To the Bertha Centre Community, 

Over the past year, the Centre had received numerous complaints from past employees that challenged us to inflect and ask deeper questions about institutional transformation from the inside out.

As long as we stand for social justice in the world, we recognise the need to embody those same principles in our own work and organisational culture.

Racism, exclusion or discrimination is systemic, it is experienced in many other organisations and institutions and it is up to all of us to embody and exemplify a more just and equitable system by changing the way we change ourselves. This is symptomatic of a reality where racism and discrimination are fundamentally perpetuated by the structures, routines, policies and everyday behaviours of our organisational lives. 

To say that this journey has been an opportunity is an understatement. We have been able to take a long arch approach at doing transformative Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) work as part of our organisational culture. We recognise that transformative work does not happen overnight and we are endeavoring to continue this work actively in our organisation and individually.

Over the last six months we have engaged in multiple processes, including a restorative justice process with past colleagues, and an internal D&I workshopping process to unpack the organisational culture. This has led to an understanding of where we would like to strengthen, and the establishment of a D&I Task Team represented by several Bertha Centre team members, to champion this work going forward.

We look forward to sharing this journey with you, our community, and extend an invitation to engage in a broader dialogue around this work and its context. We look forward to inviting you to share in the ongoing processes of doing the systems justice work.

Yours sincerely, 

The Bertha Centre Team“

Anti-racism statement

The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship affirms its commitment to recognising, addressing and eradicating all forms of racism and ethnic oppression. We focus on engaging and collaborating in teaching, convening, service and scholarships that challenge oppressive and unjust forces.   

We work to reduce racial injustices both within our organisation, as well as the broader institutional community of the University of Cape Town and the Graduate School of Business. The Bertha Centre staff are united in the pursuit to end racial bias and are committed to awareness and accountability towards ourselves, partners and scholars in this collective goal.

We acknowledge that regardless of one’s own race or ethnicity, individuals are at various points along an anti-racist journey. We also recognise that although bias can be unconscious or unintentional it does require self-reflection and acknowledgement of the negative impact. 

Racism is the combination of social and institutional power plus racial prejudice. Identifying these two forms of oppression and their outcomes require courage, respect and compassion, and may not always be or seek to be comfortable. 

As an anti-racist community, we will purposefully strive to identify, discuss and challenge issues of race, colour, ethnicity and the impact they have on faculty, staff, partners, scholars and alumni.

WE STAND COMMITTED:

1. To affirm explicitly and in united solidarity our identity as an anti-racist Centre.
2. To individual and institutional examination of bias and systemic advantage/oppression. 
3. To reflect this anti-racist stance in the life and culture of the organisation through our policies, programmes, and practices as we continue to learn about racism and ethnic oppression.
4. To the development and implementation of strategies and best-practices that dismantle racism and ethnic oppression within all aspects of our academic unit, department, university, community and society.