Rainbow UCT's Closet Burns Down

Monday the 4th of October 2010 a tradegy hit the Rainbow UCT society as their "Closet" was set alight and left severly damaged. Here is the statement from Dylan Jack Van Vuuren the outgoing Chair of UCT Rainbow Society:

Dear RainbowUCT

At approximately 22:55pm on Monday 04th October 2010 Rainbow UCT’s “Closet” was set alight and severally damaged after only being on display for less than twelve hours.
The Closet, which was positioned on Jammie Plaza from 13:00pm, was part of a display involving the UCT Campus Pride Pink Week Campaign, an initiative intended to promote LGBTI rights and highlight homoprejudice across the country.

This year the Closet was used to celebrate the country’s achievements in advancing civil rights for homosexuals and highlights the human rights violations that still plague our society. The closet which was painted pink presents instances of discrimination and homeprejudice across the globe. The closet was positioned allowing students and staff members to graffiti the outside with their own responses and views.

Rainbow UCT is deeply concerned about this cowardly act of arson. We are calling for direct action from University Management and request an immediate investigation to be launched in a bid to find those responsible for the act. We request that University Management including Campus Protection Services (CPS) acknowledges that this is a hate crime and an indication of a larger problem found within the UCT Community and broader South African Society which needs to be addressed. Rainbow UCT is committed to working closely with Management and requests anyone with information that could assist in the investigation to contact the relevant authorities.

Rainbow UCT wishes to stress that this incident will not dampen our spirits and Pink Week will continue to take place for the duration of the week. We look forward to seeing you at tomorrow’s event where our speaker Pierre de Vos will be sharing his “Reflections on the right to be different” at 6:30pm in NSLT. This couldn’t be more relevant at this time, so show your support.

See you there

The RainbowUCT Team
www.rainbowuct.org
“What Colour Are You?”

Statement and picture was taken from a student at UCT's blog, please check it out for more pictures and support him. 

If anyone has anymore information or pictures please email us at themodernlinfo@gmail.com