Masakhe 02_DIGITAL PAPERTURN - Flipbook - Page 19
LEGENDARY PROFESSIONALS
W
hen Edwin Macrae
Bath joined UCT’s
Department of
Construction
Economics and Management in 2008,
he didn’t know that his journey would
eventually lead to him becoming a
Member of Parliament just over a
decade later. Edwin, as he prefers to
be called, studied a BSc in Property
Studies, Engineering, and the Built
Environment and continued to pursue
an Honours degree in Property
Studies in 2011. With
12 years of experience in the public
sector, it seems natural to assume
that he had always wanted to pursue
a career in politics.
However, according to him,
“politics was never the plan – not
even close!” Even today, he often
reflects on his career, wondering
how it all began and what led to him
eventually becoming an MP.
But there had always been a part
of him that was called to meaningful,
community-driven work. “Growing
up in a rural place like Underberg
had a lasting impact,” he says. The
dairy and cattle farming community
where Edwin grew up is situated in
the foothills of the Drakensberg in
KwaZulu-Natal. With such a tight-knit
community, Edwin learned the value
of collaboration and watched the
people in his town help one another –
particularly the vulnerable. “It sparked
a desire to pay a meaningful role in
my community.”
Much like his choice in politics,
pursuing a BSc in the Built
Environment was also the less likely
path for Edwin initially. His first choices
were civil engineering or a general
BCom, both of which are highly
structured degrees with relatively
conventional paths. That was until
Edwin had a chance encounter with
his grandmother – who was a partner
in a Pam Golding franchise at the
time – that would alter the trajectory
of his life. While looking through the
course handbooks provided by UCT’s
resource centre, Edwin’s grandmother
turned to the BSc in Property Studies
and said that if she could go back in
time, that was what she would study.
“That moment changed everything,”
says Edwin. For him, a degree in
the built environment provided
an intersection between different
disciplines like property, management,
economics, and engineering. With
his father in construction and his
grandmother working in real estate, it
made perfect sense. “It wasn’t just a
degree,” he says, “it was a roadmap to
understanding how places and spaces
shape our society.”
Edwin looks back fondly on the
years he spent studying at UCT, citing
the camaraderie between the students
and staff as the catalyst for some of
his best memories from that time in
his life. The close-knit group was made
up of a handful of students who all
worked together to complete their
countless group assignments, and they
would often spend time sitting on the
stone walls outside Centlivres, where
they would talk and debate and bathe
in rare sunshine. “There’s definitely
ISSUE 2
17
DECEMBER 2 025
