohesion, promoting the book authored by Prof Pumla Gqola on
Human Rights, and Respect for “Female Fear Factory” with a series of opinion pieces
Diversity throughout Women’s Month. This work ties very well
with the University’s vision of being a ‘dynamic African
The DVC ETP, CANRAD and CriSHET co-hosted “The university’ by critically centralising issues of language,
20th Anniversary of the United Nations World Conference violence against women and challenging Africa’s
Against Racism: Challenges and Advances in the Global ‘traditions’ on gender. The Chair in African Feminist
Fight Against Racism” in August 2021. Distinguished Imaginations and the CWGS also hosted a feminist and
speakers included our Chair of Council and Chancellor, gender writing workshop for emerging gender scholars
former Chairperson of the South African Human Rights in October 2021 in partnership with the University of Fort
Commission, Professor Barney Pityana, and the University Hare (Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies)
of Alberta Chair in Feminism and Intersectionality, Prof and Rhodes University (Political and International Studies).
Shirley Anne Tate. The incumbent of the Chair, Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola,
has also been elected as a member of the South African
The University is progressing well in building a renewed Association for Gender Studies. On the 15 June, CWGS
equality architecture. The Integrated Equality Policy hosted Dr Sindiwe Magona, a recipient of an honorary
was approved by Council in December 2020, together doctorate from Nelson Mandela University, and Prof
with the sexual harassment and sexual offences policy. Puleng Segalo, the new Chief Albert Luthuli Research
Two additional reconstructed policies – on racism and Chair at UNISA, as guest speakers at a well-attended
racial discrimination and gender equality were approved conversation to unearth intergeneration knowledge
by Council, enlarging our suite of instruments in the transfer mechanisms through values, amabali (stories),
protection, promotion and advancement of equality within iintsomi (folktales) and endogenous principles that are
the University and beyond. an investment for education today. This work added to
the continuous work being conducted to decolonise
The Transformation Office continues to advocate education and link it to the African value systems for
for equality and social inclusion (EPSI) through the children’s curriculum. As a University that is grounded in
development and distribution of material aligned with the a Humanising Pedagogy and criticality, the conversation
Policy for the Promotion of Equality and the Prevention challenged us to reflect on how the systems that we have
of Unfair Discrimination which the Council approved in learned to live with perpetuate the very issues that we
December 2020. Ongoing online ESPI and Mandela Pride consider as challenges.
sessions cover topics such as xenophobia and refugee
rights, positive masculinity, workplace mental health, Given that women constitute 59% of all students at public
disability disclosure, and sexual health. Other interventions higher education institutions in South Africa, urgent
included policy training with frontline employees on sexual and dedicated efforts to address sexual and gender-
harassment and sexual offences and monthly employee based violence remain a high priority. The GBV Forum,
onboarding presentations on GBV. New initiatives comprising ten NGOs, obtained R50 000 from the Nelson
implemented in 2021 include GBV support groups for Mandela University Convergence Fund to conduct various
male and LGBTQIA+ survivors, which were previously only GBV-related advocacy and awareness interventions during

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