CLICK TO ENLARGE: On the day graduation guide. Graphic: Dana Da Silva.
Graduation week is upon us yet again. Wits Vuvuzela offers some tips for getting through the event effortlessly.
There’s nothing more exciting than getting that “congratulations! You are soon to be a Wits graduate”, email from your Faculty after slogging through that undergraduate degree. But before you hold that prized degree certificate in your hand, there are number of things that must happen. Don’t worry #teamvuvu has selected the essential “to do” list for the week before graduation.
1. Verify your graduation date and time a week before and put it in your calendar (this should be on your Wits student email).
Wits University students are the latest to join a campaign calling for transformation at campuses around the country.
Political science postgraduate students have initiated a discussion about transformation at Wits University. At a meeting in the Central Block building earlier today, the postgrads addressed a room full of fellow Witsies about their aim to make Wits a “black-friendly” environment.
#TransformWits, as the initiative is referred to, was started by the postgrads who saw the need to prioritise transformation within their own department.
“With recent public event in South African universities like Rhodes, UCT (University of Cape Town) and now UKZN (University of KwaZulu-Natal), I think it inspired us that now it is our time,” said Fatima Mukaddam, one of the leaders of the initiative.
Today’s discussion focused on “an afro-centric curriculum, the number of black academics within the institution and the development of black thought”, but the meeting also gave students the opportunity to raise their concerns about transformation.
“We faced with reading Afrikaans cases, but the lecture have not produced and translation”
Student voice out transformation concerns
A final year law student raised her concern that a number of the cases studied at the Wits Law School are only available in Afrikaans.
“We faced with reading Afrikaans cases, but the lecturers have not produced a translation”, she said.
“And this has been going on for a number of years, yet there has been no effort to translate or take out these cases,” she added.
Another of the many things that emerged from the discussion is the university’s emphasis on creating a cosmopolitan institution when it comes to transformation.
Panashe, an honours student said, “I’m a bit worried when Prof Habib continues to speak about this “cosmopolitan idea” of the university. Within that cosmopolitanism comes the justification for saying we are going to reserve an x, y z number of beds in res for white students.”
SRC (Student Representatives Council), deputy chairperson Shaeera Kalla believed that transformation starts with making students aware of the issue, before expecting them to take any form of action.
“What are we doing to conscientise white students about white privilege? What are we doing to educate black students?” she asked the audience.
“It’s about changing the way we think, before everything,” Kalla added.
Wits EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) leader Vuyani Pambo said he did not want to focus on transformation but rather on change that more accurately reflects the demographics of South Africa, on campus.
“When you walk or direct your friends to the library you say Sobukwe not Wartenweiler, and that is the change we’ve been calling for as the EFF,” said Pambo.
“When are we celebrating Sobukwe? When are we celebrating Vilakazi? One of Wits’ first black lecturers, the first contestation is not to change whiteness but let’s have blackness.”
Some of the broader suggestions that came from the discussions at the meeting was a move to rename buildings on campus, to make fees more affordable and to improve the First Year Experience (FYE) so it focuses on developing African students. A more specific suggestion was made change the name of Jan Smuts House on campus.
The discussion ended with a walk to the Great Hall, in solidarity with the transformation initiatives currently underway at the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) students.
OppenHeimerMustFall: The screengrab from Facebook of a post where a former house member tagged Wits SRC President, Mcebo Dlamini.
The hashtag #OppenHeimerMustFall was plastered all over on the EOH (Ernest Oppenheimer House) Facebook page over the past weekend. The debate intensified when various house members and former house members began calling for a name-change of the residence.
But not all members’ of the EOH residence felt the same way, Thulani Ndlovu a member of the house commented “just because UCT has raised issues with the statue of one Cecil Rhodes then EOH must fall???” on the Facebook page
The Chairperson Nkosinathi Nhlanganiso Maluleke, rejected the idea, “You cry cadre Khomola” referring to the former house member that raised the question “we are not changing our name”, he said.
Unlike other Universities, such as Rhodes and University of Cape Town (UCT), Wits student leaders have not voiced any questions or made any public statement on their stand on the removal of colonial legacies, such as the Statue of Rhodes and names that are associated with it.
A screengrab of a comment made on a Facebook page where the Chairperson of the house dismissed the notion
Two witnesses have confirmed it with Wits Vuvuzela that “The White student attacked Memela” but cannot confirm the event that happened inside the classroom as they were “not close enough to hear everything”
The white woman who is accused of physically assaulting and verbally abusing a fellow Law student in a racist attack outside a lecture room has declined to comment on the allegation.
“I do not want to comment on your article, this whole thing is still under investigation, I do not want to comment,” said the woman, whose name is known to Wits Vuvuzela.
Sinethemba Memela, 4th year Law, said she was attacked last week after her Intellectual Property lecture which culminated in the white, woman student shouting at her “I will fuckin’ kill you, you black bitch.”
What allegedly started as verbal attacks later escalated into a physical confrontation as Memela was pulled by one of her aggressors outside the lecture venue. She said the student “pinched my breasts, daring me to beat her”.
Sinethemba Memela reported a week ago about racial abuse and physical assault. Photo: Palesa Tshandu
Two witnesses talk to Vuvuzela about “what they saw”
Two witnesses at the Intellectual Property lecture said they saw the argument and ensuing attack as it happened. Both students have asked for anonymity.
“*[The white student] threw down her bag, took off her jersey, walked up to her and grabbed Memela by the neck,” said a male witness.
According to the male student, he could not hear the words that started the fight but could see an argument was brewing.
“She [the white student] threw down her bag and took off her jersey, walked up to her and grabbed Memela by the neck.”
“I was there in class, but was not very close enough to hear what they were really saying, but I heard at one stage the word ‘unnecessary’,” he said.
After the lecture “we saw Memela standing there, she was speaking loudly, then we saw [the white student] standing from far, with her short friend, the shorter friend was busy arguing with Memela but from far,” the male student said.
“[The white student] shouted something, walked all the way to Memela and they started grabbing each other. I got in between the two of them what I heard personally was ‘I’ll f*ck you up you little bitch, I’ll f*ck you up bitch’, I was close enough to hear what they were saying, and the Memela girl kept on saying ‘Who is this girl? Who are you?'”
The second witness, a female student, said the attack “was later after the lecture, there were not more than 12 people who were outside”.
“She [the white student] threw down her bag and took off her jersey, walked up to her and grabbed Memela by the neck, that’s when I remember my friend intervening and he tried to break them apart,” said the female student.
“I think most of the violence was coming from the white girl rather than Memela,” she said.
A steamy and explicit street performance about sexual awareness had Witsies squirming, with some shocked and somewhat offended, while others just wanted more.
The performance on Tuesday was enacted outside the Umthombo building by three cast members of the play Love Happened Here, which is part of the Drama for Life Festival, Sex Actually.
Scanty outfits and the cast’s sexually charged demeanour had staff and students staring on in disbelief as they made their way to the bed at the scene.
Strutting her stuff, the prostitute and self-proclaimed “sex magician” Latoya, played by 2nd year drama student Tshepiso Shikwambane, walked down the steps. Behind her was her very masculine, yet obviously tamed sex toy, Bhoboza, played by master’s student Nji Alain, on a leash, watching every swish and sway of her luscious behind.
Accompanying them was the nymphomaniac homosexual Divine, portrayed by Zewande “BK” Bhengu, who plied his wares to anyone and everyone who would be interested.
Barely five minutes after they arrived, a large crowd had gathered and looked on as Latoya and Bhoboza displayed sexual behaviour of varying degrees of intimacy, from French kissing to touching and an array of sexual positions.
When Divine was not chatting up audience members, he would make a play for Bhoboza.
The audience was intrigued; ooh-ing, aah-ing and giggling at the cast’s increasingly explicit displays.
According to Drama For Life director Warren Nebe, the aim is to capture students’ attention to begin dialogue around race, gender, sex and HIV.
The cast agreed with this view, with Alain saying, “[The play] is not to promote pornography, perversity or nudity. It is to provoke questions around sex and eventually around how STIs [sexually transmitted infections] and HIV are transmitted.”
A number of students expressed shock, and sometimes disgust, at the explicitness of the display.
One female student was all for it, however. “Sexuality should be explored. That’s the right thing to do. People should know that they need to express themselves like that openly,” she said.
Similar displays took place over the past two weeks.
One was of a couple portraying intimacy under a sheet on a bed placed outside on campus.
“That was pornography, man,” said Nozithele Vundla, a 2nd year BA student. “I saw it but did not understand the whole message.”
Shikwambane maintains the display promoted safe sex.
“You’re having sex, we know you’re having sex. Let’s do it the right way,” she said.
The festival ends this evening.
THREE of Wits’s female scientists received top honours at the Women in Science Awards held by the Department of Science and Technology recently.
“[I am] overwhelmed, absolutely overwhelmed,” said associate professor in the physiotherapy department, Aimee Stewart, after being placed first in the category “Distinguished Women in Science: Social Sciences and Humanities”.
“I see it as an acknowledgment of the strides we’ve made in the department to develop research and postgraduate students.”
Professor Maureen Coetzee, who was first runner-up in the Distinguished Women in Science: Life, Natural and Engineering category, agreed. “None of us get to where we are all by ourselves.
“This award is an acknowledgement of a group effort,” she said, citing her collaborators and students in the department of virology and communicable diseases as part of that group.
Professor Lizette Koekemoer, whose research is in the biology and genetics of mosquito vectors of malaria in Africa, was the second runner-up in the Distinguished Young Women in Science: Life, Natural and Engineering Sciences category.
“I was really fortunate to work with a group of people who are really good,” she said.
The wife and mother of two, who said one of the biggest misconceptions about female scientists was that they could not have a family and be successful, emphasised the importance of balancing work and family roles.
“At the end of the day, raising your kids and being a wife to your husband are equally important.”
Mentorship was another factor the women attributed their success to.
“The mentorship I received as a fledgling scientist was incredibly important. I would have drifted off to something else, if I had not had [it],” said Coetzee.
Koekemoer likened research to “starting in one corner of building a 3-million piece puzzle” and said it was due to the vision and insight of her professors and supervisor that she had conducted a project that was “significant” for her PhD.
The awards were held at the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria on August 19.
Looking back to this time last year; I thought I was a failure. I had just dropped out of a postgraduate degree, again, and had no clue where my life was headed.
Fast-forward to 2011, and the situation could not be more different. In a complete turnaround, I now know what I want out of life, am finally obtaining the skills I need to ensure that I get there, and every day is a confirmation that I am finally on the path my Maker had planned for me. Hooray!
I’ll be the first to admit the experience of letting go of the world I had known until then was daunting, but what I gained from it are pearls of wisdom for which I am eternally grateful.
The temporary delay and lack of clarity regarding life’s great questions taught me that it’s OK to let go of what no longer works for you; that it’s OK to admit you don’t know what you’re doing, and that you don’t have all the answers. I also learned that it was OK to admit that there might just be a power bigger than you and that you need rescuing.
Let go I did, and to my surprise and delight, have received so much in return. Right now, I am at the best place in my life, for this season. I am at the cusp of the dreams which for so long I’d thought were unattainable; I see God’s work in my life, and I know for sure that He knows the plans He has for me.
I may not know what situations or “facts of life” you’re hanging on to. While I am not promoting mass dropout, now I know that when your choices have boxed you in and it seems there’s nowhere to go, you need to start letting go. It might seem frightening and more than just a little risky, but there is life and abundance beyond what holds us back because in acknowledging, rather than covering up, our weaknesses, we begin our journey to overcoming and victory. All it takes is letting go.
THE theft in a Matrix shop recently has left the owner questioning her safety.
“We are supposed to be safe here, but we don’t feel safe,” said Matrix Sweet Shop owner, Carla Mendes.
The theft took place in the shop two weeks ago. Closed-circuit television footage shows the unknown male entering the Matrix, walking into the shop and looking around. He is then seen walking out and re-entering the shop to grab a cellphone, which was on a shelf in a corner next to the till, before walking out of the centre.
Mendes, who has owned the shop for the past 10 years, suspects it was a non-student who stole her BlackBerry Curve 9300.
“It’s happening a lot. My main concern is how they [thieves] get on campus, because they are obviously not students,” she said.
Wits Stationers, who had a similar problem during the World Cup last year when supporterT-shirts were being stolen, also suspected non-students. “You could see they were not students. I don’t know where they came from,” said Portia Mbhele, who works in the shop.
According to acting Campus Control head, Falaza Maluleke, it is students and staff who allow the thieves access to the campus.
“Most of the suspects are being swiped and let in by students and staff at our turnstiles.”
Vuvuzela spoke to a few students to find out whether they let strangers onto campus.
Mahlatse Mashile, a 4th year civil engineering student, said: “No. I don’t swipe in random [people] because they come in and destroy stuff.”
Another student, who would not reveal her name, said she swiped people in without checking whether they were students or not.
‘I don’t even look at them. I just let them in,” she said.
Doing so is dangerous, however.
“Swiping and letting in strangers at the turnstiles is a threat to the university community and its assets,” said Maluleke, who advised students and staff to stop doing so.
“Safety and security is everyone’s responsibility.”
THE Wits manager accused of racially abusing contract workers has resigned, just weeks before his disciplinary hearing.
The resignation of former property management head, Ian Armitage, whose hearing was scheduled for June 13, closed an investigation into the truthfulness of the alleged racism.
“The accusations were never tested in a formal hearing,” said deputy vice-chancellor of finance, Professor Patrick Fitzgerald, stating that management had “taken no formal position on the matter” as a result.
Those who worked with Armitage were not so neutral.
“He was terrible. You’d go do an inspection with him and he would carry on, swearing at you. That was Armitage’s downfall; he was not a people’s person,” said a former colleague who worked with him during his two-year tenure at Wits.
The colleague also expressed doubts about Armitage’s innocence, saying, “We’ve got very fair [labour relations] procedure in South Africa; a very good Constitution [and] the CCMA. Why would you resign days before they fire you if you are not guilty? If he was sure he was not racist, why would he resign?”
An employee of one of the university’s contractors, who did not want to be named, said: “He was always a hard arse; always on everyone’s case. I think he was on a power trip.”
The resignation has been welcomed by the Workers Solidarity Committee, which on the day of his resignation posted “The Wits employee charged with racism HAS RESIGNED!! AMANDLA!!” on its Facebook page.
Nhlakanipho Gumede, a gardener and member of the Solidarity Workers’ Committee, said: “We were happy that he resigned. [His resignation] meant that for the first time since I’ve been here someone in a high position is challenged for the wrong things they do. That was an achievement for the workers”.
However, the ‘victory’ is bitter-sweet.
“He’s gone, but it’s like we didn’t do anything,” said Gumede, referring to the changes that were implemented during Armitage’s time that affected contractors.
“There’s still a lot more that needs to be done.”
The report from an investigation into the allegations, which workers have been picketing to get access to, has not been released.
Armitage declined to comment when contacted by Vuvuzela. “I have no comment at all. Thank you very much.”
THE vibrant and youthful Wits Marimba Band, also known as the spunky “Cheez Puffz”, scooped a top award at the sixth National Marimba Festival recently.
“We were all shocked. When they announced our names, we were all frozen in place,” said band member, Nicole Damonse.
“I expected it. I was pretty confident that what we came and showed would make us win,” countered Felicity Mdhluli, however.
The five-member band entered in two categories at the festival in Boksburg two weeks ago – within the small band ensemble, playing two songs in five minutes, as well as one song in three minutes.
It was the traditional Zimbabwean song, Nyokamsango (Snake in the grass), which lecturer and band member, Olaotse “Locx” Mmileng, arranged which landed them the top prize.
“I don’t set a limit to the levels of music. I listen to every sound out there and incorporate it,” he said.
The Cheez Puffz’s music is peppered with rock, hip hop, house and traditional influences, and they push the envelope to explore the limits the marimba can reach.
“I want to bring a new sound to African music and take it to new levels,” said Poppie Ndesi.
Mdhluli said, “It [the marimba] can be mainstream; it doesn’t have to sit on the outskirts of the music industry.”
The taste of victory is still fresh for the 2nd year students, who have great ambitions for the future.
“Now that we’ve conquered nationally, we want to conquer internationally,” said Ndesi.
“[Our plan is] to take over the world one marimba at a time,” said Mdhluli.
A ‘Peeping Tom’ in one of the university’s female bathrooms has got staff and students into a lather.
“A male Peeping Tom / thief has been caught in the ladies toilet on several occasions,” reads a sign on the South West Engineering ground-floor toilet door.
Caution: A poster warning females in the OLS bathrooms
Staff and students spotted the intruder mostly around the time of the Wits Arts and Literature Experience (WALE).
In one incident, a faculty of humanities admin assistant said she was in the toilet after work when she heard one of her colleagues shouting, “Ha! Ufunani? (What do you want?)”.
According to the colleague, who would not be named, she caught the offender on the floor, peeping into the cubicle through the opening at the bottom of the door.
“I shouted for security,” said the colleague.
Upon Campus Control’s arrival, one guard had closed the building’s main door, while another pursued him down the stairs into the basement to find one of the old doors open.
“I don’t think even the securities knew about the door,” said the unnamed colleague.
Some staff and students said the sign had scared them.
“He could be a rapist,” said African Centre for Migration Studies (ACMS) communication officer and former UCT student, Sharon Olago, who said she had been exposed to many accounts of rape in the institution’s toilets.
A Zimbabwean post-grad student who admits to an intense fear of being raped, Gillian Chigumira, shared this sentiment, stating, “You should [be able to] just go and do your ‘business’ feeling free.”
German-speaking senior ACMS researcher, Julia Hornberger, was slightly amused by the term ‘Peeping Tom’, however.
“I thought, ‘Who is crawling on the ground of a dirty toilet trying to put his face under the door?’
“It must be someone very desperate to see some vagina.”
Similar posters have also been spotted in Senate House and the Oppenheimer Life Sciences building since last year.
According to Campus Control head, Robert Kemp, a suspect has been arrested.
Students can contact Campus Control at 011 717 7444 / 6666, or go to the control room at Central Block 1.
A DISCIPLINARY hearing into allegations of racism against the university’s property management head by contract workers is to be held next month.
“The allegations will be tested in a formal enquiry in June,” said deputy vice-chancellor: finance, Professor Patrick Fitzgerald, referring to accusations made against Property and Infrastructure Management Division (PIMD) director, Ian Armitage.
The Workers Solidarity Committee again held a demonstration on the Senate House concourse last Friday to demand the release of the report of an investigation into the allegations against Armitage.
“The fundamental objective is to get the university to act on [the allegations against] Armitage. The acting is linked to the report,” said committee chairman, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
“The issue is accountability on the part of the university, and justice on the part of Armitage.”
At the protest committee member Nhlakanipho Gumede addressed the crowd, calling Armitage a racist and accusing vice chancellor Loyiso Nongxa of siding with whites [contract bosses] and neglecting workers.
He further said they should continue with the protests until Wits released the report, failing which they would go to West Campus to remove Armitage from his office themselves.
“The demonstration was to report back to the people and remind management that we’re still here,” said Gumede.
The committee held a protest two weeks ago to hand over their memorandum of demands to the university.
A contract worker who spoke to Vuvuzela on condition of anonymity said Nongxa is “comfortable in his office” which is cleaned by them.
“We should stop cleaning, [and] see if they will work in dirty offices,” he said.
Ndlozi alluded to ineffective communication being a barrier to the resolution of the disagreement.
“We are not going to resolve this thing if there is no proper dialogue.”
Meanwhile, the PIMD director’s post has been advertised. Armitage, who has been on a one year contract since 2009, will also be eligible to apply.
