by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 29, 2013 | Featured 1, News
This Side: Chief Electoral Officer Jabu Mashinini oversees the putting up of demarcation tape Photo: Mfuneko Toyana
Demarcation tapes were put outside the voting tents to prevent SRC candidates from talking to voters 40 meters within the entrance of the voting station.
“I think they’re imposing themselves on voters,”said Jabu Mashinini of candidates regularly breaking the 40 meter threshold they are allowed to be from the entrance of voting tents.
Mashinini is the Chief Electoral Officer during this year’s elections.
[pullquote]I think they’re imposing themselves on voters[/pullquote]
“It’s okay they can campaign but they must do it on this side” she said. Mashinini was pointing to the perimeter of blue and white IEC tape she and her team decided to put up to keep candidates on the right side of electoral regulations. SRC candidates who spoke to Wits Vuvuzela about “chance” voters, voters convinced on the spot to vote, mostly defended the use of i-gcebhezana and face-to-face canvassing.
Progressive Youth Alliance candidate, Sandile Ngwenya said that campaigning outside voting stations contributed greatly to the overall number of voters and was necessary to combat Wits’s “historically high student apathy”.
“Some Witsies are just here to study, that’s the niche we focus on. We tell them what we’ve done for them as the PYA and what we’ll continue to for them,” Ngwenya said.
Vote “Me”: PYA candidate Banks Sandile Ngwenya crosses over to woo a voter. Photo: Mfuneko Toyana
Fellow PYA candidate Michelene Mongae agreed on the importance of talking to students before they went in to vote.
“Some students, we’ll talk to them and they’re like “oh, I can relate to that as a problem,” she said.
Daso candidate Luyolo Mphithi said “this is the most important point in the elections”. Mphithi said interacting directly with potential voters was important because it made those who weren’t aware of the issues.
Project W candidate Gautum Rao also defended active campaigning outside the stations. “We just want people to know exactly what’s up,” Rao said.
“I don’t say vote … I give them a run-down of our policies. I want them to make an informed choice.”
Day 2 of the 2013 SRC elections saw a marginally lower turnout of Witsies coming to cast their votes, as the term winds down and students look forward to the September break and the final semester of the year.
The mundane pace allowed Wits Vuvuzela to observe more closely the different candidates, as they went about convincing students strolling past the voting tent pitched outside the Great Hall stairs.
[pullquote]”i-’gcebhezana”[/pullquote] For some Witsies, that stroll would turn into brisk scamper and eventually a light jog, as they attempted to dodge eager candidates hovering around the voting tent with “i-’gcebhezana” (slips with photographs and candidate numbers of particular party’s candidates)and asking for a “word”.
One anonymous Wistie, who said he would not be voting, even after “enduring” more than 15 minutes listening to a Daso campaigner on why he should, said all the parties were “selling a product I’m not interested in buying”. Chief electoral officer Jabu Mashinini also had a problem with the campaigning tactics.
HUDDLED MASSES: 2013 SRC elections candidates debate with each other and voters. Photo: Mfuneko Toyana
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 28, 2013 | News
X MARKS THE SPOT: Witsies came out to support their favourite SRC candidates on the first day of voting. Voting will continue until August 29. Photo: Emelia Motsai
2013 SRC elections got underway today under a hot Autumn sun, though the temperature between candidates who continued to campaign outside voting stations remained mild and friendly.
The candidates hoped to match a real person to the campaign posters, as well as encourage Witsies to participate in electing a new SRC.
Candidates get candid with voters
Project W’s Gerry Comninos said it was going well and that turnout was “relatively good”. “Compared to previous years people seem to be more engaged with the issues,” Comninos said.
“It [the turnout] will pick up tomorrow”, Comninos said as he returned to stalking the area outside Great Hall with handful of pamphlets in search of potential voters. Ntshembo Vuma of PYA agreed that voting was going well. Vuma said he had been successful in convincing people to vote and to vote for him. “A lot of people have been convinced … they’ve been engaging the issues. Our track record speaks for itself that’s why people are voting for us.”
Vuma was canvassing potential voters alongside other PYA candidates, as well as members from Daso. Perhaps it was the Daso mascot, a large grey figure that looked liked the Puss-in-Boots character from the Shrek movies, that thawed the usually icy relations between the rivals.
Not impressed by “bread and circuses”
One Witsie, however, was not impressed by the various candidates’ attempts to woo voters.
“All you’re seeing is this”, said Nonhlanhla Motanyane, 2nd year Mining, pointing to the Daso mascot and candidates handing out pamphlets. Motanyane said she did not her base her vote on catchy campaign slogans and “politicking” between candidates, which she felt was done mainly to secure their spots politicians.
“This is not a school of politics it’s about what you can do for the school.” Adi Ramaru, 2nd year BSc Earth Sciences, expressed similar sentiments. “This year I’ve been attentive. I didn’t just go for one party, its different strokes for each person. I looked into what each person has to offer,” Ramaru said.
Thobile Dlalisa, 1st year MBBCh, said she based her vote on her personal experience of the candidates.“Honestly there’s someone that I knew and I knew the programmes they’ve been working on,” Dlalisa said. SRC elections will continue until Thursday the 29th. Voting stations can be found on every Wits campus.
RELATED ARTICLES
WitsVuvuzela. SRC and Habib share Wits vision. August 25, 2013.
WitsVuvuzela. Witsies on the eve of elections. August 26, 2013.
WitsVuvuzela. SRC elections at a glance. August 23, 2013.
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 27, 2013 | Featured 1, News
Wits cleaner Degracia Mothupi was walking along the pavement on Bertha Street when she was hit by a motorbike earlier today.
“I didn’t see anything but the Indian guy who saw everything said the bike nearly ran into him as well,” Mothupi said slowly in isiZulu.
Mothupi was on her way back from buying cakes and snacks for a Wits staff member’s birthday from Pick ‘n Pay, when she felt the motorbike ram into her from behind. She was flung a couple of meters into a near-by gutter. Pink and white cream was smeared on the side of the road and over her black uniform.
Injury
Mothupi had a deep gash above her right ankle and her groceries lay sprawled among torn plastic bags next to where she was sitting. Mothupi said the lady from the Nunnery who witnessed the entire incident told her sit down and not to move.
[pullquote]I don’t have a license but he was speeding[/pullquote]
Paulina Ditshilwane volunteers at the Nunnery, said she was emptying her dustpan when she saw the accident as it happened. She said Mothupi as well as a Wits student were walking along the pavement. She said the biker just missed the student and hit Mothupi.
“I don’t have a license but he was speeding”
“I don’t have a license but he was speeding.” She said he should not have hit Mothupi because she was walking on the pavement. Mothupi complained of pain in her left shoulder but said she was “fine”. Paramedics treated her on the spot and eventually loaded her into the ambulance after necessary forms had been filled out by Mothupi’s manager and supervisor. The driver of the motorbike Mduduzi Mnyanda said the accident was not his fault.
He said he was trying to avoid a pedestrian who had dashed in front of him when Mothupi appeared as well and he hit her.“A coloured guy crossed the street. I tried to avoid him then she (Mothupi) followed and I hit her.” An employee of a courier services Mnyanda said Mothupi was in the street when he hit her.
He suffered scrapes and bruises on his knees and knuckles. He said it was the first accident he had been in the six years since joining his company. Mothupi was taken to Milpark Hospital for further treatment.
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 25, 2013 | Featured 1, News
KEY MAN: Japanese master pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto. Photo: Mfuneko Toyana
The Standard Bank Joy of Jazz got underway properly in Newtown on Friday after opening on Thursday with only three shows and a small audience, mostly media and promoters, in attendance.
For reasons hard to fathom, organisers of the festival, in its 13th thriving year, chose this blustery Highveld evening, a day before the start of the month-end weekend, for South African legend Abdullah Ibrahim to showcase his piano skills for the ears of a select few.
Jazz, it must be said though, has long projected an image of elitism if not downright unintelligibility.
On Friday, however, jazz lovers from Joburg and further afield, judging by the snatches of foreign accents that ascended as dusk fell on the city of gold, had dusted off their berets and bowler hats and came in their droves to devour the over 40 local and international artists on offer.
And a feast it was.
DRUM ‘n BASS: The rest of Yamamoto’s band. Photo: Mfuneko Toyana
Four premier venues across the cultural precinct were transformed into light orbs of music. The Market Theatre, Bassline, The Dance Factory, together with the whole of Mary Fitzgerald Square provided the stage for jazz’s finest practitioners to thrill lovers of the genre with technical and artistic brilliance.
And that was the first thing that struck you: the amount of time and attention to detail paid to every aspect of the festival. Especially the venues for the live performance themselves.
Every note, pin-sharp and as crisp as the musicians had conceived it, flowed seamlessly from stage to audience. At times, overwhelmed by the sheer force of the sonic quality, audiences broke out in rapturous applause at odd times during performances, beside themselves with emotion.
It is a quality and sensation evoked by jazz music, more so when heard live, that is nearly impossible to describe. [pullquote align=”right”]In some ways it is similar to the highs and lows of a catatonic state that characterises manic mental conditions[/pullquote].
A deep, almost dire sense of brooding and introspection is afflicted on the listener by the double bass menacingly strummed. But just then, on the brink of a voluntary oblivion, scampering notes of the piano seem to lift the soul into cloudless light.
Not at speed though, but a gradual pace that recognises the nearness of that total collapse with the philosophical insolence of a homeless drunk dodging traffic.
All the while the metranomic drum, emerging and disappearing from the shadows of euphoria and despair, like the watchful blinking eye of a god, insists on the rhythm of sanity and the real.
Terrific jazz trio from Japan
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto’s trio, double bass and drum, with the Japanese maestro himself on piano, was the highlight of the evening, and testimony to the passing insights of two strangers we met during the evening.
Ardent photographer and jazzophile Tsediso, was in more than two minds about which performances to attend, as he scribbled, and then rescribbled on the festival program, and then finally gasped a plea to the heavens, begging for miracle of being in two places at once.
His dilemma: Yamamoto’s or father of local prodigy Afrika Mkhize, Themba.
A second insight came from freelance multimedia journalist Gareth, and was much simpler, on the surface that is: “honour your craft”, he said.
These words and Yamamoto’s performance on the stage provided some lessons and insights, and a few moments close to nirvana. Fortunately or not, they do not readily translate real life nor into words.
Rather the music speaks to you, for itself.
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 23, 2013 | News
Ethan Genende: “We are project Jamie, project Ethan, project student, project you.”
Photo: Emelia Motsai
By Emelia Motsai and Mfuneko Toyana
Project W
Whether you have a problem with how Project W started or not, you still have to accept the fact that they are here. And they are causing a lot of noise. It appears that the PYA sees them as a bigger threat than Daso.
Project W strongly supports “food security” and say they have collected more than 3 000 canned food items for students in need.
Among other promises, they have promised to reopen O Village. They say they will bring international acts to the Freshers’ Ball and ensure that students receive their exam scripts back within 2 weeks of writing.
Project W promises that they will provide for the wants of students, If what the students want is “practical and can happen in a short amount of time”. They also promise to extend library hours and reintroduce coin slots for the Kudu Bucks machines.
Students say that Jamie Mighti is the only member who is vocal and constantly in the spotlight as spokesperson. Mighti is the most prominent member of Project W. Some people have even begun to call the organisation “Project Jamie”. “We are project Jamie, project Ethan, project student, project you,” said Ethan Genende from Project W.
Dikeledi Selowa: “We are not political opportunists.” Photo: Emelia Motsai
Daso
The Democratic Alliance’s youth wing, Daso, has put forward 14 candidates clad in bright blue T-shirts in the hope of breaking the Progressive Youth Alliance’s dominance at the ballot box.
The DA Student Organisation has promised Witsies the world, or at least something close. The usual promises are there: To create an SRC for all campuses; a reform of NSFAS criteria that exclude students who are “not poor enough” and a slew of improvements to residence conditions.
The hot potato of this year’s elections, an expanded bus system that will serve more campuses and surrounding taxi ranks, has also found its way onto Daso’s manifesto. The ambitious 18-point manifesto does contain some unique proposals such as video-recorded lectures and new mattresses for the beds in residences.
One contentious promise has been Daso’s intention to create a bail-out fund for “students who may lack finances for printing, supplementary exams, text books and excursions”.
Challenged on the precise amount of the proposed fund at election circuses around campuses, Daso candidates avoided going into details.
To entice students to be more involved in issues on campus, the party is promising to make student politics more fun.
Their manifesto promises to bring DJs and performing artists to liven up Student Forum, which is meant to be the platform for students to communicate with the sitting SRC.
Nelson Maunatlala urging students to vote for the PYA
PYA
The Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) is undoubtedly the most confident group of the whole bunch. One might say they have reason to be as they have been dominating the SRC for the past three years.
Most of the time when they address students at the circuses they talk about what the PYA-led SRC has achieved. They promise to continue to fight fee increments and increase the budget for school councils. They also promise to improve communication with students which includes having an SRC office on medical campus where students often feel left out.
They also love to sing, in fact they do so at most circuses. Project W’s Jamie Mighti has accused them of doing nothing but singing and dancing, but they make no apologies for their singing.
Mbe Mbhele of the PYA said they take SRC responsibilities very seriously. “This is not a joke, we are busy here.”
The PYA is an alliance between the ANC Youth League, Young Communist League, South African Student Congress and Muslim Student Association. Last year they won 14 of the 15 seats on the SRC.
Voting starts on August 27 and ends August 29.
Related Articles
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 23, 2013 | News
THREE KINGS: The three men of Just So Jazz charged with maintain jazz culture in Braamfontein Photo: Mfuneko Toyana
Many writers and theorists, artists and architects have speculated that the essence of a city lies not in its structures or in mayoral speeches – but in its “rhythm”.
And if you have been a Witsie at one point in the last 12 years, and happened to walk into the Braamfontein Centre, the music from Just So Jazz would have mingled its way, unseen, into your life’s rhythm.
Under the bespectacled gaze of owner and jazz connoisseur Eddie Mudau, jazz supremos from John Coltrane to Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse have been dispatched out the narrow door of the music store into Braamfontein’s ever-changing landscape for over a decade.
The story behind the music
“The story behind the store is the love of music,” Mudau said, warming to the rhythm of the store’s relationship with jazz and Braamfontein. The store, which recently moved from larger premises opposite the BC residence to smaller space vacated by bookstore IH Pentz, was only one year younger than the up-coming Joy of Jazz Festival.
“The problem is our history,” he said, explaining a possible reason for the decline of a jazz culture in the city. “Apartheid hit us very hard, hayi kancane. It’s the after-effect of Hiroshima.”
Mudau said the big jazz record companies did not came to South Africa to record local artists, “they came to colonise us and sell us their stuff”.
The key to bringing back a jazz culture was for the artists to start doing things for themselves and taking the music back to the people. “They think they are recording artists. It’s vice-versa. They are performing artists”. He pulled out a Wynton Marsalis CD, referring to it as “just a business card”.
“You can perform two hours every day or every second day. We work eight hours every day. What makes them special?”
Mudau said people who formed a jazz culture in the city “back then” came looking for it from far-off places like Soweto.
The store will have a stall at the three-day festival in Newtown, and judging by Mudau’s gradually rising glee as he pored over the festival’s programme, he won’t be the one manning the stand.
New kats on the blocks
He introduced Thalefang Mudau and Mulalo Tshisikhane as the “new, young faces” of the jazz store, making it clear they would be stuck behind t-shirts and merchandise while he revelled in the generous musical offerings, which includes over 40 artists and the promise of jazz music way past the midnight hour on each day.
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 16, 2013 | Featured 1, News
I’VE GOT YOUR NUMBER: Zwelinzima Vavi revealed evidence of a political conspiracy. Photo: Thuletho Zwane
The atmosphere outside Braamfontein’s Parktownian Hotel was fraught with tension and expectation, as supporters of beleaguered Cosatu secretary-general danced and chanted slogans of support for Zwelinzima Vavi (@zwelinzima1) asking why he was being targeted.
“uyenzeni u vavi?, we Sdumo awu phendule,” asked the crowd as they waited for him to address his first press conference since his suspension. Sdumo Dlamini is the president of Cosatu.
Inside, Vavi, sporting a red National Union of Metalworkers of SA (NUMSA) tee shirt , provided the answer when he handed out two sets of documents that he said revealed a plot to turn the labour union “into a labour desk of the governing party”.
Fake intel report reveals conspiracy
One document was a letter from his lawyers challenging the legitimacy of the committee that suspended him. The other was an annexure to the letter, and reproduced an “intelligence document” that Vavi said revealed a plot by those “waiting in the long queues of the corruption trough” to blacken his name and the names of those who were fighting for the working classes.
“One of the intentions of the so-called intelligence report is clear: to destroy Cosatu,” Vavi said.
Vavi claimed the report was being distributed by those whose aim was to divide Cosatu, as well as “discredit and destroy a number of other prominent South Africans such as Tokoyo Sexwale, Judge Dikgang Moseneke, Cyril Ramaphosa, Irvin Jim etc.” “It aims to create paranoia to achieve its aim of annihilating its opponents.”
Doctored conversations
The document contains transcripts of meetings and telephone conversations, with Vavi discussing amongst other things plans to join Julius Malema’s party the Economic Freedom Fighters.
Vavi said the document was a complete fabrication doctored by “rouge” intelligence agents under the influence of factions in tripartite alliance.
At a number of stages during the press conference Vavi took deep breaths and the weight of the allegations against seemed to tell. He said nowhere else would having a consensual relationship with a co-worker, demand the dismal that his detractors were gunning for.
“If Jesus was to return… [he] would be surprised at some of the people throwing stones.”
Vavi said he had apologised for his mistake, and that the incident was being used to remove him as general-secretary via trail by media. “I face no criminal allegations as I stand before you now,” Vavi said in response to a question of whether it would not be best for him to just step down.
Vavi sets to challenge legality of suspension
Vavi said he had instructed his lawyers to challenge his suspension, citing amongst other things that Dlamaini and other members of committee that suspended him had prejudiced themselves by circulating the “intelligence report” and publicly declaring him guilty.
Vavi said Dlamini denied circulating the report. Earlier on in a Numsa press conference the federation’s secretary general Irvin Jim said they had no confidence in Dlamini as a leader.
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 16, 2013 | News
AUGUST 16 marks the first anniversary of the fateful killing of Lonmin platinum mine workers in North West province. The event has been dubbed the “Marikana massacre” because police opened fire at over 30 protesting mine workers. A year later questions still need to be answered by the Marikana commission of inquiry regarding the police’s conduct and events leading to the disputes. Wits Vuvuzela took to the streets to ask Witsies whether they remember the event, its significance and how the day should be commemorated.
Camera operator
Mfuneko Toyana
Interviewer
Ray Mahlaka
Editor
Ray Mahlaka and Nomatter Ndebele
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 16, 2013 | News
The standing SRC and Wits Student Forum (SF) had their second “student parliament” meeting on Tuesday to give a progress report to students.
The gathering of some of the executive of the SRC, members of the different school councils, and the students that both groups represent, in a freezing cold Umthombo lecture room, was unusual for at least for two reasons:
The turn out hasn’t been good
One was for the conspicuousness of students, which was hard to ignore and was duly lamented by SRC president Sibulele Mgudlwa, pointing out that despite advertising the event on twitter and via posters all over campus the turn out remained disappointing.
Mgudlwa explained that the SRC was required by its own constitution to hold at least two mass meetings, of at least 500 students, during its term in office. “The turn out hasn’t been good, it’s because of that demon called student apathy that must be arrested,” Mgudlwa said addressing an audience of a little more than 20.
The importance of university politics has increased according to Richard Calland, City Press columnist and author of The Zuma Years: South Africa’s Changing Faces of Power. This sentiment, however, seems to be lost on a majority of Witsies under two weeks to 2013 SRC elections.
Holding SRC accountable
A second “unusual” thing, which seemed like an attempt to mitigate the first, was that the parliament had been opened up to ordinary students and the media, something that was not standard practice. Student Forum, according to member Angeliki Vidalis, exists to “hold the SRC accountable” in terms of the SRC constitution.
“[We’re] allowed to be in direct communication with the SRC… Students can approach Forum if they have issues [with the SRC],” said Vidalis, who is running in this year’s elections under the banner of the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA).
Success
In his address, Mgudlwa highlighted the current SRC’s successes. A major one of those was in running financial battles with the university on a number of fronts. He said his office played a big role in convincing Finco to permit international students not to have to pay their entire fees upfront. Another success was next year’s implementation of “tier system” for the payment registration fees.
Mgudlwa said the system would charge student’s a registration fee according to the amount of money they earned, with those earning less paying less and being allowed to pay it in instalments. Another coup Mgudlwa was proud to trumpet was the initiation of busses to ferry students in the evenings to Park Station, Bree and Noord taxi ranks, as well as to non-university residences around Braamfontein.
[pullquote]that demon called student apathy that must be arrested[/pullquote]
Members of the various student councils who made up most of the numbers at the meeting were unanimous in their complaints, mainly that head of schools did not take them seriously and that the fees charged by Wits for supplementary exams was too high.
Mgudlwa said the SRC had fougt very hard to get the student councils recognised. On supplementary exams, Mgudlwa said “supp fees will not get changed if [only] two SRC members raised the issue every time”.
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 16, 2013 | Featured 1, News
Keep Going: Members of the Wits women’s team during a training session. Photo Mfuneko Toyana
Digs fields, on a cold Monday evening: men’s teams swarm the grounds, preparing for the Wits internal football league matches. But in a small corner of one of the two sprawling fields, the Wits ladies football team plays a 4-a-side game.
Running laps around the field, male players pass derisory remarks. “Hayi ngamantombazana k’phela lawo” (Forget it they’re just girls).
Coach Jabulile Baloyi, a former Banyana Banyana midfielder, responds by demanding her players focus on the game. “Enjoy the last five minutes of the game, ladies.” She did not need to.
We’ve got what it takes
Despite having their league game for that evening cancelled, the women got through a two-hour training session with visible delight, cajoling each other through the gruelling fitness drills set by Dlamini.
“It’s all about commitment. It’s the same thing with the course. The difference is commitment… putting in those extra hours and it pays off,” said team captain and goalkeeper Kholosa Dzakwa, HDipAcc.
Dzakwa, who is in her fifth year playing for the team, said most of the players had developed a real passion for the game.
More ladies needed
Recruitment, however, was still their biggest problem. “We have about 25 players on the team but about 16 are not registered Wits students…The typical player who maybe comes from Soweto struggles to come to training (in the evenings). But some of us have stayed for the love of the game,” she said.
Team coach Dlamini is in her second year with the team after a stint coaching Phiri Stars under-12 boys in Soweto. She said coaching women was different experience. “With ladies it’s more difficult because they’re more mature and because they only start playing the game much later.” She said the university supported the team but there was space for more to be done. “It’s [the support] sufficient so far but it could be better. The stadiums fill up but only after our games [for the men’s games].”
Varsity Cup beckons after Pienaar’s promise
Dlamini said she wished the team could participate in a Varsity Cup type of tournament as it provided a higher level of competitiveness. Currently, the team participates in USSA (University Sports South Africa) league, and lies seventh in the 12-team league after losing only three games, with five more rounds of matches to go.
RELATED ARTICLE:
Wits Vuvuzela. Fans turn out for soccer season opener. July 24, 2013
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 12, 2013 | Featured 1
Witsies use various modes of transport to travel to and from campus everyday. Some take 15 minute walks, while others have to travel for up to two hours. Wits Vuvuzela went out to bus stops, popular taxi pick up points, pedestrian crossings and trains stations to find out how the commute is for students and staff.
A day in the life
Witsie Yusuf Bapeekee at the Braamfontein train station. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
Yusuf Bapeekee used to travel by motor bike when he lived in the West Rand near Kagiso. He recently moved to Mayfair and now walks daily to and from campus. [pullquote align=”right”]“I normally leave campus around 3.30, [but] because it’s Ramadan I leave around 1.15, after prayers.”[/pullquote]
“I never see anything out of the ordinary… just small school kids that walk free not scared. I see them and I feel free.”
Bapeekee said it took him “half hour tops” to make the commute. He said he left home at 7.15am. “I try to be early for my lectures”, he said as a smile grew across face.
“I normally leave campus around 3.30, [but] because it’s Ramadan I leave around 1.15, after prayers.”
Bapeekee said he enjoyed the walk. “It’s free to walk, plus it’s exercise.”
Asked about the crime associated with route around Enoch Sontonga Avenue, Bapeekee said:
“If I saw more students I’d feel even better.”
Walk on by
Ntombi Mbatha carefully crosses the street. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
A short brisk walk is all it takes for Ntombi Mbatha, 1st year BHSc, to get to and from campus. She lives at a Southpoint building just two blocks away from campus.
Even though her journey is uncomplicated she nearly got hit by a taxi once. She said that experience has made her think more than twice before crossing the street now.
She is fascinated by the high school students she passes on her way because they remind her of her days as one of them.
Ntombi feels very safe walking in Braamfontein.
“I went downtown once and it was just such a mess, Braam is better,” she said.
Ngake Mukgowane rushing to catch his train home. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
Staff travels
Students aren’t the only ones who have to commute to and from Wits. Staff members also have their own transport missions.
Ngake Mukgowane is a Wits staff member who uses the train to commute.
He leaves his home in Dobsonville at 5.30am every morning and has to travel for about an hour and a half to reach Braamfontein station.
Mukgowane has been working at Wits for 18 years and has been a train commuter for most of those years.
He was in a rush to catch his 4pm train when Wits Vuvuzela reporters found him.
60 minute trip
John Malungani shows us how to call a taxi. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
John Malungani, 1st year BSc Com Sci,
has to commute for at least one hour a day to get to campus.
He says that he is more than willing to make the trip because of the good reputation that Wits has.
John lives in Tembisa. There is no taxi that comes straight from there to Wits, so he has to walk for another 15 minutes once he reaches Noord taxi rank.
He wishes he lived a little closer so that he could work and study till late on campus like other students.
“It’s hard travelling for two hours a day,” said Malungani.
@pheladi_s
by Mfuneko Toyana | Aug 12, 2013 | News
SOLD: Victor Maluleke (left) convinces a customer that a pink stunt gun is for her. Photo: Mia Swart
Witsies, especially women students, are turning to tasers, or stunt guns, to protect themselves from criminals.
The stunt gun, being sold via social media, delivers “up to 2300KV (kilovolts)” of electricity in any one shot.
“You hold it against a person and it knocks them out for about 10 to 20 minutes,” said Victor Maluleke holding up the black, remote control size instrument, ready to give a demonstration.
Maluleke, a 4th year BAccSci student, started selling stunt guns and pepper-spray after a partner in his gadget supply business suggested adding the self-defence items to their offerings.
“It was a spark of genius from Simphiwe,” Maluleke said.
After about a half a year of trying out different suppliers and price models, building up a customer base and a marketing strategy on social media platform, Whats App, the sparks seem to have finally caught fire.
He is often asked about the legality of the stunt gun. Maluleka laughed: “It’s the first question most people ask.”
He said they went to the Crime Stop Shop in Benoni, east of Johannesburg and asked which products they could sell without a license, they found that the items were stunt guns and pepper spray.
Maluleke said once they were able to negotiate a deal to import the stunt guns in bulk and resell them at a lower price, sales really picked up.
“We sell them at R190. We give discounts to people who buy in groups and [to] referral purchases… We’ve sold about 150 since about April.”
The growing popularity of the stunt guns and pepper sprays come in the wake of recent crime surges at universities in Joburg. In the past week, a University of Johannesburg (UJ) student was kidnapped on campus and tied up in the boot of her car. On Tuesday evening another UJ student was shot in chest in an attempted robbery.
[pullquote]Last week there was a mugging outside The Nunnery on Jan Smuts Avenue. It is only one of numerous cases of mugging and cellphone snatching[/pullquote] that have seen Wits join up with a private security company to patrol the areas around campus.
Students speak
When Wits Vuvuzela spoke to women students and asked them whether they owned self defence weapons, or were planning buying any, the answers varied.
1st year BSc (Biological Sciences) student Zoë Miller said she did not own any weapons, but that she would “scream and fight back” if attacked.
Fellow 1st year BSc Sandile Mkhize said owning a weapon was “dangerous because someone could use it against you”.
“If something [did] happen to me I would think about [owning a taser] but not now,” Mkhize said.
Nonjabulo Buthelezi, 2nd year Social Work has not been a victim of crime before, but bought the stunt guns because she wanted to protect herself.
“There were cases of robberies near Wits. I just want to take extra precaution.”
Heather Martens, 2nd year BA Fine Arts, said she had learnt to be aware of her surroundings, as well as basic self defence from a “woman’s perspective”, since taking up Tai Chi last year.
Martens said as a Fine Arts student she was required to walk around Braamfontein and the Johannesburg CBD.
Martens said the most she would consider buying was pepper spray.
“If you’re walking confidently, people will be wary of attacking you.”
Maluleke admitted the stunt guns and pepper spray he was selling were “not that popular yet”, as they were in the United States or Australia, or even in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs.
“It’s not an ultimate solution but it gives you an option,” Maluleke said.
