Political jargon has become part of our daily vocabulary. Be it lecture rooms, chill sessions or even sport fields, you only have to speak to two or three people anywhere on Wits campus and some of these words are bound to emerge.
Often they are used out of their conventional context… but, hey, who says “English can’t be revolutionary, mchana”. Next time you hear these words, you will at least know what they mean.
agenda-adopted (noun) an issue which is settled easily because everyone is in agreement agent (noun) someone seen to serve the sinister interests and ideas which you are opposed to chief, mchana, comrade (nouns) a title used to respectfully address a fellow party or group member clownish (adjective) failing to behave appropriately in a serious situation counter-revolutionary (noun; adjective) strongly disagreeing with popular ideas or opinions embark (verb) venture into something that requires overcoming of hardship and struggle
Eg: “We will embark on this journey until our cries are heard.” engage (verb) to get involved or committed to something
Eg: “We will engage in talks with management to prevent fee increases next year.”
it’s key (phrase) to show approval of something and agree that it is good pop-corning (verb) behaving in a wild or out of control manner
Eg: “The pop-corning by opposition needs to be stopped immediately!” submarine (verb) to reprimand someone to calm down
Eg: “Submarine yourselves, comrades, we want to start the meeting!” tjatjarag (adjective) [cha-cha-raag] to be overeager and excitable in an annoying manner
Eg: “The journalist’s tjatjarag behaviour led to him being kicked out of the room.” under siege (verb) to be in a tough or challenging situation
Eg: “I’m under siege with three of my assignments due tomorrow.”
MANY areas on campus, especially residences, are filthy as Wits cleaners continue striking for an increase in wages.
Third year law student, Kagiso Manamela, believes that “in difficult times [such as the current workers’ strike] it is the duty of the SRC and campus societies to push everyone to clean after themselves and ensure that our campus is well maintained”.
Wits has more than 70 registered clubs and societies and Manamela says that if they work together then “a clean campus conducive for studying can be achieved”.
SRC president Morris Masutha said the SRC supports the cleaners’ strike and therefore making efforts with clubs and societies to keep Wits clean will “sabotage” the cleaners’ cause.
“We will remain anti-hygiene until the cleaners’ demands are met. The biggest demand we have is that Wits must own its own cleaning staff instead of it being outsourced,” Masutha said.
Clubs and societies at Wits engage in different activities such as sports, religion, entertainment and politics. This then raises the concern of whether it is in the interest of these clubs and societies to diverge from their daily scope and deal with alternative issues such as efforts to clean Wits campus.
Demography and population studies honours student, Richard Machava, says that “societies should work together to eliminate the problem instead of only focusing on their own issues because the current strike affects us all as Wits students regardless of which society we belong to”.
Matome Rampedi, chairperson of Campus Outreach, an organisation dealing with biblical ministry, says the difficulty that plagues students is the “naivety that if campus is dirty, it is somebody else’s duty to deal with it” which leaves people reluctant to make efforts to maintain cleanliness.
Regarding clubs and societies working together to initiate efforts to clean Wits campus, Rampedi said: “There is a role to be played by each of us, but as a society getting involved in something which is not directly linked with the work you do, can be time consuming and a huge challenge.”
Dejected Bidvest Wits midfielder,Fabricio Rodrigues(centre),walks to the change rooms after the team lost to Chiefs on Wednesday night.
THE CLEVER Boys failed to outsmart Kaizer Chiefs, suffering a repeat 2-1 loss with three points at stake, in a high-flying Absa Premiership encounter at FNB Stadium on Wednesday night.
The defeat came while Wits were still recovering from an MTN 8 quarter-final defeat at the hands of the mighty Amakhosi, at the same venue three weeks ago, with the same score-line.
The game got off to a rather slow start with both teams showing respect for each other in the opening minutes. As a result, the first 20 minutes saw minimal scoring opportunities created.
With home support behind them, Chiefs started opening the game up in the latter stages of the first half, with Siphiwe Tshabalala notably posing the biggest threat to the Wits defence on the right side. Tshabalala supplied two assists to Josta Dladla and Kaizer Motaung Jnr respectively to put Chiefs in the lead, but Wits keeper, Energy Murambadoro, pulled off good saves to keep the half-time score at 0-0.
Chiefs keeper Itumeleng Khune was also busy keeping out the Wits attack which was spearheaded by pacy wingers, Bongolwethu Jayiya and Sifiso Myeni, who had to be closely watched.
The attacking play by both teams was more exciting in the second half and it was Chiefs who broke the deadlock with a powerfully headed goal by Dladla, in the 53rd minute, from a Tshabalala cross.
Playmaker, Thando Mngomeni, was introduced into the game by coach Roger De Sa to add firepower to the Wits attack and the Clever Boys were rewarded with a 67th minute equaliser by Sibusiso Vilakazi, setting up the game for a grand finish.
Chiefs coach Vladimir Vermezovic was not to be outdone with substitutions and sent on striker Lehlohonolo Majoro, who scored within five minutes via a header from Dladla’s cross.
Wits continued to fight back but the resilient Chiefs backline held on strongly, coping with Wits’s threat. The final whistle meant Chiefs sailed to the top of the Premiership log with three wins from three games. Wits stand in ninth position with four points, also from three games.
When people think “Wits Medical Campus”, students walking around in white coats with stethoscopes around their necks is what typically comes to mind. Vuvuzela took a tour of the Adler Museum of Medicine and the Huntington Museum to discover the treasure of secrets many Witsies are unaware of.
WITH less than a month before the Rugby World Cup takes flight in New Zealand, the Springboks need the whole nation, now more than ever, to stand behind them in their quest to defend the world title.
The world champions were recently outclassed 40-7 and 39-20 respectively by traditional rivals New Zealand and Australia in their opening games of the Tri-Nations competition. Even though injuries to key players have restricted coach Peter de Villiers from fielding his strongest line-up, there is evidently a lot of work still to be done by the technical staff before the first game of the title defence on September 11, against Wales.
To add to the world champions’ woes, the recently launched “Springbok Friday”, an initiative encouraging South Africans to show support for the Boks by wearing the team’s match jersey on Fridays, has been given minimal attention.
In comparison to “Football Friday”, a similar initiative during the 2010 Soccer World Cup to support Bafana Bafana, which was overwhelmingly supported by millions, including students, there are hardly any green Boks shirts in sight on Wits campus and the surrounding Johannesburg areas.
With two more return leg Tri-Nations matches scheduled against Australia in Durban tomorrow and the following Saturday against New Zealand in Port Elizabeth, there is a perception that the Boks need to score consecutive wins to build confidence heading to the World Cup.
However, De Villiers said on Supersport.com that the essential issue for the team in the two games before the World Cup is “to get our systems going and then building into it after that”.
De Villiers said there are two things that the team needs to work hard on in the next two weeks, firstly to show an improvement in defence and, secondly, to be more sharp in attack.
A “killer instinct” is what he said needs to be developed by the Springboks if they are to return from New Zealand in October having successfully defended the most prestigious trophy in world rugby. With the support of the entire nation, the Boks can certainly do it. Good luck, Bokke!
BIDVEST Wits play their first match of the 2011/12 Absa Premiership season on Sunday.
The team will hope to put last weekend’s MTN 8 quarter-final loss to Kaizer Chiefs in the past and move on quickly when they travel to Harry Gwala Stadium to face Maritzburg United.
Despite the 2-1 knockout defeat against Amakhosi at FNB Stadium, the Clever Boys displayed great attacking football with danger-man Bhongolwethu Jayiya’s skill and pace causing all sorts of problems for the Chief’s backline in the game’s opening minutes.
Wits stunned Chiefs by taking the lead in the 11th minute through a headed goal by new signing, Sboniso Gumede, after a floated Jayiya corner kick.
Nine minutes later Gumede went from hero to villain by conceding a penalty with an ill-timed tackle on Mandla Masango in the 18-yard box. Amakhosi striker Bernard Parker, on his official debut, slotted the spot-kick into the bottom corner giving Wits keeper Emile Baron no chance of saving.
Chiefs then scored their second goal, and the match winner, four minutes before half-time through Masango who received a brilliant chipped pass from Lehlogonolo Majoro after good interplay by the Chiefs front players.
Despite a few minor errors at the back, Wits coach Roger De Sa will be pleased with the team’s progress so far and hope to keep the attacking momentum displayed by the team at the weekend into Sunday’s game.
Wits will need to create more clear-cut scoring opportunities than they did against Chiefs if they stand any chance of overcoming Maritzburg United and bagging three points. The Students will be boosted by the return of striker Sibusiso Vilakazi to training this week after being forced to sit out in previous games through injury.
Getting the season off to a winning start will be a priority for both teams, and the very competitive match will be played at a high tempo. This fixture produced a 1-1 draw last season, but it is Maritzburg United which has the upper hand after having beaten Wits 2-1 at Bidvest Stadium in their second fixture in the latter stages of the season.
THE International Human Rights Exchange (IHRE) programme at Wits’ is investing in the future of students by offering them employment opportunities through internships.
The programme offers an average of 50 local and international Wits students internships at prominent non-governmental and other organisations such as the SA Human Rights Commission, Civicus, Helen Suzman Foundation and Sonke Gender Justice.
The initiative by IHRE attempts to deal with the widespread problem of unemployment that South Africa faces by allowing students to work and gain experience in the areas of research and project management to make them more marketable by the time they graduate.
IHRE’s programme assistant and student liaison, Shingirai Taodzera, says the South African job market is “extremely competitive” and “expanding at a slow pace”, making it essential for students to have “networked and gained practical skills of the work environment to limit the hardships of finding a job after completing their degrees”.
“Because social sciences is mostly non profitable in comparison to other fields such as engineering, networking is important to allow students to know where jobs could be, and if they have the experience of working, it makes it easier for them.
“IHRE offers internships so that students can learn etiquette, teamwork, leadership and inter-personal skills in a more practical manner because this is vital in the kinds of work they will do when they leave university.”
International relations honours student, Veronica Benham, has been part of IHRE for three years and having done an internship at the South African Human Rights Commission, feels she has “climatised to the work environment”.
“I had good relations with people at the commission and they were willing to have me beyond the duration of the internship,” she said.
Blake Desormeaux is an international student from Wellesley College in Boston, US, who is interning at the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA).
“Through the IHRE internship I hope to gain more insight as to how better I can help the gay and lesbian support group which I run back at my college,” she said.
BIDVEST Wits kicks off the 2011/12 football season with a quarter-final match in the MTN 8 Cup against Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The MTN 8 Cup is the preliminary knockout competition of the season featuring teams that occupied positions one to eight on the Absa Premiership final log standings from last season.
Wits finished sixth on the log with 40 points from 30 games, managing 10 wins, 10 draws and 10 losses.
Having beaten Amazulu in the Nedbank Cup final in late May last year at FNB Stadium, The Clever Boys will return to FNB with fond memories. This could serve as a good omen for the navy-blue-and-white outfit.
It is, however, the gold-and-black Glamour Boys who currently have bragging rights after being responsible for Wits’s relinquish of the Nedbank Cup title with a convincing 4-0 victory in the second round at Bidvest Stadium towards the end of last season.
Among the top eight teams, Wits has the second worst defensive record of last season’s league campaign with 39 goals conceded. The Clever Boys will strive to avoid a repetition of the last outing they had against Chiefs and will therefore need to be tight at the back if they stand any chance of victory.
To add to their woes, during the off-season transfer period, Chiefs snatched their captain and defender, Tefu Mashamaite, on a three-year deal.
Being the first competitive match of the season for both teams should make the match a cracker and the team which soldiers to a win will know that triumph in a match of this magnitude serves as momentum heading to the commencement of the premiership league.
Wits coach Roger De Sa rated the team’s performance last season as “satisfactory” and because Wits were among the top scoring teams in the league, it will be pleasing to him should his strike force be on target in Sunday’s game.
On paper Chiefs are without doubt favourites to clinch victory, but Wits will not take the game lying down. With an array of young players such as the club’s player of the season, Sifiso Myeni, Wits is sure to oust Chiefs with quick attacking football and cause an upset.
Wits students are told to “work hard and play hard” in their first year welcome speeches. They are now taking this literally with regular visits to the newly opened Chialan’s Gaming Lounge in the Matrix.
This raises questions of whether playing console and computer games on campus will be a form of recreation or distraction for students.
“With school I get really stressed, so this is a good place to come relax and release pressure,” said Jonathan Tshiswaka, a 1st year actuarial science student.
Tshiswaka visits the gaming lounge almost every day, and like many other students, views it as “a great place to go ‘chill’ with friends and have a bit of fun”.
Having been a university student himself, Chialan Govindasami, the owner of the gaming lounge, decided to add “colour” into the daily campus routine.
“I know what I wanted as a student. You need a release and some people find that release through [playing] games,” he said.
The gaming lounge houses PCs, Playstation 3 and Xbox games which students can play at 15 minute or hourly intervals for R9 and R30 respectively.
Witsies can be seen playing a wide variety of games daily and regular gamers have already been established.
Govindasami accounts this to “genius on his part in offering games which students enjoy playing. “I assessed what games were popular so there is a broad spectrum of good games.”
Joseph Mongwai, another 1st year student sees value in playing games and said: “When I’m in a lecture I think critically and playing games requires critical thinking as well. It helps me in that way.”
However the BA law student admitted that time is a problem for him. “It really tests on time, management; you could skip classes for games.”
“I think it’s up to the individuals to manage their time,” said Govindasami. The owner believes that the game lounge is a “good thing for this campus. I’m trying to deviate from the norm associated with being at varsity,” he said.
AMNESTY International Wits has condemned the “unlawful detention of political prisoners” in Iran and have circulated a petition demanding their “immediate and unconditional release”.
Amnesty International Wits President Amir Bagheri said the petition is part of the Free Iran Campaign which aims at creating awareness for the students and general public about human rights violations in Iran.
Bagheri said the petition was targeting up to 2000 signatures from Wits during the week. Once completed, it would be sent to the Iran embassy in Pretoria and the department of foreign affairs.
“The petition will hint to the foreign affairs department that the country [Iran] which they have economic ties with is rated first in terms of human rights violations and has the worst conditions in which political prisoners are detained,” said Bagheri.
Political prisoners have been detained since the disputed 2009 presidential elections in Iran and have been sentenced to “long prison terms” for expressing views which challenge that of the state.
Those detained include human rights activists, teachers, students, film-makers and journalists, all receiving between one and 20 year-long sentences.
Second year BA student Balungile Mbenyane believes the petition can help “change the situation in Iran by informing people”.
“Here in South Africa we are in a lucky position because through democracy we can challenge and change leadership. In Iran they are stuck with a dictator.
“Informing people is helpful because it’s only when you know about a certain issue that you are able to change it,” she said.
Mehdi Bagherioromi, a volunteer in the Free Iran Campaign, was “impressed with the turnout [to sign the petition] from the first day [Monday] and thrilled by the Wits students’ response”.
There were, however, views which saw little effect the petition would have “accounting to the human rights violations encountered in our own backyard [South Africa]”. Such views were shared by 3rd year BA student, Zweli Mdlalose, who said: “The petition has good intentions, hence I signed it. I, however, feel it is strategically futile because it informs people but gives them little in terms of making them active in the fight against injustices.”
From left to right: Dr. Marie Gilbert, Thomas Fredrick Wheeler, Mr. Gabriel Shumba, Dr. Malte Brosig
The International Human Rights Exchange (IHRE) program held its first guest lecture of the year on Thursday 19th May, discussing the effectiveness of African and other continental organisations in their efforts to protect human rights.
The topic was titled “Weak and Ineffective?” and covered largely the African Union (AU)’s performance, assessed by experts in the field, of their failures and successes to unite African states under one umbrella which aims at human rights protection, continental peace and security, economic growth and development and good governance.
IHRE, which is the world’s only multidisciplinary undergraduate programme in Human Rights invited, on their guest panel, South African Foreign Service ambassador, Thomas Wheeler, executive director of Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF), Gabriel Shumba, Wits International relations lecturer, Malte Brosig and researcher in International Relations, Marie Gilbert.
The lecture was centred around the clarity that human rights protection in Africa has to a large extend been ineffective as informed by the recent violence in countries such as Libya, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Kenya.
Wheeler cited this as being caused by “internal fractures” African organisations have in terms of “the failure in leaders to have a joined idea that human rights should remain central and form the base for other rights”
He said: “In Africa, national interests which are overwhelmingly directed at economic growth are given priority over political rights”
The problem of leadership was further illustrated by Brosig who argued that “decisions made in African organisations are subject to manipulation because of monetary funding received from external forces”.
“The AU for example receives 50% of its budget from the EU, therefore whether leaders will make decisions which are entirely beneficial to the people they serve is questionable,” he said.
Solutions to how African organisations can be strengthened and made more effective were covered briefly and panellists all agreed that joint efforts are required, especially from “hegemonic states such as South Africa”.
Shumba said: “As the economic hub on the continent, South Africa should set the moral code and lead by example. In this way countries which violate human rights will be shamed”.
The role of civil society organisations in fighting for human rights protection was said to be “pivotal” and “judicial structures such as the African court needs to become more active by making decisions which are binding to all states”, according to Shumba.
Students who attended the guest lecture at the Professional Development Hub
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, […]
