Luke Waltham

This opinion piece was originally written by Luke Waltham and published on Medium. You can read the original piece here . Pride Month: A Time of Celebration and Protest Simply being a member of the LGBTQ+ community is a celebration and protest in itself. May this Pride Month be one where we unite to celebrate who we are and tackle many injustices. 50 years ago, a movement began. This movement was not only one based on love and identity but was also a protest to be who we are in society. The  Stonewall Riots  became a historic moment where the rise of the LGBTQ+ movement began. Now, decades later, we celebrate Pride Month in June, and after recent events, it is important to remind ourselves that this is a time where the LGBTQ+ community must celebrate who we are, whilst remembering that the struggle for true equality continues. A Time To Celebrate When you look at the nature of pride, it is based on two themes: 1. Celebrations and 2. Protesting. The nature of P...

This opinion piece was originally published on News24 and was written by Luke Waltham. You can read the original piece here . The sad state of activism and student leadership on campus 2019 has been a riveting, busy and grossly packed year of concerning events, decisions and activities that have been taking place on our campus at Stellenbosch University. Living in our small, strange bubble of a town that has a multitude of issues that have yet been solved. Whilst it should not just be the responsibility of students to initiate conversations and change, students do have a role to play. However, it has become clear that thought leadership is  lacking , and activism has consequently become stagnant. The Plight of Leadership and Mental Health As previously mentioned in a piece for  HuffPost , mental health has been plaguing our university campuses and spaces, and it has hampered student leadership as a result. There have been a number of cases, this year alone, where s...

This opinion piece was originally written by Luke Waltham and published in Die Matie. You can read the original piece here .  In light of Dagbreek’s recent Inkululeko launch on campus, it is safe to say that the issues raised by activists, student leaders and academics on campus from 2016 and 2017 have been disregarded and/or forgotten on this campus, and we are back to square one with a new group of students on campus who are raising the same, painful issues. Leading up to the Dagbreek event, the organisers placed white A4 pieces of paper on the ground around campus with questions regarding the existence of white privilege and rape culture, issues which have been proven to exist through obvious investigation, research and a majority consensus back in 2017 on our campus. Despite this, it would seem that Dagbreek’s delay in critical engagement and social consciousness has resulted in their residence reviving these conversations, which perhaps, in their view, was with good in...