by Nandi Ndlazi | Mar 22, 2012 | News
Wits Rugby team at Varsity Shield Cup tournament
THE varsity shield league has reprimanded the Wits rugby team for their part in a controversy that found an excess number of ineligible players being fielded in recent games.
In an article by News24 the MD of Varsity cup, Duitser Bosman, said the auditing process which checks the correct amount of eligible players in each team is done by the league as well as the Universities.
Bosman said the auditing was completed by universities on 7 March 2012. Wits University sports department remains tight-lipped at this point with regard to their participation in the auditing process. The Wits sports department has referred Vuvuzela’s queries regarding the scandal to the Wits communication department.
When contacted for comment rugby sports director, Quentin van Rooyen responded “our communications department here at Wits is currently dealing with all communications” and offered to forward the e-mail to the Wits communications department. Attempts to contact the communications department have yielded no results so far.
The teams reprimanded along with Wits were Fort Hare, University of the Western Cape (UWC), University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in the Varsity shield league. In the Varsity cup, University of Potchefstroom and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) were found guilty.
This is the first year the new rules have been implemented by Varsity Cup. The teams in the shield league are allowed to field a minimum of 16 students out of 23 players. The student players are expected to have passed 30% of their courses in the previous year.
The Young Guns league which is the Varsity league for under-20s have to field students only. The NMMU and University of Pretoria were found to have transgressed this rule and fielded non-students.
Bosman said the reprimand was found to be fair punishment as the matter is possibly due to oversight concerning registration. The Tournaments start at the end of January and registration of university students was in February.
Related article:
www.keo.co.za/2012/03/19/cheating-scandal-rocks-varsity-cup/
by Nandi Ndlazi | Mar 6, 2012 | Featured 1, News
Marijuana is a part of campus life a Wits University, a Vuvuzela investigation has revealed.
Wits students and some outsiders are part of the ma rijuana trade at the Walter Milton cricket Oval on East campus.
Here Vuvuzela observed students freely selling, buying and smoking the illegal drug.
A Wits student dealer, who asked to remain anonymous, said he came from a poor background and selling marijuana helped him to get “girls, nice shoes and parties”.
He also said he was “a good guy who gets good grades”.
The student dealer said he led the move of marijuana smokers and sellers from the basketball courts on east campus to the cricket field. He said he sold joints for R10 each.
Vuvuzela asked a student about his involvement. He asked not to be named but was forthcoming about his activities.
The student regularly buys marijuana from dealers on campus. When asked about his concerns regarding being caught by campus control he replied “they only come like every third Friday”.
The student gave his permission to be followed through the process of buying marijuana. He approached a group of men sitting together and asked to buy a “joint” (marijuana rolled in paper like a small cigarette).
He waited for a few minutes for the dealer to bring the joint but he was busy down at the first year parking lot. The buyer ended up buying the joint from another dealer who was not sitting with the group of men.
The lone dealer sat rolling joints as another male stood guard for him while intermittently reading from a Wits library book.
Vuvuzela repeatedly contacted Campus Control by phone and e-mail but had not received any comment by the time of going to press.
by Nandi Ndlazi | Mar 6, 2012 | News
A former Wits student has used her drama qualifications to shake up learners’ experience of reading prescribed literature.
Nobulali Dangazele (26) who is best known for her roles in local dramas and series has used her Master’s degree in Dramatic Arts as a tool to make education department prescribed books fun to learn . The programme’s website describes it as having come out of “a need to make Shakespeare workshops. and books … easy to understand.” This is done using drama, theatre, multimedia and interactive
The programme is called Shakexperience and is a branch of Dangazele’s company, Nobulali Productions, which was founded in 2008. The programme employs four full time and eight part-time employees. Two of the employees, Tumy Motsoatsoe and Lalu Mokuku, are also ex-Witsies.
Shakexperience facilitates drama workshops for Department of Education and Independent Examination Board prescribed books. The workshops assist learners in finding an easier and fun way to learn literature.
Shakexperience will be hosting a Royal Shakespeare company representative, Tracy Irish, at the Wits school of arts. The workshop will be from 9am-12pm on the 6 March and at 19pm on 7 March 2012. Irish will facilitate teaching and learning Shakespeare.
Dangazele says her inspiration is drawn from “trying to expose what I learn from Wits to the world and what I learn from the world to Wits”. She goes on to say “education is a stepping stone, what you do with it is how you measure success”.
Dangazele appears in many local drama productions, including Hard Copy, Rhythm City and Society. She has also had presenting roles on children’s programmes such as Take 5 and Iketsetse which means “do-it-yourself” in Zulu.
