I take issue with the implication in the Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission report that nothing significant has been done about racism at the University of Cape Town (UCT) since the end of apartheid in 1994 (see Nature 568, 151–152; 2019). As a member of the executive team during 2015–16, I can attest to the tireless efforts of management, teaching staff and students, black and white, to create conditions in which all students feel welcome and can flourish.

The student profile at UCT is beginning to reflect the demographics of the country (white students now constitute a minority). For many of us black South Africans whose first undergraduate experience was at institutions for separate races, the opportunities, support and efforts at redress are a far cry from what we had known before.

However, it cannot be said that UCT, or any other previously white tertiary institution, is free of racism. The transformation of UCT’s staff is still too slow and is becoming a matter of urgency.

‘Decolonizing’ curricula is perhaps the most complex and contested of the tasks ahead.