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To mark the 25th Casual Day in South Africa, the Stellenbosch University (SU) Disability Unit and Transformation Office as well as the Stellenbosch Work Centre for Adult Persons with Disabilities hosted a celebratory lunch on 6 September 2019. The event was organised under Casual Day's national theme, “Time to shine". 

Disability Unit director Dr Marcia Lyner-Cleophas opened the event. She extended a special welcome to guest of honour Mr Rustim Ariefdien, a “disability expert extraordinaire", who assists businesses to “let the ability of disability enable their profitability". Mr Ariefdien toured SU's Stellenbosch campus earlier in the day and met with University representatives.

As is customary, the teams who participated in the day's activities dressed up according to the theme and sported their outfits on the runway to win some great prizes. In addition, departments had competed to see who could sell the most Casual Day tickets. In the end, “The Ambassadors" took the prize for best-dressed team, while the Disability Unit scooped the prize for most tickets sold. After the prize-giving, guests joined a protest against gender-based violence on the Rooiplein.  

Last year, South Africans raised a record R31 million for persons with disabilities. Hopefully, the SU community's efforts and contributions towards Casual Day 2019 will help push the nationwide tally even higher!