Various stakeholders and partners recently commemorated the ending of the 16 days of activism at the TUT sciences campus in Arcadia.
The effort was organised by the UN South Africa, Wildlife & Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa), Khutuza Foundation and TUT science faculty.
The partners spent the 16 days from November 25 to December 10, creating a nature-based solutions outdoor laboratory and painting a mural nearly 20m long on the corner of Nelson Mandela & Stanza Bopape streets.
In addition, the coordinator on behalf of the UN and local artist, Natania Botha as well as second-year fine arts student, Vonene Pinky Manganye created a sculpture they named Ithemba (hope) for the occasion.
The sculpture was commissioned by the UN and later donated to the university.
During its unveiling, Miss Universe South Africa, Bryoni Natalie Govender was guest speaker. The partners read the Universal Human Rights Declaration in all 12 local official languages.
“It’s just something that was needed for the university. It’s something for the students to draw inspiration from and ultimately for the message to remain regarding GBV,” said Botha.
Botha is a lifelong social and environmental activist as well as artist. She currently runs Mosaic art at Natania studio, in Silverlakes.
“I think we will see the true effects of work done in Arcadia over time. Even while we were working on the scene passersby stopped to ask what was going on and even helped, so it’s an initiative that brings the people together.”
Botha said basic respect for one another is guaranteed to quell the GBV pandemic.
“It’s all starts at home. If we can respect one another as men and women living together then the situation would be much better. You need to look and say yes you are a man and I respect you, yes you are a woman and I respect you because we’re all human at the end of the day and our rights need to be respected to move forward in anyway,” said Botha.
Manganye said she hoped women and girls would take inspiration and hope from the sculpture and be reminded of their value despite their circumstances.
TUT lecturer Dr Cathy Dzerefos said the inspiration behind the the outdoor laboratory/garden was not only to beautify the area but to give students space for practicals.
“That corner has been an eyesore since I arrived in Pretoria so I asked McCayla Warriker of Wassa if she could donate five indigenous trees that we could plant along the fence. Before I knew it Natania Botha had her eye on the brick wall and the five trees became a forest of 50, with hundreds of succulent plants,” she said.
Dzerefos said her philosophy is teaching her students to to translate the theory they are learning into practical application.
She said that students can improve their environment by being an example by picking up litter, planting trees and going against the status quo of materialism to reach for a more noble goal that of community service.
Wessa northern areas youth co-ordinator McCayla Warriker said the donation contributed toward her organisation’s 1 000 trees for the sustainable development goals (SDGs) project aligned to the 16 days of activism.
Local artist and TUT alumnus Bruce Bowale said he hopes the mural he took the lead in painting would remind the public to look within themselves in the fight against GBV.
“I hope this mural will be looked at as an act of kindness toward women and girls and also push the message against GBV as well as make the area is greener. It will make a beautiful environment for students of now and future who will carry the message on,” Bowale said.
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