Wamkelekile, Welkom
Report back on the facilitated workshop of the IRTC Steering Committee
26 May 2017 | Sipho Pityana
The Chair of the IRTC Steering Committee has submitted a letter on the committee's facilitated workshop of 20 May 2017.
Dear members of the UCT community
The Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation (IRTC) Steering Committee meeting held on 18 April 2017 was unable, after a lengthy debate, to reach agreement on the provisional Terms of Reference and criteria for selecting commissioners. The Committee therefore decided to have a facilitated workshop to try to reach agreement. The workshop, facilitated by Nomfundo Walaza, was held on 20 May 2017 at Hlanganani Junction, UCT Libraries from 09h00-16h00. Ms Walaza was well-placed to play the facilitator role as she facilitated the process of formulating the Shackville TRC/Executive Agreement in late 2016.
By the end of the Steering Committee workshop of 20 May participants had reached agreement on both the provisional Terms of Reference and selection criteria. (The Terms of Reference are provisional because the Commissioners, once appointed, may refine them further.) Participants also agreed that the submission from alumni on the Terms of Reference should accompany the Terms of Reference when they are disseminated. Read the relevant documents...
We are therefore now able to put out a call for nominations for IRTC Commissioners. All members of the UCT community will be able to submit proposals for Commissioners, but must do so through the two representatives of their constituency. (The call for nominations and the process for nominations will follow.) The representatives for each constituency will select five nominees which they will send through to the secretariat. The secretariat will compile the nominations from all constituencies for further consideration by the Steering Committee. The aim is to have five Commissioners agreed on by all constituencies.
We are pleased with the commitment constituencies have shown toward moving this process forward.
Mr Sipho M Pityana
Chair of the IRTC steering committee (and Chair of UCT Council)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Please view the republishing articles page for more information.
Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC)
The Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC) Steering Committee was established as a result of a period of unprecedented tension at the University of Cape Town (UCT) at the end of 2016. The creation of the multi-stakeholder steering committee that will oversee the proposed IRTC was one of the resolutions made in the 6 November 2016 agreement, which effectively brought the waves of continuing protest at the university to a halt.
The agreement, which was signed between the UCT executive and protesting student groups, paved the way for the establishment of the IRTC, whose aims are to
- consider all Shackville-related protests of 2016, including disciplinary procedures and interdicts
- invite submissions from all constituencies on clemencies that were granted and decide whether clemency should be turned into amnesty
- make recommendations on how the university should deal with pending cases and other such matters in the future
- make recommendations on institutional culture, transformation, decolonisation, discrimination, identity, disability and any other matters that the university community has raised over the past 18 months, or may wish to raise in the future.
The IRTC’s objective is to map an inclusive and fair course for the university as it tackles the legacy of the so-called Shackville protests and to focus on the issues that have caused division on our university campus.
Read IRTC documents:
- Read the 6 November agreement
- Read the declaration by students seeking clemency
- Read the FAQ about the agreement
- Read the criteria and process for nominating commissioners - List of Steering Committee Members
- Names of the IRTC Steering Committee members
- Email addresses of the IRTC Steering Committee members
- See the announcement of the IRTC Commissioners
- IRTC Final Report
A summary and analysis of the Terms of Reference are given in Chapter 2, starting on page 7
Feedback and responses to the IRTC report:
IRTC Final Report
Statements by the IRTC
Latest news
Reports from the Steering Committee Chair
2018 IRTC Steering Committee meetings
2017 IRTC Steering Committee meetings