Cap fits, so dad and daughter wear it

The last time Patrick Giddy and his daughter Isabelle were together on the campus of the University of Cape Town was for a memorial service for Patrick's eldest son, Dominic, who was murdered outside his digs in 2010.

This week the two will return for a happier occasion. Isabelle will receive her master's degree in oceanography and Patrick is one of three alumni who will participate in a graduation ceremony after boycotting their own many decades ago in protest at apartheid.

UCT made the offer to all alumni who did not attend graduation ceremonies before 1994 because of the political situation.

"We hope that this ceremony will strengthen the sense of community among UCT alumni by acknowledging the hurts of the past and seeking to include all who have felt marginalised," said university spokeswoman Patricia Lucas.

Exactly 40 years after missing his own graduation, Giddy will finally put on an academic gown to be capped with thousands of other students this week.

UCT's total number of graduates is up by nearly 300 from last year. There will be about 106 doctoral, 3165 bachelor's and 477 master's students receiving certificates, diplomas or degrees.

Giddy, who later earned a PhD in philosophy from UCT, said of his time as a student in the early 1970s: "UCT was to some extent a cornerstone of anti-apartheid stuff. But the general student population wasn't interested, actually.

"It wasn't a general thing but there were small pockets and there were spaces in which you could start to try to form a different kind of society, and I was looking for that."