by Nolwazi Mjwara | Apr 5, 2013 | News
A Wits Students Representative Council (SRC) Facebook account was hacked into recently but the culprit is still at large.
The secretary of the SRC is investigating.
The hacker caused trouble by using the Facebook page to post derogatory comments about a former SRC member.
Head of Media and Marketing officer of the SRC Charmaine Pule said there was some confusion because the SRC page did not specifiy what year it was therefore the offensive comments were associated with the present SRC group.
“Tasneem Essop our secretary is investigating the issue,” Pule said. The SRC will only release a statement after the issue has been resolved.
In the meanwhile, in another social media incident, the Twitter profile of the SRC has also received some criticism from some students. A group of Afrikaans students informed Vuvuzela that they felt excluded from the SRC twitter platform because there was no greeting in the Afrikaans language on the daily SRC greeting tweet.
The greeting only reflected eight of the official languages. The Afrikaans students felt that because Afrikaans was the third most spoken language in the country, it should have been included.
However, Pule responded: “We didn’t choose to exclude anyone. It was an honest mistake and it will be rectified,” She informed Vuvuzela that it would be impossible to include all languages in the greeting. This is due to the nature of the character space on Twitter. Twitter allows for only 140 characters.
The SRC will launch a change to the greeting on Twitter to the student body. Each day will have three languages represented in the greeting as hashtags.
This aims to include all official languages excluding sign language in a week. “We also try to encourage students to greet back in their official languages to engage with students in their mother tongues,” Pule said.
Pule shared that the amendments will be implemented as soon as possible.
by Nolwazi Mjwara | Mar 29, 2013 | News, Sport
The Wits hockey team’s version of the popular Harlem Shake has been named as a favourite of a prominent talk-show host.
Talk radio 702’s Jenny Crwys Williams has named the hockey team’s Harlem Shake as her favourite.
The underwater hockey team had to tread water in their formal gear for about twenty seconds at a time, in order to execute the video.
Team member Nick Quarta had suggested the idea to the team. On hearing the news that 702 had mentioned the team, the chairperson of the team, Vicky Stock was ecstatic.
“We were all very excited, I received a message from a friend telling me he’d just heard that 702 had mentioned our Harlem Shake. We never thought it would ever get that far so it was really cool news,” Stock said. Stock added, “the sport is still growing in South Africa and we were all amped that the Harlem Shake got out there to expose it!”
The ‘Harlem shake’ has evolved into an internet meme that has gone viral on multiple social media platforms. The meme is in the medium of video. The video consists of people who perform a dance to the song ‘Harlem shake’ by Baauer.
The first ‘Harlem shake’ was uploaded on February 2, 2013 by a group of students from Australia. The video was modelled from a video that was made by online blogger Filthy Frank.
The formula of executing the Harlem Shake involves making a video that is approximately 30 seconds long.
The video usually begins with one individual who dances to the song amongst a group of inattentive individuals. The bass of the song drops after about 15 seconds which results in the inattentive crowd dancing along with the individual in an enthusiastic manner.
The ‘Harlem shake’ concept has been used politically in Egypt, Tunisia and in the United States of America.
by Nolwazi Mjwara | Mar 11, 2013 | News
THREE Wits students were named the country’s brightest young economists, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in his Budget speech last week. The economics students – who were named at a gala event on the same day – were among the winners in the Nedbank and Old Mutual Budget Speech Competition.
Khethinkosi Dlamini came second in the postgraduate category and received R60 000. Maria Garanchu placed third and received R25 000. Terry van Staden came third in the undergraduate category and won R10 000
All three students had the opportunity to sit in on the budget speech in Parliament last week.
The undergraduate category of the competition involves writing a research essay and answering a question on the New Growth Path and Industrial Policy Action Plan. The postgraduate entrants had to evaluate fiscal policy between 2008 and 2011.
Wits had six finalists overall. The finalists spent four days in Cape Town leading up to the announcement.
Wits has a strong record of winners in this annual competition, and the university has taken first place twice over the last four years. Dylan Smith from Rhodes University scooped first place in the postgraduate category. University of Cape Town student Sizwe Moagi was the winner in the undergraduate section of the competition.
The competition began in 1972. Until 2005, the first prize winner in the postgraduate category won a bursary towards study at the University of Cambridge.
The adjudication panel consisted of Dennis Dykes, Johann Els, Phakamani Hadebe, Anthony Julies, Rian le Roux, Mandla Maleka, Debra Marsden, Maureen Mashiane, Nazmeera Moola and Patrick Ntshalintshali.
The students also had the chance to talk with the Minister informally throughout the gala dinner.
The winning essays can be found here.
by Nolwazi Mjwara | Mar 5, 2013 | News
The annual CANSA Shavathon raised over R8000 at the Wits Medical School last Friday.
The Shavathon was supported strongly by medical students intending to specialise in oncology but a number of students were unable to participate as they could not afford to pay the R50 fee.
Alex Griffiths, secretary of the Student’s Council was the primary organizer of the event. Griffiths said the reduction in cost would be looked at in order for it to be affordable for student budgets.
“I don’t believe CANSA would have a problem with that”, Griffiths said. A 3rd year Medical student who is on NSFAS financial aid said: “R50 is pretty steep for me. I would still like to participate by colouring my hair to make a public statement and promote awareness. If the cost could be brought down a little, it would help a lot”.
The Cancer association of South Africa also has a ‘Bail out’ option. This option allows one who is unable to colour or shave their hair, to still make a contribution. This can be done online or at the Shavathon stations. The minimum contribution for the bail out option also starts at R50.
This year marks the 10th annual national Shavathon which was organised by the Wits Medical Students Council. The CANSA Shavathon started in 2003 in the Eastern Cape as a way of showing solidarity with cancer sufferers and survivors, and to raise funds.
by Nolwazi Mjwara | Mar 4, 2013 | News
Wits Vuvuzela spoke to drama students this morning to hear their reactions to the allegations of sexual harassment and rape levelled at senior lecturer Tshepo Wa Mamatu.
by Nolwazi Mjwara | Mar 1, 2013 | News
A WITS graduate was almost scammed through her LinkedIn profile into paying R7 000 to confirm a supposed job offer in the United Kingdom.
Mpho* was approached by scammers posing as an international recruitment agency through her LinkedIn profile for a permanent position in the field of her studies, engineering.
She was told that her skills were in high demand in London and that her CV was impressive
The following week she underwent psychological and medical screening. She was informed by the agency two weeks later that she had passed all the tests and qualified for the position.
However, before she could take up her “dream” job, Mpho was then told she would have to cover visa costs and the administration fee for the job.
The agency asked her to pay R7000 to cover the administration fees
“At first I was super excited about the opportunity that I didn’t really consider the whole thing to be a hoax”, Mpho said.
She asked for a few days to gather the money for the fee. However, Mpho was suspicious and decided to check the website of her supposed employer: Kempinski.
She scrolled to the bottom of the company’s webpage and saw a notice:
“Please be aware that there are some commercial web sites and businesses that are deceiving applicants into believing that they are Kempinski sites … Some companies even demand money by phone or email in order to complete the application or visa process.
“Kempinski Hotels does not issue employment contracts without interviews by phone and/or in person. No candidate would ever be asked to pay out of pocket money to the company in advance or in order to secure a job. If anyone asks this in our name they are not representatives of Kempinski.”
Mpho*started her Linked-In account in the middle of her final year, 2012.
“It is what most of us do towards the end of our graduation year. I think these companies exploit the desperation and idealism that South Africans tend to have when it comes to working overseas,” Mpho said.
Mpho* is now working on a project in Lephalale, Limpopo in a position that is related to her degree. She paid no costs to get her current job.
