Around 80 UCT staff members are expected to retire this year. In November, many of them gathered together for perhaps the last time at an official UCT function, as they were fêted at the annual Retirees' Dinner.

Retiree Adelaide Rooks is congratulated by vice-chancellor Dr Max Price. (The full set of photos will be available here.	Retiree Prof Renkuan Guo with Dr Max Price.

Collectively these staff members have committed over 1 000 years to UCT, observed Mary Simons of the Department of Political Studies in her remarks as she addressed the gathering on behalf of the retirees. (One has been here for only two years, some nearly or over 40 years.)

Much has changed in the world over the past 1 000 years, explained Simons, moving as it did from the Dark Ages to what is now the information age. So, too, UCT has changed over the four decades she has been here; in many ways for the better, in others - consider the ballooning marking demands on academics such as herself, she said - perhaps not so.

Also at the event, the chairperson of the UCT Council, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, toasted the retirees, while the vice-chancellor, Dr Max Price, thanked them for their years of dedication.