Babalwa Gusha

Babalwa is a Higher Education Transformation Practitioner with experience in Transformation and Institutional Culture offices spanning over 3 universities: Rhodes University, Stellenbosch and now UCT.

Babalwa is an experienced convener, strategist and mobilizer for critical engagement and awareness raising on matters of inclusivity and transformation. She has coordinated the Silent Protest against SGBV, Institutional Transformation Conferences and Indaba on Transformation.

In her role as Relations Strategist at UCT, Babalwa’s role entails convening and managing UCT’s Restorative Justice programmes. She is the OIC’s Chief Mediator on all matters relating to all forms of discrimination, work place grievances , and runs the Respondent Management programme where she provides support to respondents to reports of SGBV, all forms of discrimination and harassment. She runs group Educational Interventions and individual Constructive Conversations. Under Respondent Management, Babalwa also manages a pool of Student Representatives that students and staff can tap into to be represented in hearings for formal reporting processes. Babalwa also convenes and runs the OIC’s Becoming Men Programme, which engages cis het male students on their experiences of being, to build an organic network of young male identifying individuals on campus that can model sociological mindfulness to other men in their spheres of influence, in their interactions with women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and with other men. Through the BM programme, the OIC hopes to gain intimate insight on the lived experiences of young men for the purposes of conceptualising relevant, responsive and proactive programmatic interventions against GBV on our campus.

Babalwa holds a BA and PDIS from Rhodes, majoring in Peace Making, Peace Keeping and Diplomacy, and is reading towards an MA in Visual Arts. Her research interests are on restorative Justice, bridge building, and the role of Public Art in Citizenship Education and fostering notions of belonging.