Prof Thuli Madonsela was a keynote speaker at UWC’s Diversity Day Celebration recently. Image: Shelley Christians/UWC

When Prof Thuli Madonsela went shopping for outdoor clothing for her mountain-climbing adventures, she encountered a problem familiar to many women. The trousers fitted her waist but not her hips, while jackets that accommodated her body were too big elsewhere.

It was only after listening to a Belgian feminist speaking at a meeting that the former Public Protector understood why. She discussed how clothing manufacturers often adapted designs originally made for men rather than designing clothing specifically for women's bodies.

For Prof Madonsela, this experience illustrated a much bigger problem: institutions often expect people to adapt to systems that were never designed with them in mind, rather than changing those systems to accommodate everyone.

Speaking at the University of the Western Cape's (UWC) Diversity Day celebration recently, Prof Madonsela, the Director of the Centre for Social Justice and the Law Trust Research Chair in Social Justice at Stellenbosch University, challenged universities and other institutions to rethink their approaches to diversity, inclusion and social justice. Her keynote address, which focused on transformative governance, explored why genuine equality requires more than opening doors to historically excluded groups.

UWC’s Diversity Day celebrated multiculturalism, inclusion, belonging and transformative identity. Image: Shelley Christians/UWC

“Diversity is everyone. Everyone is diverse, and nobody is the norm. Nobody is the standard,” she said.

Prof Madonsela said diversity and social justice have increasingly become contested and there has been backlash, partly because of misunderstandings about who diversity is meant to benefit. She recalled asking an artificial intelligence (AI) image generator to create an image reflecting diversity for a social justice conference. Initially, it produced a group consisting entirely of white men.

When she specifically requested racial and gender diversity, it responded with an image featuring only black people. The experience highlighted how even technology can reproduce narrow understandings of diversity, arguing that genuine inclusion should not involve replacing one dominant group with another, but recognising that everyone belongs.

She argued that when diversity is presented as being exclusively about previously excluded people, others might feel that they no longer have a place. This could be particularly concerning for working-class white men who did not necessarily enjoy the economic privileges often associated with their race and gender. Diversity should therefore not mean replacing one form of exclusion with another, but everyone should be recognised and respected.

“Equality means equal concern and respect across differences. It does not presuppose the elimination or suppression of difference. Equality therefore does not imply a levelling or homogenisation of behaviour, but an acknowledgement and acceptance of difference,” she said.

UWC Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Robert Balfour, says symbols of diversity alone don’t create a sense of inclusion, but how people are treated is what makes them thrive. Image: Shelley Christians/UWC

Using a modified Monopoly game, Prof Madonsela illustrated how historical inequality continues to shape opportunities. Even when disadvantaged players were eventually allowed to compete equally, those who had accumulated wealth retained their advantage. She argued that genuine equality therefore requires restorative justice and institutional transformation, rather than simply applying the same rules to everyone. She also warned against reducing transformation to a tick-box exercise, where people are valued for meeting employment equity targets rather than for their abilities and potential.

UWC Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Robert Balfour, says symbols of diversity alone don’t create a sense of inclusion, but how people are treated is what makes them thrive.

UWC Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Robert Balfour, echoed Prof Madonsela's message, reminding the University community that diversity does not automatically translate into inclusion.

He said UWC's commitment to embracing different cultures, languages and identities must be reflected in how people experience life on campus.

UWC Executive Director for Human Resources, Meko Magida, says universities must look beyond recruitment, and examine who progresses professionally. Image: Shelley Christians/UWC

While the University's name appears in three official languages of the Western Cape, he stressed that such symbols alone don’t create a sense of belonging, and diversity alone is not inclusion.What matters, he argued, is how students and staff are treated, whether they can participate meaningfully and whether the institution creates conditions for everyone to thrive.

 “We have to be that kind of community that creates the conditions for people to thrive. Thriving is about creating conditions that enable people to be fully who they are,”  he said. Prof Balfour reminded attendees that UWC's legacy extends beyond overcoming adversity and inequality to building a more inclusive society. “We have been about the struggle against racialised hierarchy,” he said, adding that the University has always aspired to contribute to an inclusive and democratic society.

Deputy Director and Head of Universal Accessibility & Disability at UWC, Dr Nosiphiwo Delubom, challenged universities to move beyond simply providing reasonable accommodation.

She argued that people with disabilities should be directly involved in designing policies, curricula, infrastructure and support services that affect them.

Emphasising the principle of “nothing about us without us”, Dr Delubom said genuine inclusion means people with disabilities must be heard, respected and able to contribute meaningfully, rather than merely being accommodated.

UWC Executive Director for Human Resources, Meko Magida, says universities must look beyond recruitment, and examine who progresses professionally.

She also called for universities to challenge stereotypes, discriminatory attitudes and institutional practices that exclude people with disabilities, citing that people living with disabilities are often viewed through the medical lens, and “defined by limitations rather than potential”, which contributes to unemployment of this group of people.

UWC Executive Director for Human Resources, Mr Meko Magida, focused on employment equity, highlighting the continued underrepresentation of historically disadvantaged groups in senior management and leadership positions. He argued that genuine transformation requires universities to address not only who they employ, but whose knowledge is valued. This requires them to look beyond recruitment figures and examine who progresses professionally, who occupies positions of influence and who participates in institutional decision-making.