NEHAWU Western Cape Dips It's Banner for Dr Diana Ferrus
Friday February 13, 2026
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] in the Western Cape dips its banner for Dr Diana Ferrus, a former member and activist of the union at the University of the Western Cape [UWC]. Many have acknowledged the huge cultural contributions Comrade Ferrus made as a writer and poet. We want to acknowledge the role she played as a trade union activist in the higher education sector.
She joined the University as a student at the height of repression of the apartheid state in 1973. The university was forced to close, in that same year, due to student protests. She would not be able to return as a full-time student due to her financial constraints.
Comrade Ferrus would return to the university many years later as a part-time student and then as a full-time employee. Working as an administrator in the Department of Industrial Psychology, she not only provided valuable support and mentorship to students but also formed part of the early group of employees at the university who established the trade union. The first attempt at unionization of the workers at UWC was under the auspices of the Workers Union which would later become NEHAWU.
These early members of NEHAWU in the higher education sector were among the first to tackle the question of institutional transformation. They led the struggles with the student movement on democratizing governance structures of the institutions and were faced with the challenges of increasing access for educationally and financially disadvantaged students.
Under the auspices of the former Vice-Chancellor, Prof Jakes Gerwel, UWC openly challenged the apartheid system of higher education, when it declared the university as the “Intellectual Home of the Left”. NEHAWU UWC members with students fought the apartheid state under this banner. Comrades like Ferrus who were committed union members of the Academic Support Constituency, attended all union meetings, joined all the picket lines and marched for transformation.
The higher education sector in NEHAWU became a force to reckon with through committed union members like Comrade Ferrus. The sector provided leadership to the union at many different levels. We owe it to these comrades to continue to build strong NEHAWU branches to advance the struggle of the transformation of higher education.
Rest in power Comrade Ferrus, you have left us your legacy to build upon and we will do so with the same commitment that you and others like you built the higher education branches of NEHAWU.
Issued by NEHAWU Western Cape Secretariat
For more information, please contact:
Cde Baxolise Mali (NEHAWU Western Cape Provincial Secretary) at 066 3050 591 or Baxolise@nehawu.org.za Or
Cde Zukisani Mabhengu (Western Cape Provincial Deputy Secretary) at 0636851924 or email: Zukisani@nehawu.org.za Visit https://www.nehawu.org.za
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