HOSPITALISED: Prof Anette Horn, left, and Prof Peter Horn, right, pictured at a year-end function in Johannesburg last year. The couple were attacked in their home on Wednesday morning and remain in hospital. Photo: Roz Groeneweg
Two senior professors in the School of Literature, Language and Media (SLLM) are in hospital following an attack at their home in Westdene on Wednesday morning.
World-renowned poet Prof Peter Horn and his wife, Prof Anette Horn, both of the Wits German department, are currently at Milpark hospital with severe injuries after being locked in their bathroom and stabbed with a screwdriver.
Peter Horn is being monitored closely in intensive care and will be moved to high care as soon as he is more stable.
“He has a pierced lung, but he is doing fine and didn’t need an operation,” according to Prof Libby Meintjes, head of SLLM.
Anette Horn though will require plastic surgery in the near future to repair the damage caused by “screw-driver stab wounds” on her face, neck and arms”, Meintjies told Wits Vuvuzela.
Meintjes described the attack as “horrific” and said the couple are traumatised by what has happened to them.
The attack took place just a few days after the couple’s home was burglarised in a separate incident. According to Meintjies, the couple suspect both incidents are linked.
The suspect is still at large but police are investigating and would not give comment to Wits Vuvuzela without the couple’s permission.
A proposed 10% hike in tuition fees next year will have an adverse effect on Wits University students, particularly those from poor and working class families, according to an economist.
Michael Keenan, an ABSA Bank economist, said the proposed increase from January 2015 will be well above next year’s average wage increase, expected to be about 8%.
He said the increase means that self-funded students whose parents will not receive a large enough salary increase will most likely be unable to afford their tuition fees.
“Inflation hurts the poor man more than the wealthy man,” he said.
Keenan said the increase may not be felt by higher income groups as individual net savings and wage increases will ensure that students from wealthier families are not affected by the hike.
Many Witsies said they would struggle to pay higher fees.
“Fees at the moment are quite hard to meet, I still haven’t paid mine,” said Quaanitah Manique, a first year chemical engineering student.
She also added there are other expenses like transport that are extra costs in addition to the increased fees.
“There are other things, like if you have to come with the bus, there’s fees to be paid, now you have to pay extra fees for varsity,” Manique said.
When asked how it will affect their day-to-day lives, first year dental hygiene student Irene Sekiti said she will not be able “make a life outside of this degree”.
“I won’t have money to go out with my friends. It’s not actually a good thing to increase our fees, they are already high, what’s the point of increasing them?”
Deputy Vice-chancellor of Finance Prof Tawana Kupe attributed the fee increase to a combination of three things: inflation, the cost of importing university resources and the lack of government subsidies.
“Government subsidies are not increasing by inflation,” he said. “The average [increase] we expect this year is 3.4%, which is way below inflation. So you’ve got to take care of that funding gap in government subsidies.”
Kupe expected that students will react with concern over fee increases but described them as “understanding” when consulted by university management earlier this year. He added that he was not personally happy over the fee increase.
“I’m not jumping for joy, I would love the day where we can increase fees by only 5%, but that is not the reality,” he said.
Last week the SRC announced that the upfront fee will remain the same as this year, but did not address the overall increase in tuition fees.
The increase, like the upfront fees freeze still needs to be approved by the university Council, during a meeting on October 4, according to university Registrar Carol Crosley.
CORRECTION:Wits Vuvuzela erroneously attributed a comment to Daya Veerasamy in the print newsaper (29 August edition), who was never interviewed for this article. Wits Vuvuzela regrets the error which has been corrected in the copy below.
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Students from Wits and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) are being threatened with eviction from university residences and student accommodation facilities due to outstanding tuition fees.
“My landlord locked me out my room and I had to kick down the door,” said Sboniso Mahlalose, a second year mining student at UJ. He stays at Bridgeview, in Braamfontein.
“I have to eat, study and sleep, and I had a project.”
Wits Vuvuzela knows of at least four students who have been told to move out of Braamfontein Centre. Some of them owe tuition fees, while others are behind on their monthly rent fees.
According to university management, a compulsory instalment of 20% is payable before admission to any Wits res and the remainder is due by the end of March that year.
Special arrangements can be made directly with the fees office, according to fees office information.
“Paying the fees off in instalments throughout the year is available to all students.”
Students who have entered into an instalment payment agreement with Wits and have fallen behind in their payments by the end of the first term, will have “forefeited his/her rights to further accommodation during the year,” according to a Fees Office booklet.
“I’ve had issues like this in the past,” said a Wits student from Braamfontein Centre, who has been asked to leave due to outstanding fees.
She asked not to be named as it was a “sensitive issue”.
“This time, I was given notice, I tried to find the money. But what must I do?”
If a student fails to pay the full amount of their fees by March 31, their exam results may be withheld and the student may not be admitted to any university residence during the following year.
Students do not feel they are supported by the university and the financial burden is becoming more difficult.
“If we cannot afford it, they must help us. Even if we owe fees, this does not mean they can or should kick us out,” said another student who has been asked to leave Braamfontein Centre.
He asked to remain anonymous until his fee issues had “been sorted out”.
EMPTY POCKETS: Disgruntled staff at the Wits Theatre are clashing with new management, about over-time pay. Photo: Lameez Omarjee
By Lameez Omarjee and Roxanne Joseph
Wits Theatre staff are complaining about changes in the way they are paid overtime saying “new management” limits their claims.
“Our contract says five days a week, but now we work up to seven days sometimes,” said Sipho*, who works at the theatre.
Spreading hours
Sipho said the work hours set in their contracts have been spread out across the week, and not five days. Even though workers come in on the weekends, they do not get paid for overtime because they are still working off the week’s required work hours.
Sipho was told by management they did not qualify for “overtime” pay because the “minister” does not allow it. Sipho also said that “all” the staff were unhappy with conditions.
“They [are] limiting worker hours,” said Olivia Moeti, whose mother works at the Wits Theatre. Workers finish at 3pm on weekdays but come in on Saturday to work the other hours required by their contract, she said.
The theatre employs five cleaners, two of whom are directly employed by Wits.
According to theatre manager Gita Pather, university policy states that anyone who earns under the threshold of R198 000 each year is entitled to overtime and has to work at least 42.5 hours a week. They also cannot work more than 10 hours overtime, because it is against labour law.
“The rules of the industry have been negotiated and are in line with university policy and labour laws,” she said. When she took over as manager, overtime rules were not strictly enforced.
“They were getting paid overtime and taking toil,” she said. “Those who didn’t qualify for overtime were being given it anyway … People had gotten used to being paid huge amounts of overtime.”
But this year, she was given a budget and has to use that amount allocated to overtime across the whole year.
New management
Problems started when new management took over this year, said Moeti. “My mum has been working here for 31 years, this is the first time it’s happening.” The new management insists that these new rules come from Wits University, she said.
“According to management, they say, Wits says it’s [work on Saturdays] is not overtime … They say Wits says they must get a day off instead of paying them,” she said.
“I am completely satisfied that we are working within the rules set by the university and labour laws.”
However, Pather did not know about this and said the only thing that has changed is the number of hours they are allowed to work. Unless it is festival time, employees do not work on a Sunday and they work off a call sheet.
Wits Services, who manage the cleaning staff, are not aware of any overtime issues. According to director Nicki McGee: “We undertake when appointing service providers via the approved, transparent tender processes, and in consultation with numerous stakeholders at the university.
Additionally, there aren’t different rates for night shift, from 4pm to 8.30pm. No provision for transport is made for staff ending their shifts at night. “It’s not fair to let a woman walk to Bree in the middle of the night,” said Moeti.
Pather said security provides transport to all Wits employees who work late at night. “They take them to the taxi rank.”
Moeti said management was trying to save on expenses throughout the year so that they could get “more money in December”. She said: “They’re trying to save, they’re saving on other people’s expense.”
She also said more people had problems but they were too scared to come forward, out of fear of losing their jobs.
“There is an issue,” Pather said. “But I have a set amount of money.” She said the theatre is “completely compliant”. She said she is aware of the unhappiness, but has a budget and has to manage that.
“I am completely satisfied that we are working within the rules set by the university and labour laws.”
FEES FREEZE: Wits has backed recommendations made by the SRC to freeze the upfront fees for 2015. Photo: Luca Kotton
by Luca Kotton and Roxanne Joseph
The upfront fee for next year will remain frozen at R9 350 but it and other fees may still increase in 2016, according to deputy vice-chancellor of finance, Prof Tawana Kupe.
The university had proposed an increase of the upfront registration fee to R10 300 from R9 350. General tuition fees will still increase.
When asked if the freeze will have an effect on the following year’s upfront fee, Kupe said, “In 2015, we will go through the normal processes for setting the various fees, including the upfront fee payment for 2016.”
The upfront fee free was the result of a long process of negotiations by the SRC which reached an agreement with the University Financial Committee (FINCO) surrounding fee increases in 2015, said SRC president Shafee Verachia.
The agreement was reached just over a week ago at a meeting with FINCO, and will be forward for approval to the University Council, which Vice-chancellor Prof Adam Habib, Verachia and Deputy Vice-chancellor, Prof Andrew Crouch, among others.
Verachia said the SRC successfully negotiated the freeze by commissioning a team of postgrad accounting and actuarial science students to investigate whether or not the upfront fee was unnecessarily high.
Kupe said the freeze is based on a further assessment made by FINCO, which has enabled them to recommend that the university is able to accommodate a freeze in the upfront fee and will not lose any income because “the freeze in the upfront fee amount is not a discount on the fees for 2015”.
He said there was recognition that some fees, such as the Health Sciences degrees, Wits has become too expensive and have been reduced. This is especially significant for international students, who were only allowed to pay their tuition fees in a set of instalments for the first time this year.
Currently, international students studying health sciences will have their fees cut by 60 percent, dropping to R74 680 from about R191 990.
The university had previously justified the increase of the upfront fee by saying it had high costs at the beginning of the year. Kupe said fee increases were necessary due to rising costs.
“Fees have to increase every year because of rising costs, the fact that our government subsidy is not rising as much as inflation and that some of our costs are related to items that are imported,” Kupe told Wits Vuvuzela.
“As you know, the rand has fallen against major currencies and this fall increases our costs. We also have to ensure we have enough financial resources to offer a quality education.”
Posters claiming the fees negotiations are ‘Important Victories!’ are stuck up all over campus. Photo: Roxanne Joseph
Wits University has backed and approved a suggestion made by the Student Representative Council (SRC), not to increase the upfront fee payment next year.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor of finance, Prof Tawana Kupe told Wits Vuvuzela the agreement has been approved by the University Financial Committee (FINCO) and is recommended for approval by the Wits Council, in December this year.
According to a statement released by the SRC this morning, the student body commissioned a team of senior accounting and actuarial science students to do “extensive cash flow and financial modelling to ascertain whether or not the upfront fee payment is exorbitant for the purpose that it serves”.
“The reduced upfront fee payment as conceptualised by the SRC of 2012 will also be continued and will also remain at the same 2014 price,” read the statement, signed by President Shafee Verachia and Secretary General Michlene Mongae.
Another development in fees negotiations has yielded positive results for international students, whose fees have been reduced for 2015 by R38 996 for Commerce, Law and Management to R15 140 for Humanities.
Additionally PhD students will not see an increase in their fees in 2015.
Ruth First, a South African journalist, activist and former Witsie was assassinated 32 years ago, yesterday. Every year, Wits awards a fellowship in her name, to address the need for in-depth reporting on social issues. Wits Vuvuzela spoke to this year’s fellow and others about the impact of the fellowship on communities around the country.
A pupil at King David Linksfield was called “foolish” and “dangerous” for his views on Israel by his principal in the school newsletter, late last year.
The pupil had been active on the Facebook group, KD Confessions, which allows for students to express their opinions anonymously. He posted a comment that criticised Israeli policy which he says “was taken out of context”. The student, who had been elected to the Student Representative Council (SRC), was not allowed to take up his position as a result of the furore.
He and his family have told Wits Vuvuzela they have taken their complaint to the South African Human Rights Commission and are asking for an apology and for the school to abide by the Constitution.
This comes during a time when freedom of expression in the South African Jewish community has come under scrutiny, after a petition was started to remove another King David school pupil, Joshua Broomberg, as deputy head of the school’s branch in Victory Park. Broomberg had appeared on Facebook wearing a Palestinian badge and keffiyeh (scarf) in protest of “human rights violations carried out against the people of Palestine”.
The Linksfield student’s story began last year, when he was told by the school principal, Marc Falconer, he would not be allowed to take an official role as a student leader after being elected onto the SRC “because of my political views,” he said.
“I was challenged over what I said online, I said I don’t like the term ‘I hate Israel’ and the school took that as what I believe,” the student said.
“I love Israel, I consider myself a firm lover and supporter of Israel.”
The student quickly became a victim of “vicious bullying” by a teacher at the school, who the student’s father said threatened and intimidated him. His parents were informed by Falconer that he could no longer protect the student at school, according to the student’s father.
Student “named and shamed” by principal at school assembly
Falconer told Wits Vuvuzela that the issue with the student’s comments were that they were on a public forum like Facebook. He said the post by the student was “contentious.”
“My concern was not a political one, it was an educational one. Any criticism and debate needs to be educationally sound, considered and constructive,” he said.
In a newsletter to the school community, he explained that a Grade 12 pupil’s leadership role would be deferred as he had engaged “in a debate which was neither appropriate in terms of the forum nor bring anything complimentary” for the school.
He said the student was “acting in a dangerous manner.”
“It’s affected me in that my community school is violating the right to freedom of speech- myself and others.”
But the student said that his fellow King David Linksfield students knew his views when they voted for him as a student representative.
Later, during an announcement at at a school assembly, the student was again singled out for his views by Falconer, this time by name.
“But the students knew my views, they voted me in as a representative,” the student said. They then made the same announcement in assembly, but this time named him, which Falconer said in retrospect, may not have been what he (the student) had expected and was prepared to apologise for this.
The student’s father told Wits Vuvuzela that Falconer had “named and shamed” his child.
Falconer defended the school’s climate and said it allowed for free debate. However, “we teach a centrality of Israel and the right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, but this is apolitical.”
Falconer said he was open to criticism of Israel and but that the criticism should be constructive and educational.
Not an isolated event
The student told Wits Vuvuzela that last year his marks started to drop due to the bullying, but it has affected him less this year. “It’s affected me in that my community school is violating the right to freedom of speech- myself and others.”
The father said he was standing by his son and said this instance of bullying over political views was not isolated. Not being able to express their views at school and instead turning to a Facebook group to do so is resulting in “children being forced out of the King David School due to their views.”
“There have been numerous incidents of victimisation and censorship in the King David school system,’ he said.
“The school is not a place to use our children as political pawns,” he said.
Protesters marched silently across campus in solidarity with rape survivors. Photo: Roxanne Joseph
A fear of speaking out may have been the reason fewer rape survivors signed up to participate in this year’s Silent Protest, according to event coordinator Lauren Gmeiner, a psychologist and community advisor at Wits.
Gmeiner said there was more openness about the issue of sexual violence because of heavy coverage of sexual harassment issues at Wits in the media during the time of last year’s Silent Protest.
This year’s Silent Protest, an event to raise awareness of sexual violence, had only a handful of women participating who were rape survivors.
“Perhaps this is because of last year’s climate,” Gmeiner said. “Last year, there was a lot of sexual harassment, but this year people are afraid to speak out again.”
“We are pledging solidarity and are here to say that enough is enough.”
Gmeiner said that despite disappearing from newspaper headlines, sexual violence remained a serious issue for Wits and South Africa. Only one in nine survivors of rape report their attacks, according to the Rape Crisis Centre.
“This is significant because the numbers are huge,” said Gmeiner. “We are saying that we are not here to victim-blame or stigmatise.”
Nearly a thousand students and staff signed up for the event, said Gmeiner, with dozens marching silently with their mouths taped shut to represent the silence surrounding sexual violence.
Some wore t-shirts which read “sexual violence = silence” in solidarity of survivors. Others wore t-shirts reading “rape survivor”.
Though the event did not have as many survivors of sexual violence speaking out, there were more men attending than last year.
“We are pledging solidarity and are here to say that enough is enough,” said Bongani Ntshimgila, a masters student in drama.
2nd year BA student Rosa Elk had her mouth taped shut during today’s Silent Protest. Photo: Roxanne Joseph
This year, theatre group Drama for Life partnered with the Wits Counselling and Careers Development Unit to assist on the day by ensuring that all participants felt supported, according to Faith Busika, a masters student in drama therapy.
“We have come in to support the protest, particularly the holding of space and well-being of people,” she said.
The day began early this morning when students met outside the Great Hall to have their mouths taped, collect t-shirts and have purple ribbons tied around their wrists. They were then encouraged to go about their day as normal—but with their mouths tape shut—before meeting on the Amic Deck for the silent march.
The group marched across campus before removing their tape and having a discussion of the day and a traditional “die-in” where protestors lie scattered, ending the day’s silence.
Zimbabweans citizens living and working in South Africa will be able to apply for a three-year visa extension between October and December this year. Photo: Wits Vuvuzela.
A three-year extension of temporary visas will prevent the mass expulsion of Zimbabwean workers from South Africa, according to an announcement made by Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, yesterday afternoon.
250 000 Zimbabweans who are living and working in South Africa, after fleeing the political crisis back home, were facing a forced move back home as their permits are due to start expiring at the end of this year. With no clear indication of whether or not the permits would be renewed, they faced the possibility of returning home with little to no prospect of employment, according to media reports.
The department has confirmed that Zimbabweans can remain in the country until 2017. South Africa has announced the creation of the new Zimbabwean Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) of 2014 and invited all holders of the current permit to apply for the new visa from between the beginning of October and the end of December this year.
Gigaba said yesterday that South Africa recognises itself as “an integral part of the African continent and therefore understands its national interest” in being linked to the continent’s future stability and prosperity.
He noted that Zimbabweans have contributed to South Africa, in education and health sectors. “In general, we appreciate the contribution of the immigrants in our country in terms of enhancing our social, cultural and economic life,” he said.
The Visa & Permit Facilitation Centres will open four new offices in Gauteng, the Western Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, where they expect large numbers of applicants.
Two students from the University of Pretoria have been expelled from residence after they posted photos of themselves dressed up as domestic workers, with their faces painted black, on Wednesday. They are being taken to task after the photo went viral across social media, as soon as it was posted.
Since her announcement as the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Helen Zille has dominated national headlines. In this bonus episode of We Should Be Writing podcast, hosts Lulah Mapiye and Bonolo Mokonoto dissect a media meet-and-greet with the mayoral hopeful. From her extensive political résumé to her controversial public utterance, we examine why the Democratic Alliance has chosen Hellen Zille as their candidate for the 2027 local mayoral elections. Additionally, […]
