The City of Johannesburg invested billions in business incubators, policy changes and partnerships with the private sector to boost entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment, but these efforts have been considered “inadequate” on a global scale.
The Roodepoort Civic Centre has a hidden entrance behind the glitz and glamour of the Roodepoort Theatre. It is here, just inside a small, gated door, where hopeful entrepreneurs can find the unassuming sign that reads, “Isiqalo Opportunity Centre.”
A short trip to the fourth floor of the building and down a long corridor reveals a medium sized room, clean and tidy but especially quiet. The only sound the tapping of keys as two women work at administrative desks and one client, a man, uses one of the dozen available computers which neatly line the bottom left corner of the space to browse Facebook. According to the freely available brochure, this is the City of Johannesburg’s “concrete solution” to unemployment, stunted economic growth and informal trading.
Johannesburg has a rising unemployment rate of 26,5% according to the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs profile on Johannesburg and a provincial youth unemployment rate of 63,9% according to a 2023 media release from the Gauteng office of the premier. The latest Global Entrepreneurial Monitoring Report (GEM), a 25 yearlong project which maps entrepreneurial ecosystems globally through direct interviews with entrepreneurs in over 50 countries, states that it is a lack of employment which drives 90% of entrepreneurs in South Africa to start their own business.
Johannesburg is home to around a third of South Africa’s small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME’s) according to a 2022 study on Investigating SMMEs strategic planning techniques in Johannesburg central business district post-COVID-19 lockdown, and this number is growing. The City of Joburg’s definition of an SMME includes not only formal entrepreneurs but also informal traders, this is according to the Small Enterprise Development Agency’s research note on the South African SMME sector.
A market for women entrepreneurs was held in Johannesburg on May 7, 2023 at Constitution Hill. Photo: File
Chronic underspending and dormant policy plans
The Department of Economic Development (DED) is responsible for entrepreneurship in formal and informal sectors, which they refer to “the backbone of any economy” on their website. The department’s mandate promises to, “Support the city towards achieving a 5% economic growth rate and to bringing down unemployment by 2021.” This includes promoting SMMEs, informal traders and streamlining regulation.
However, the department is yet to achieve the economic growth target in the City of Johannesburg, only seeing 0,79% growth in 2018, while the unemployment rate continues to grow, as jobs cannot be created fast enough for a growing population. In addition, the support laid out by the city for entrepreneurs and informal traders is regarded as inadequate by the GEM, who lists South Africa as the worst of over 50 participating countries in entrepreneurial framework conditions.
This means that South Africa, and Johannesburg in particular, has no adequate framework conditions. These conditions include financing, policy, taxes and bureaucracy, city programmes, school-level entrepreneurship education and training. In addition, despite the department spending R10 billion in the last seven years towards these aims, they have consistently underspent their budget allocated by the city treasury, according to their annual and quarterly reports.
In the “Young Entrepreneurship Policy and Strategy Framework,” the vision is to make Johannesburg “the leading city in entrepreneurial development in the developing world by 2025” through removing barriers of poverty and unemployment. The policy was drawn up in 2009.
According to Leah Knott, Johannesburg Ward councillor and MMC for Economic Development between 2016- and 019, the Johannesburg policy on entrepreneurship has not been amended since. Knott said that this document is outdated, “we should be renewing policy every five years. But it takes 18 months to two years to be approved by council and this can’t happen when the Johannesburg government changes every five minutes.” Referring to the frequent changing of hands in the city’s coalition government, Knott added that, “when government changes, policies in the process go back to the beginning.”
In an effort to support entrepreneurs in Johannesburg, the DED launched ten opportunity centres throughout the city. Knott, who held the role of MMC during the rollout of the centres, said: “The majority of small businesses fail in their first three years, and so the centres give a leg up to entrepreneurs and give them the necessary tools to succeed, like how not to eat profits before seeing a return.” The opportunity centres serve as entry points to local communities to access guidance and cut the red tape of bureaucracy when starting a business or growing an informal business into a sustainable, formal business.
Accessibility and lack of awareness
This project began with the transformation and expansion of what used to be “business centres” according to Knott, who managed small advisory desks in regions E and A, Diepsloot and Alaxendra. The opportunity centres were created in collaboration with various Johannesburg-based communities, who said they did not visit the centres previously because they could not access them due to their placement. The department has since opened 10 opportunity centres in Diepsloot, Montclare, Florida Park, Soweto, the Johannesburg CBD, Alexandra, Braamfontein, the Joburg Market, Elderado Park and a mobile centre which travels to remote areas. The latest annual report from the department said that the rollout is only partly complete, with a goal to open 14 centres.
The DED’s website states that “the purpose of the opportunity centres is to create an environment where entrepreneurs and small businesses can thrive”. Knott said that the centres provide help and advice on finances as well as tax returns, accounting and registration with the CIPC. Workers at these centres are not required to have any entrepreneurial experience themselves, according to the department’s job description.
They do not provide funding to clients, but they do assist with access to funding, mostly through the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller. According to assistant key accounts manager, Nomonde Zulu, access to funding can be secured by applying on the propellers website or by visiting one of their offices.
Including training, events and workshops, the centres have supported 14,294 entrepreneurs in the last financial year. This means that less than five entrepreneurs visit a centre per day. The department acknowledged this low number in their latest report and said it would be able to make more of an impact and reach more clients if they were granted a locomotive allowance. This request has been put forward in the past two financial years and denied due to no budget being available. The department is set to resubmit the request in the next financial year.
Contrary to the statement provided, the financial performance of the department, which is listed in the same quarterly report, states that the department was granted an advertising budget of R1,084,000 for the last financial year but spent only R257,000 of it.
The complicated issue of informal trading
Twenty one percent of the Johannesburg workforce is in what the DED refers to as a “thriving, vibrant informal sector”. MMC of the department in 2021 Lawrence Khoza said in his speech for the opening of the Joburg Market Opportunity Centre that the centres provide informal traders with, “non-financial assistance on how to formalise their businesses.” The policy on informal trading in Johannesburg boasts that the city supports informal traders in a way that is more progressive than others, “it looks good on paper,” said Doctor Mamokete Modiba, a senior researcher at the Gauteng City Region Observatory.
“But there is a translation issue when it comes to practice,” she continued. The city has goals such as the “sharing of public space” and “the regulation of competition” as well as “enabling access to entrepreneurial activities.” In this regard, the opportunity centres exist to take members of the informal economy into the formal economy and provide advice on business growth so they might expand to create jobs and benefit the macro-economy. “On one hand this is effective because it gives resources and training to people with a specific focus on disadvantaged groups and disadvantaged areas,” said Modiba.
“On the other hand, informal trade is not regarded as a real business by the City of Joburg, it is regarded as something they want to make into something else.” Modiba continued to say that not all informal traders have the ambition to become successful businesses. Some are simply survivalists who want to make enough money to keep bread on the table, and they need a different kind of support from the city.
Sakhile Pehana is an informal fruit trader, who sells his fruit to passing cars at this Linden intersection
Modiba suggested adequate services and infrastructure as an intervention strategy for the informal sector, “some traders have no shelter and then when it rains, they lose money because they can’t do their job. Others waste time looking for ablution facilities.” Louis Botha, a Parkview based entrepreneur, said that his main problem with running a business in Johannesburg is electricity. In running his mobile coffee business, Perfect Cup, he said, “I think our main challenge is power. With the loadshedding, at markets in particular, we constantly have to keep an eye on the Eskom schedules.”
The DED had budgeted R3,9 million towards the goal of allocating appropriate areas for informal traders in Joburg, but by the end of the 2022/2023 financial year, no areas were allocated and only R212,000 was spent towards informal trading.
In addition, the city emphasizes training for informal traders to improve their skillset through opportunity centres, however, Modiba states, this training can be inappropriate, “some people in the informal sector do not have an education, others are engineers, for example, who cannot find employment elsewhere. You cannot train someone on writing skills if they already have a degree in engineering.”
The question of why the DED did not utilize the advertising budget allocated to them and the reasons behind the underspending as well as the failure of the informal trading project were brought to the department, but Wits Vuvuzela received no reply by the time of publishing.
Other Johannesburg initiatives: Public-private partnerships
The Johannesburg opportunity centres perform an advisory role, however, a 2022 study by Bantu Majaja and Jabulile Msimango-Galawe on mapping the needs and challenges of SME’s in Johannesburg found through interviews with 1,099 entrepreneurs that the main challenges facing entrepreneurs in Johannesburg is the city’s spatial divide, access to suppliers and access to equipment. These are beyond the resources and capabilities of the opportunity centres, however, national and provincial government attempt to bridge these gaps by partnering with private sector companies and NGO’s in Joburg.
Moses Mogotlane, manager of the Transnet Matlafatšo centre told Wits Vuvuzela that this centre, based at the University of the Witwatersrand, was started with access to equipment in mind.
This centre consists of two halves, the ideation space and the innovation space. The ideation space follows the same model as the opportunity centres of non-financial support. The innovation space, on the other hand, gives entrepreneurs access to equipment such as 3D printers, computers, software and woodwork machines. “All of this equipment has been made as simple as possible,” according to Mogotlane, who said that, “if you can use a computer, you can use the technology here.”
The centre was built in partnership with the South African government owned enterprise, Transnet, who sponsored the operations until 2020. It became a popular innovative space for local entrepreneurs, “anytime you visited the centre, there were always people in the space, creating or thinking of ideas”, Said Mogotlane.
In 2020, however, the contract between Transnet and the University of the Witwatersrand expired and was not renewed by Transnet. Since then, the centre has become absorbed into the Wits Innovation Centre and serves only the Wits community. The number of visitors to the centre has since been on the decline and in the month of September 2023, only 72 people visited the centre at all.
In addition to this gap in support with regards to equipment, research by the Gauteng City Region Observatory found that historical inequalities continue to persist in the world of entrepreneurship in Johannesburg. In 2021, the percentage of entrepreneurs who are white increased from 10% in 2015 to 20% while the percentage of entrepreneurs who are African increased only from 7% to 15%. This is a trend which applies to gender and education as well.
In response to this, youth employment accelerator Harambee has turned their focus specifically onto young, African women in Johannesburg with lower levels of education in the hopes of bridging this historical divide. “We refer to it as make your own money” says Xolile Sepuru, programme manager at Harambee.
According to Seperu, this programme consists of social media interaction to stimulate entrepreneurship, looking at a platform-based approach for young entrepreneurs as well as policy, incentives and licensing, “the goal is to remove the barriers to young people starting businesses,” said Seperu. The organization is supported through the Gauteng government. “I think the City of Joburg is doing a lot. They’re doing well in trying to bridge the gap and help entrepreneurs. What we need is for more private organizations to step in” he continued.
FEATURED IMAGE: The Khoebo Opportunity Centre, based in Braamfontein, is temporarily located at the department of economic development’s building due to disrepair at their previous location. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
There comes a time when all birds must fly the nest and leave the comfort of their parents’ home, but for Generation Z, the time is nigh, and it seems there may be nowhere else to land.
“Out of reach.” “Impossible.” “Unaffordable.” These are the words used by members of Generation Z (Gen-Z) on the possibility of buying their own house in their twenties, according to an experimental Instagram poll of 38 respondents run by Wits Vuvuzela.
However, a 2022 Rocket Mortgage survey revealed that 72% of their Gen-Z sample (2000 people of ages 18-26) are highly motivated to buy a home in the near future but, as interest rates reach their highest peak in 15 years this month, buying a house in South Africa is more expensive than ever.
The South African Reserve Bank responded to a world-wide increase in inflation rates, which neared the 8% mark in South Africa at the end of 2022. Raising the bank repo rate to 8.25% meant that the prime lending rate rose to 11.75%, the highest it has been since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. A higher lending rate means that taking out large loans from a bank, such as a bond on a house, becomes more expensive. For younger generations hoping to live on their own, this has added another obstacle to an already almost impossible dream.
“Unfortunately, it is very difficult for young people to purchase property in this country. The current interest rates are higher than they have been in years, economic times are hard – many young people don’t have good credit scores which negatively affects their lending profile and many young people are not aware of the upfront costs that are required when purchasing a property [bond and transfer costs],” says Rob Pound, a real estate agent working in Johannesburg.
The latest FNB property barometer reveals that first-time-buyer numbers are on the decline and the average age at which South Africans can afford their own home is 35. The report cited the rising cost of living, inflation rate and unemployment rate as causes for so few people in their twenties affording homes of their own.
This is supported by real estate agent Ronald Oliphant, a Braamfontein area specialist who said that he has seen fewer young people looking to buy or rent properties this year. Braamfontein, Ferndale and Fontainebleau remain popular areas for young first-time buyers in Johannesburg, but the latest Lightstone report indicates that only 18% of stable homeowners in Ferndale are under the age of 35. This number decreases to 16% in Braamfontein and 5% in Fontainebleau.
For those young people who overcome financial burdens and manage to buy their own homes, the struggle does not end there. “I once had a client who was 27 years old and he found one of my properties, which was R850,000. He said he could afford it because the bond repayments would be the same cost as the rent he was paying at the time, and he was so excited to be purchasing a property rather than ‘paying someone else’s bond,’” said Pound. “He wasn’t aware of the upfront transfer and bond costs that are required when buying property, which in his case were around R56,000. He had to come up with this money in two months in order to buy the house, but he was living hand-to-mouth, there was no way he could afford it.”
South African banks, aware of this difficult situation, are open to giving first-time home buyers a bond of 105% in order to cover the upfront costs for properties under the value of R1.8 million. However, for this young buyer only one South African bank offered to grant him this deal.
Jesse Van Der Merwe (24), a recent Wits engineering graduate also decided to invest in her own property when she started her working life, however, after buying her own apartment, realized that she could not afford to keep up with the day to day costs of owning a property and living alone. “I realized that I can’t really afford to live [in the apartment] and like…eat, so I’m renting it out while I stay at home until I can actually afford to move into it.”
With unaffordable upfront costs and bond repayment rates, many young people who can afford it are pushed into renting property instead. This has led to a high demand for rental properties which, according to the FNB report, has made rental costs in Johannesburg more expensive in recent years. “Real-estate is simply supply and demand,” said Pound.
According to Oliphant, a tenant may only be considered for a property if the rent does not exceed one third of their income, but, as rental rates increase due to high demand, many young people apply for rentals that they do not comfortably afford.
Julia Rolle (24), a 2D character animator from Johannesburg who works remotely, made the decision to move away from the city to the seaside town of Wilderness on the garden route. To afford the rent on what she refers to as a “teeny tiny place”, Rolle pays 35% of her income on rent. When asked if she has had to sacrifice paying for other things for her accommodation, she answered, “Of course, but I wouldn’t trade the independence and having my own space.”
Interest rates have remained steady the last two months as inflation begins to slow, giving hope to young home hunters that the situation might yet improve. However, in a press conference held on July 20 in Pretoria, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said that the interest rates have not yet peaked, “Is this the end of the hiking cycle? No it is not. It depends on the data and the risks. That’s what it boils down to.”
In such an economic climate, some young people such as Jennifer Greef (25) have no choice but to stay in their family home for longer than they planned, “I do think I could move out, but my living conditions at home are just so much better than what they would be if I moved out because I would have to move somewhere really small,” she said. “I think still living with my parents is the right way to go about things right now because then I can save and spend my money on other things such as insurance and medical aid rather than rent.”
FEATURED IMAGE: Feature Image: A real estate agent hands over keys to a young gen-z as they buy their first home. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
Through advanced scholarship and direct engagement, the purpose of this Centre connects with evolving African journalism, fostering a link between academia, professionals, and the public.
The Wits Journalism department was formally rebranded as the Wits Centre for Journalism, signifying a new chapter in its academic journey. The launch to mark the shift was held on Friday, August 10 at the Wits Club on West Campus.
Inaugurated in 2001 within the Graduate Centre for Humanities then integrated into School of Literature, Languages and Media SLLM, the Wits Journalism department began as a postgraduate initiative that was coordinated by Eve Bertelsen. Anton Harbor assumed the externally funded Chair in Journalism, becoming its first department head and as they say, the rest is history.
According to the Wits website, a centre (centre of excellence) is a name used to refer to a research unit in the university which has maintained a high level of consistent research and external funding. The Wits Centre for Journalism (WCJ) has done this through projects like the Africa-China reporting project, the Justice Project and the annual State of the Newsroom report. Harber said, “Wits Journalism becoming a centre is a natural evolution.”
The keynote speech by Judge Bernard Ngoepe underscored the importance of responsible education and research in the field of journalism. “The media can change a country’s course in history… All of the brutality of 1976 [the Soweto Uprising] was exposed to the whole world through one picture. That is how powerful the media is,” he said.
Ngoepe also touched on the ethical fault lines in South African journalism today, which he said comes from the need to “get the scoop first”, something which can ruin reputations and lives with very little recourse he lamented.
Dr Dinesh Balliah, WCJ’s inaugral director, said that the work done at the centre for journalism would not be possible without the support of its industry partners, who continue to support budding journalists through bursaries and work opportunities.
Former student and WitsVuvuzela journalist, Tannur Anders is one such recipient and now works as financial journalist at Thomson Reuters.
She said, “It is great to be here for the official launch of the Wits Centre for Journalism; I studied at Wits last year and it was just the most amazing experience, not only did I learn a lot about journalism, what’s news and what’s newsworthy but I made really great friends.”
FEATUREDIMAGE: Director of the Wits Centre for Journalism Dr Dinesh Balliah on the far left with fellow attendees at the Wits Club for the launch of the Centre. Photo by: KimberleyKersten
The well-known sports event disappointed qualifying teams by removing the hockey and cricket tournaments this year.
Wits’ cricket and hockey team members qualifying to participate in the varsity cup games — alongside the top eight universities in South Africa — will not be partaking in the sports due to lack of sponsorship.
Sharmin Naidoo, the sports officer for hockey at Wits said that sponsors pulled their funding from supporting these games; and new ones could not be found. According to the Varsity Sports website, the main sponsors for all included sports are FNB, Cashbuild and Suzuki. However, it is not yet clear why they pulled their money from cricket and hockey.
Naidoo explained that all universities are part of a company called University Sports Company, which contracted ASEM Sports Entertainment and Media to manage and get sponsorships for Varsity Sports.
“This year they were only able to find sponsors for Varsity Cup [the rugby tournament] and some varsity sports. There have been no sponsors for cricket and hockey,” he said.
The Wits Cricket team at the Walter Milton cricket oval on Wits main campus after winning their last match of the league in April 2023. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
Naidoo said that the varsity sports which have secured sponsorship besides rugby are men and women’s football as well as netball.
The Wits hockey team has a history of competing in the Varsity Hockey tournament, according to Naidoo, and finished in second place in 2022.
However, Nono Pongolo, coach of the Wits’ cricket team said that to his knowledge, the team has never qualified to be included in the Varsity tournament, and “to have it ripped away from them like that is disappointing”.
He said the team worked hard to win in their division in Pretoria, in the USSA tournament in 2022; and it is important for them to continue showcasing their talents.
Pongolo added that the universities are organising a smaller cricket event amongst themselves which is set to take place at the University of Pretoria later this year, “so it’s not all doom and gloom, but it’s not the varsity cup.” However, he hope that they will be able to participate in the tournament in 2024.
Wits’ cricket player Joshua Streak said Varsity Cup “is significant because of its name” and even though there are other tournaments, there are not as big. He added, “It’s an important tournament when it comes to [national and provincial] selections, and for exposure because it’s usually televised.”
Wit’s hockey and cricket player Reese Scheepers said, “I’m extremely disappointed. We work extremely hard during the year to play in such a tournament. Now it feels like our hard work and talent won’t be displayed.” He continued, “I’m a passionate sportsman and I look[ed] forward to competing in such tournaments and now it feels like this year has been lost.”
Storme Johnson, the chairperson of the Wits sports council, who played hockey for Wits in the Varsity Sports 2019 tournament said, “It was an experience that I will never forget. It is so sad that the younger girls in our team won’t get the opportunity to experience it.”
Wits Vuvuzela reached out to previous sponsors of Varsity cricket and hockey for comment; but did not receive a reply by the time of publishing.
FEATURED IMAGE: a Wits cricket player kneels on the field after catching a ball at the Walter Milton cricket oval at Wits main campus. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
People with disabilities are often not brought into critical discussions about LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights, however, this is something the Wits Disability Rights Unit (DRU) wants to change.
Sexuality, gender and access to health services for people with disabilities were all up for discussion at the DRU’s first event for disability awareness month.
The webinar was held on Friday, July 21 and was centred around the harmful consequences of the prevalent stereotype that people with disabilities are not sexual beings, who experience desire like everybody else.
The month of July marks disability pride month and presents an opportunity to honour the experiences, histories and struggles of people with disabilities.
Tish Morpheus Geddes, senior administrator at the DRU, was especially proud of the panelists, as it brought together “people who work in sexual and reproductive health sectors, people doing research into disability and sexuality and members of the LGBTQ+ community as well as people with disabilities. We have a unique perspective.”.
Facilitator, Siya Hlongwa said: “Stereotypes become a benchmark for discrimination in healthcare services.” Geddes added that people with disabilities are viewed as asexual beings and so, “health care providers think this is not a group that must be considered” therefore limiting access to lifesaving sexual and reproductive health resources.
Thato Mphuti, the founding director of the organisation, Enabled Enlightenment said, “[The conversation the DRU has started] speaks to the work that we do” in trying to destigmatise sexual education with the parents and caregivers of people with disabilities, “there is no parenting manual and often parents are the biggest barriers when it comes to accessing sexual and reproductive health services.”
Geddes said that one of the central goals of the webinar was to have a truly accessible conversation. This was done through accessible marketing on social media, “you’ll notice that all of our posts have image descriptions.” In addition, the webinar was translated live into South African Sign Language as well as transcribed into text.
Sesona Buyeye, an attendee to the webinar and communications assistant for Ibis reproductive health, said, “Iit was such a great discussion with great insights shared, especially during disability awareness month.”
Similar events will be hosted by the unit throughout July, details available on their social media pages.
FEATURED IMAGE: A Wits student enters the Wits Disability Rights Unit on Wits main campus. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
In celebration of Africa Day, Wits invited internationally renowned South African poet to perform and teach students.
At age 73, famous poet, writer and activist, Diana Ferrus continues to dazzle audiences with her spoken word.
Born in 1953 in Worcester, in the Western Cape, Ferrus started writing poetry at the age of 14. She went on to study psychology and sociology at the University of the Western Cape in 1988. She then did a Master’s degree with a focus on Black Afrikaans women writers.
Speaking to Wits Vuvuzela, the mixed heritage writer of Irish and Khoisan explained how her hometown had an influence in her writing — specially to placate her, when hardships arose.
“The winters were so cold that there was ice on the top of the mountains. That has been etched into my mind”, she said, in addition to this, she grew up in a household where there was domestic violence and child abuse.
Furthermore, people in Worcester worked in the surrounding vineyards which paid them with alcohol — leading to the area having the highest foetal alcohol abuse in the world.
She recalls how the street that separated the coloured area from the white area was nicknamed “Kanteen Straat” (Canteen Street) and those who wanted to shop for groceries on the other side of the street would have to pass this road, “many people never got there” because they stopped to drink in the bars instead.
However, Ferrus is proud of her upbring: “The town formed me. Those were my formative years”, she said.
She won a fellowship to study at Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 1998. It is here that she wrote her most famous poem for Sarah Baartman, I’ve Come to Take you Home. Ferrus said she was homesick at the time and learnt about Sarah Baartman again in a course entitled, “Sexuality in the Colonies.”
Baartman was a Khoikhoi woman who was taken by French travelers in the 19th century to be displayed in Paris as a freak show where she died, and her remains were kept and displayed.
Ferrus said when she stared out of her window in Utrecht, “the stars were so far away. If I was in my own country, I’d be able to touch them.” It was then that she heard a voice in her say “take me home” and, she thought, “that must be Sarah. In fact, it might have just been me,” she said jokingly.
Poet Diana Ferrus teaches the Wits community to write their own poetry in a workshop on May 24 at the Wits Writing Centre. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
Ferrus has written many other poems since then about South Africa. One such poem, My Mother Was a Storm, was inspired by the murder of the University of Cape Town’s student Uyenene Mrwetyana in 2019. “I was angry about that, ” she explained.
“I’m disappointed in the patriarchy and the corruption and the violence.” She continued, “It is too far gone now, I do not know how it will change. Unless we put women in charge.”
Philippa De Villiers, Diana’s friend of 15 years and creative writing lecturer at Wits said, “I love her poetry. She is an example of a tradition that has been overlooked by academy, that of the community poet. She carries the dreams of a community. It is the raw animal of poetry.”
Nosipho Mngomezulu, lecturer at the Anthropology department at Wits ,who uses Ferrus’ poetry in her teaching said that her work is important for social science students.
“I use her work to humanize Sarah Baartman and make her a three-dimensional person.” Ferrus humanizes history through storytelling, she explained.
FEATURED IMAGE: Diana Ferrus performs one of her poems in celebration of Africa Day on May 24 at the Wits writing centre. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
Rosebank’s newest eatery is the coziest spot for winter in Johannesburg.
Fugazzi opened its doors in April 2023 at the Zone in Rosebank Mall to serve soul-warming Italian food with a twist.
This is the latest restaurant venture by Warren Murley, owner of other successful restaurants such as Proud Mary, which is opposite to Starbucks in Rosebank and Mama Samba which lies just next door to Fugazzi. Manager of Fugazzi Marco De Costa told Wits Vuvuzela jokingly that Murley has “a bit of a chokehold on the area.”
It takes a special restaurant to be full of chattering people on a cold Tuesday night and Fugazzi achieved just that.
The cosy wood-finished interior is influenced by 1980’s New York diners, with long red booths lining the walls and 80’s inspired green tiling and eclectic artwork, adding colour to the large, open space.
The vision behind the restaurant’s concept pays homage to the way Italian cuisine has been altered by restaurants in the United States of America. This is why Fugazzi is no regular Italian restaurant, “if you want Andiccio’s, there’s one on every corner, but if you want Fugazzi, this is the one and only” said De Costa, adding that: “Fugazzi means different or messed-up” which means that everything served comes with a twist from the traditional Italian recipe.
The interior and bar of Fugazzi restaurant in Rosebank. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
When entering the restaurant, the warmth from the surplus of gas heaters with bright orange flames flickering around the room immediately makes one forget about the winter outside. The price of the food ranges from R80 to R250 for a main course meal, stretching a student budget slightly. The most affordable beverage option is a soda float or an ice-tea, which will set you back R50, while the pricier cocktail and martini selection ranges up to R100.
The service was efficient and friendly as the waiter was happy to recommend both food and beverages; and brought everything within a reasonable time.
Fugazzi prides themselves on their wine collection, and I was impressed by the recommendation of a glass of Mason Road Chenin Blanc, which was smooth and lightly wooded. It was not too dry and easy to drink.
For vegetarians, the many menu options which catered for me were a pleasant surprise. The waiter’s recommendation was the linguini Aglio e Olio, a linguini served in a sauce made of olive oil, garlic, chilli and cherry tomatoes. The dish was delightfully presented in a tangle of pasta on a long oval plate.
The linguine aglio e olio and the pasta Genovese with glasses of red and white wine inside Fugazzi. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
The food was flavourful and comforting to eat, however the twist from traditional Italian food is difficult to notice. In addition, the waiter said that they don’t make their own pasta dough and so one cannot help but feel that the simplicity of such dishes, does not warrant a price of R95.
The warm interior of the restaurant and the carb heavy nature of the tasty food makes this a great place to go to escape the cold, as winter approaches.
FEATURED IMAGE: The entrance to Fugazzi restaurant in the Zone at Rosebank Mall. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
Prince Mashele’s latest book focuses South African citizens’ gaze on their next political leader
UPDATE: On Monday May 22, Jonathan Ball Publishers withdrew The Outsider from retailers, effectively pulling the book from shelves. The publishers of the supposed “unauthorised” biography, did so in reaction to allegations made by Brutus Malada, ActionSA member and a researcher on the book project, that a sum of R12,5 million was paid to the author, Prince Mashele by the book’s subject, Herman Mashaba.
In a statement, Jonathan Ball publishers said they were “left with no option but to withdraw The Outsider from the market” as they see Mashaba’s involvement as “a material non-disclosure…and as a breach of trust.”
Mashele has since appeared in a number of broadcast interviews, attempting but failing to dispute the allegations. His utterances include pointing the finger at the publishers for the book’s title, calling the payment a loan and routinely and inconsistently citing ‘binding contracts’ when asked relevant questions.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Former Johannesburg Mayor, Herman Mashaba visited the Wits Business School to help launch the book, ‘The Outsider’ written by well-known political analyst and author Prince Mashele. The launch took place at the Donald Gordan Hall earlier this week.
The book follows the personal, financial and political life of Mashaba, from his development as an entrepreneur to the formation of his own political party, ActionSA.
This is the second book written by Mashele, the first being, The Fall of the ANC, What Next? , which outlined the problems and failures that currently plague the ANC’s leadership. Mashele explained that he wrote his latest book because he felt he had not answered the question of who is next to lead South Africa – but he realised that maybe the answer lies outside of the ANC.
Mashele identified a global trend of non-politicians entering politics, “outsiders”, using examples such as the banker Emmanuel Macron in France and Donald Trump in the United States of America. In South Africa’s case, Mashele pustulates in his book that Mashaba is one such outsider.
The former mayor was primarily a businessman, having founded the successful company, Black Like Me in 1985 at the height of apartheid. Mashaba joined the DA after losing faith in the ANC and became mayor of Johannesburg as representative of the DA in 2016. He resigned from the party in 2019, after disagreements with other members. It is after this experience that he formed Action SA in 2020.
The fall of the ANC, according to Prince Mashele, began with the election of Jacob Zuma as president in 2009. Since then, support for the party has waned, as the country battles with corruption, load shedding and unemployment. After losing control of Tshwane, Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay in 2016, coalition governments took over which caused further chaos as disagreements between parties arose. Mashaba was one of few mayors to successfully balance the interests of the coalition in Johannesburg between the EFF and the DA.
However, instead of solely focusing on the contents of the book, the audience members shifted the focus of the panel to the shaky political landscape field of South Africa, questioning Mashaba on what he will bring to the table if he becomes the next president.
Not all impressions of the book were positive. Professor Themba Maseko another panelist, said that the book “does not give the reader [Herman Mashaba’s] vision for the future” adding, “I now know what the problems are but not the solutions.”
The audience further emphasised this critique, asking Mashaba to provide specific points of action that he would take to improve the country’s political and economic situation. Mashaba ambiguously responded by saying, “watch this space.”
Mashaba told Wits Vuvuzela that young readers of the book can learn “personal responsibility and independence” from his career as a businessman and as a politician. “I have been invited to speak at many business schools over the years and I say the same thing; don’t tell me about role models. If Herman Mashaba is my role model, others will follow.” Mashaba encourages young people to take charge of their own lives and work to being their own role models.
The biography was written without any input from Mashaba himself. Aside from the facts, Mashele had full artistic license with the text. This is why he calls it an “unauthorized biography.” Nicole Duncan, one of the book’s editors from Jonathan Ball Publishers, said that the editors did their best to “keep Prince’s voice Prince’s voice.”
FEATURED IMAGE: The discussion panel for the book launch of The Outsider held at the Donald Gordon Hall at Wits Business School on Tuesday, May 9. From left to right: Professor Themba Maseko, Herman Mashaba, Prince Mashele, Stephen Grootes. Photo: Kimberley Kersten.
Young women artists and entrepreneurs, some still at university, gathered to display their work and celebrate their creativity.
Constitution Hill’s old Women’s Jail held Ode to the Woman, an exhibition and pop-up market on Sunday, May 7 to showcase women artists and business owners.
The event was organised by the community called Among the Lillies, who are frequent hosts to creative happenings in Johannesburg. On the choice of location for the exhibition, Sandile Pooe the technical manager, said that the old women’s jail was “culturally, historically and artistically” appropriate for an event which brings together a creative community of African women.
One such exhibiting artist was Wits’ own Zukhanye Ndlaleni, a fourth-year fine arts student, chosen by curator Penina Chalumbira for her collection of paintings of a character she calls “Blue”.
Ndlaleni told Wits Vuvuzela that her art is inspired by her own personal experiences of mental illness. This collection in particular deals with “derealisation and depersonalisation.She uses the colour blue “to situate different spaces” and for the Constitution Hill display, she chose “dreamscape”.
She evokes the idea of healing through symbols of tea and pillows featured alongside the character. Writing on the event’s social media page, Ndlaleni said, “When individuals encounter my work, I want them to get a sense that they are not alone, that we are all navigating this space together … We all have a little Blue in us, but to different degrees.”
Being a part of this event was an honour for Ndlaleni who said she was thrilled to be exhibiting alongside artists she had followed on social media for a long time, “It’s flattering to be considered on par with them.”
One of Kaebetswe Seema’s collages hangs on the walls of the Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill on Sunday, May 7, 2023 while visitors to the exhibition admire the art. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
Also featured at the exhibition were Tshegofatso Tlatsi, a recent graduate of the University of Johannesburg, for large-scaldrawings and paintings exploring her “personal experiences as a black female existing”, and Kaebetswe Seema, a University of Pretoria fourth-year fine arts student for her work using collage and mixed media to explore identity.
Pooe emphasised the value of collaboration in organising the affair. Collaboration was definitely the word of the day in an exhibition combining market stalls, visual artwork as well as musical performances by women DJs. The market stalls surrounding the art featured young women entrepreneurs and their products, such as Refilwe Modise, co-owner of the Enjoyment Co. Her small business is based in Linden, Johannesburg and produces environmentally friendly scented candles. Modise said she was happy to be involved in Ode to the Woman. “I’m hoping people will see us and know what we do [by the end of the day].”
FEATURED IMAGE: Zukhanye Ndlaleni’s oil painting, The Green Teacup is displayed at the Women’s Jail on Constitution Hill on Sunday, May 7, 2023. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
The club launched an open climbing event to attract climbers and non-climbers alike, to try their hand at indoor rock climbing.
On Tuesday, May 2, the mountain club opened the indoor-climbing wall to all in the launch of a tournament that is open to the public, but the public didn’t show.
The bouldering league is taking place for the first time in three years at the multi-purpose sports hall on Wits main campus. According to Uwais Khan (22), the administrative head of the club, the event used to be an annual occurrence. This changed at the onset of the pandemic of 2020, preventing large events from happening by law.
Wits Mountain club members and alumni climb the indoor rock-climbing wall in the open boulder league on May 2 at the multi-purpose sports hall. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
The turnout for the event was dismal, with only a handful of Wits alumni joining the club in facing the wall. Khan said it is to be expected, “It’s the first event after the long weekend,” but he is optimistic that the numbers will improve as the tournament goes on. The league will continue twice a week for four weeks, entries remain will reopen until the 11th of May for those who want to win prizes (vouchers to City Rock climbing center).
The event costs visitors R50 to enter per evening, funds raised will go to the Dawson fund, a Wits fund which pays for expenses for those interested in climbing but who cannot afford it. “The major goal is to increase the diversity of climbing” said Jonothan Faller (21), chair of the club.
The club also opened the event up to everyone to build back the support for the sport which has been waning for a few years now. Faller said that the club hopes to hold a national university competition at the end of 2023, which would be the first in “a very long time”.
Bouldering is climbing which does not use protective gear. Faller told Wits Vuvuzela that this type of climbing is made up of complicated courses that don’t reach dizzying heights, but rely on problem solving skills as well as creativity in scaling the wall.
Lea Timmermans (22), a climber from the mountain club, said, “I entered to see how much I’ve improved [since joining the club this year]” and added that it’s an interesting challenge.
A climber prepares to take on the sixth course of the league on Tuesday May 2 at the multi-purpose sports hall. Photo: Kimberley Kersten.
FEATURED IMAGE: A climber chalks up her hands before climbing the indoor wall on May 2 at the multi-purpose sports hall. Photo: Kimberley Kersten.
The Wits anthropology department puts to test the ideas around benevolent aid from developed to developing countries.
Professor of political science at the University of Amsterdam, Polly Pallister-Wilkins has criticized how rich countries have used humanitarian aid to infantilise third world countries.
Dr Pallister-Wilkins was a guest for the Wits Anthropology department’s event titled, Humanitarian Futures,named after a chapter she co-wrote in the book, The routledge international handbook of critical philanthropy and humanitarianism. The discussion was the second in a series of “collaborative, multidisciplinary” seminars held by the anthropology museum, with a mix of local and international visitors. The even took place on Wednesday, April 26.
The paper argues that aid from the global north to countries like South Africa in the global south help keep a power hierarchy in play. This is because aid from the western world comes with financial conditions that economically cripple the countries that receive it.
To avoid perpetuating this power dynamic, Dr Pallister-Wilkins explained that the goal is to have a “mutual aid system, a grass roots approach”, which means that countries help themselves and their neighbours through local organisations, without relying on first-world countries.
She said this can be built by empowering crisis affected communities to lead aid programmes. These efforts, according to the professor, could be supported financially by historically colonizing countries in “reparative justice” as a way of paying back countries that were damaged by colonization.
Attendees in the audience questioned her about the validity of her suggestions. Questions around how one makes aid local without building a new power struggle inside countries based on who receives the reparative justice money and who does not were asked.
In response to these concerns, Dr Pallister-Wilkins said that although she believes in her ideas, however, truthfully, she does not know how to practically get around some concerns which were raised.
Attendee Bohlale Lamola, an anthropology honours student at Wits said that she came to the seminar to think about her own research “on how the corporate world is moving to take a humanitarian stance” and if this stance is superficial or real.
Lamola said she got confirmation from the seminar that “there is still a lot of work to be done” in making humanitarian ideas that can actually be used practically for positive change.
FEATURED IMAGE: Amsterdam professor Polly Pallister-Wilkins sits between Wits anthropology professors Kholeka Shange (left) and Kudukwashe Vanyoro (right) in a seminar at the Wits anthropology museum. Photo: Kimberley Kersten.
More than 85 protea bushes in the nature reserve have fallen victim to a mysterious attacker.
The race is on for researchers to save the protea bushes of the Melville Koppies nature reserve from being wiped out completely by an unknown, undocumented natural force.
On Sunday, April 16, a group of 10 local volunteers and researchers from Wits and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) gathered to spray a mixture of soap, methylated spirits and cooking oil on the Koppies protea bushes to kill an unidentified insect believed to be killing the plants. The mixture was created through trial and error by the nature reserve’s conservation committee, and seems to have had positive results in recent weeks.
According to Jessica Howard, a third-year BSc student at UJ doing research on the Koppies proteas, the 85 identified dying protea bushes all appear to suffer from the same ashy black substance on the back of the leaves and the presence of a mysterious, unknown insect.
Because little is known about the insect, student research has focused on trying to understand and identify the suspect. “We think that it could be an unknown, under-researched or exotic psyllid (lerp), part of the Psyllidae family under the Aphidoidea superfamily,” Howard said. Similar to mosquitoes, these insects suck the life out of the host plant to survive.
A sign of infection among a cluster of proteas at the Melville Koppies is eggs of an unknown insect on the leaves. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
Tam Scheideger, head of conservation at the Melville Koppies watched the infection rapidly spread. “In October [2022] there was one tree in a cluster that was infected and by April [2023], 25 trees in that cluster had become infected.”
The infection is mostly affecting the north side of the park but has recently spread to the ridge and the south-facing side, threatening to infect every Protea caffra in the park. “It seems that once a protea is infected, it takes around a year for it to completely die,” said Howard.
The start of the infection is difficult to spot. The noticeable difference between healthy plants and infected plants is the blackness on the back of the protea leaves and small, brown bumps on the leaves of the plant, in which the eggs of the insect can be found. However, once the infection takes over, the bushes turn black, shrivel up and die. These can be spotted throughout the north side of the park.
According to the Melville Koppies website, the nature reserve is a well-used tool for teaching and learning at Wits. According to volunteers at the park, departments which utilise the Koppies include the geology department as well as the departments of archaeology and of animal plant and environmental sciences.
Student researchers such as Howard hope that DNA from surviving plants can be used to develop a cure for the disease, but this will take time and will depend on getting to the root cause of the deaths.
FEATURED IMAGE: A volunteer sprays an infected protea bush at the Melville Koppies with a special mix of insecticide on Sunday, April 16, 2023. Photo: Kimberley Kersten
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, […]
