Politics & Government
30
Department of public works
Website
Inam Kula, 30, is a political activist and leader with the country’s third-largest political organisation, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). She was branch organiser of the organisation’s student wing, the EFF students command (EFFSC) during her time at the University of Witwatersrand.
She was central in advancing students’ interests in this institution, later forming part of those who were instrumental to the #FeesMustFall uprising of 2015. In 2019, Inam was elected as the treasurer general of the EFFSC’s national body and made a sizable contribution not only to the financial management of the organisation, but to its growth in all aspects.
This was recognised and she was promoted and elected as a member of the provincial command team of the EFF in the Western Cape. Inam also heads all provincial disciplinary issues. She is one of the few young, black women candidate architects in South Africa.
She is employed by the department of public works where she plays a critical part in overseeing the assets of the government. “My role as an architect essentially is to shape society through the design of spaces and places. As an architect and planner, I try to implement positive spatial practices that create conducive conditions for people to exist in,” she says.
- Master of Architecture, University of Cape Town
- Bachelor of Architectural Studies (Honours), University of Cape Town
- Bachelor of Architectural Studies, University of Cape Town
- Postgraduate Diploma in Planning, University of the Witwatersrand
- Attaining my master’s degree in architecture
- Building a children’s theatre in Langa township with German architecture students
- Selected to contribute to the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennale publication and invited to the biennale in Chicago
- Selected as one of 12 African artists to participate in the Building Beyond Fellowship, a year-long fellowship funded by the Prince Claus Foundation and Stimulering Fonds looking at the future of African cities.
My mother’s dream for me. Ever since I was eight years old, every time my family would drive on the M3 past UCT, my mother would point out Jameson Hall to me and tell me that one day, I would graduate in that hall.
Remain true to yourself, your identity, and being. Your lineage is that of royalty and you’re backed by backed an army of ancestors who will never let you down.
South Africa is a largely segregated country with no remnants of an African identity. As a young child, the environment and society that one grows up in neither remind them that they are in Africa nor that they are part of a continent with a beautiful cultural heritage. In the next 5 years, I would like to see the government through all its spheres, redressing the legacies of apartheid planning and architecture. Ensuring all fragments of colonial histories are removed from society, and that the youth of South Africa grow up in a country and get taught through a pedagogy that encourages them to take pride in their being.