VIDEO VOX: Female condoms – yay or nay?
Wits Vuvuzela got a hold of free issue female condoms from Campus Health, and then asked Witsies if they had had any experiences with the condoms, and what their general attitudes were towards female condoms.
INFOGRAPHIC: The SRC edition – fact or fiction?
Parking safety at Wits
By Nokuthula Manyathi, Pheladi Sethusa
Weekend hotspots in Braam
#Teamvuvu went out to some of the weekend hotspots in Braam, to see where all the fun is. The team of photographers consisted of: Pheladi Sethusa, Nokuthula Manyathi, Shandukani Mulaudzi, Sibusisiwe Nyanda and Nolwazi Majwara.
I’m locked out
NO ENTRY: A Locked out student couldn’t even fit her key in the keyhole. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
Thokwadi Seabela had left out mince to defrost. It was 8pm and after a long day at the UJ Law Clinic, she was looking forward to a nice hot meal. But when she reached her South Point flat, she found herself illegally locked out – with no clothes, no food and nowhere to sleep.
The Peppermint House resident and fourth year LLB student at UJ was locked out of her flat in April – with no warning. Although she had paid her rent, South Point administration claimed she was
R8 200 in arrears.
She is not the only one. Lebohang Motaung, 3rd year BSc Chemistry, heard his lock being changed while he was in his Norvic room. He was lucky though. He was able to persuade admin staff to return his key – but only after an angry exchange of words.
It’s a lockout
Seabela found herself in a worse, and certainly more dangerous situation. When she reached her flat, she thought the key would work.She continued struggling with it, thinking she might have used excessive force and broken it.
She went to ask the security guard, who helped put her in touch with “the guy who deals with locks”.“The lock guy just said: ‘It’s a lockout. It means you haven’t paid your rent’. Then he just left.”
After calling around for a place she could stay for the night, she finally got a hold of her cousin, who put her up for the night in Pretoria.
Not a rare occurrence
Motaung said he had seen students forced to sleep in their building foyers, after being locked out of their flats without notice.
He was locked out because the administration claimed his roommate owed R8 000 – despite having only lived in the flat for a week, and having paid a deposit.
Motaung said it was impossible a new tenant could owe so much money. And even if he did, Motaung could not understand why he was being made to pay for his roommate’s error.
“It turned out they had made a mistake on his account and they did not even try to contact him before locking him out.”
Late payment(s)
When Seabela went to South Point central the day after being locked out, she was told she was late on her January rent payment. She had not even been living in the flat in January.
“When I signed the lease I was told my deposit includes the first month of rent payment, which was in February.”
She had received an inflated statement at the end of March, stating that she owed R8 200. She said alarm bells should have gone off, but she just thought they had included the next month’s statement as well.“A statement doesn’t constitute a notice,” said a visibly upset Seabela.
Former Van De Stel resident, Kelebogile Mothlomedi, said at her building they used to put up a list on the notice board of students in arrears.
“Students then had a week to pay up their rent before being locked out if they failed to do so.”
Legally speaking
Alina Starosta, Head of Property and Evictions at the Wits Law Clinic, said: “A lockout constitutes an eviction.”
Lockouts like these were illegal because the landlord had not sought a court order to remove the tenants, she said. However, if tenants defaulted on payments, landlords had every right to evict them.
Starosta said students could sue or lay a complaint with the Rental Housing Tribunal in town. “Students should not let inaccuracies in the statements lie. People often think they can get away with stuff because they’re dealing with students.”
No comment
Wits Vuvuzela approached South Point administration, but were told the responsible person was away on holiday and could not be reached for comment.
Wits Twitter War: DASO vs SRC
VIDEO VOX: Cutting down public holidays
by Pheladi Sethusa and Mia Swart.
Public holidays are an issue of contention in South Africa. Some religious groups feel that they are being discriminated against and their public holidays are not fairly represented.
Wits Vuvuzela asked Witsies for their thoughts on the matter.
Intimacy a must for student-staff relationships
“I’m not convinced that relationships between students and staff should be off bounds,” said speaker Eusebius McKaiser at a talk yesterday afternoon at the Wits Theatre Complex.
McKaiser was addressing the topic of “student-staff intimacy: a requirement of effective teaching or a danger in a violent society?”
Eusebius Mckaiser tackling a burning issue during his talk on Thursday afternoon. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
The notion of intimacy
As a point of departure, McKaiser let the audience know that the kind of intimacy he was going to talk about was a “non-sexual intimacy between students and staff.”
He stressed that in South Africa the knee-jerk understanding of intimacy is always associated with an erotic and sexual interpretation and this has come to defile the word.
Personal experiences with “intimate” teacher relations
“It takes one academic to have a profound, lifelong impact on a pupil,” said McKaiser. He went on to give examples of high school teachers who had impacted his life by taking a personal interest in him, one that went beyond a rigid teacher-student relationship.
The teachers that remain memorable to him are the ones who taught with a duty of care and not in an authoritative manner, said McKaiser.
He shared that the Rhodes University philosophy department understood the importance of personal contact with students. Lecturers in this particular department knew their students “beyond their student numbers”, said McKaiser.
The care with which this department handled him led to him dropping law, a department he described as being “cold and impersonal, with no emotional touch point.”
Intimacy is necessary
Intimacy was important in the sense that teachers need to take a deep and profound interest their students backgrounds.
“In South Africa this kind of intimacy which is not sexual but rather a sincere concern for the well-being of students is important. Many students do not speak English as a first language nor have enough social capital to excel in institutions,” McKaiser said.
Can’t avoid South African realities
McKaiser went on to say that while he promotes intimacy between students and staff, one cannot ignore the fact that there is violence on campus. Universities are not special spaces free from South Africa’s social ills.
He went on to say that, “monsters aren’t aliens,” they are the everyday people we interact with, as such even lecturers.”
Code of conduct also necessary
McKaiser said when he began lecturing Philosophy at Wits, he does not recall signing a code of conduct.
He recommended that the university should include mandatory codes of conduct regarding lecturer conduct in their contracts.
“A safety requirement is necessary in a place like South Africa,” he added.
VIDEO VOX: Gupta landing response from students
Wits Vuvuzela went around campus to ask students if they felt that the media coverage of the apparently illegal Gupta landing at the Waterkloof Air Force Base, was warranted. We also asked for their personal thoughts on the landing.
CURATION: Footage of ailing Mandela causes a twitter storm
http://storify.com/WitsVuvuzela/footage-of-ailing-mandela-causes-a-twitter-storm
Xoxo – Gossip Girl!
“Gossip Girl” has left the lavish penthouses of New York’s Upper East Side to wreak havoc on our very own West Campus.
On April 13, a number of people noticed that they were being followed on twitter by a user with the handle @WestGG.
This is how they first got wind of Wits’ own gossip girl.She then became active the very next day, sending out tweets containing very personal information about the people she followed.
“She insinuated that I was dating one of my close friends, who was actually in another relationship at the time. It was very childish,” said Yandani Bashman, 4th year LLB.
“GG also taunted an individual about their sexual orientation which is extremely sensitive stuff, so in that regard it can get really hurtful,” said a person who did not want to be named.
Tweeters mobilised to report the account as spam so gossip girl could be suspended, to which the account replied, “you can report me as spam if you wish, but you know I’ll keep coming back.”
Twitter policy does not allow for users to carry abusive content in their tweets. Violating this rule could lead to the suspension of an account.
After being suspended once, gossip girl created a new account under the name @westcampusgg. This account didn’t last long either but was around long enough to cause a stir in the rumour mill.Tweeters again responded by marking her tweets as spam. But all the spam reports couldn’t keep her down as she started a new account for a third time on April 16.
“I felt that it was extremely juvenile but it had the potential to ruin people’s relationships and caused a deep level of distrust within circles of friends,” said one of the account’s most tweeted victims, Livhuwani Makungo, 3rd year BCom Marketing.
“She/he seemed to focus her/his (tweets) on my previous relationship claiming that I was unfaithful and slanderous as if it was a form of retribution. All allegations made against me were false,” said Makungo.
Gossip girl had a lot to say about a past relationship that Makungo had been in. In her tweets she tagged his previous girlfriend and the girls she claims he cheated with.“For the most part I laughed and brushed it off but I did worry about how it affected those who were implicated,” Makungo said.
“Her tweets were out of hand and unnecessary. Whoever is behind the account must just come forward and explain themselves,” said Bashman. He added that there was speculation about who might be behind the account but he believes that there are a number of people responsible for the tweeting.
Another person, who did not want to be named, said they believed the person behind the account must be someone they all know on a very personal level, especially because of the level of information the West Campus gossip girl had access to.
Another hit-and-run in campus parking lot
On Friday night, after a long day on campus Sechaba*, 3rd year Construction Management, walked to his car only to find it dented and surrounded by shattered glass.
A picture of Sechaba’s car after the incident. Photo: Provided
Sechaba’s car was parked next to the bus stop on Yale road, between 9pm and 12am. He had come to campus to pick up friends.On seeing the damage, Sechaba immediately contacted Campus Control to report the matter.
The officers on duty made him fill out an incident form and advised him to come back on Monday to view video footage, if any was available. The officers told Sechaba that the culprit would be easier to apprehend if he was captured by video footage.
By Monday, following discussions with his mother, Sechaba decided not to take the matter further. “I decided just to go ahead and fix it myself, luckily I have a few mechanics in my network and the cost of repair is minimal,” said Sechaba.
Sechaba felt that Campus Control did all they could to help him. However, his concerns lay elsewhere, “as students of Wits, we pay so much money to attend here but our needs are treated as second class,” lamented Sechaba.
Wits Vuvuzela spoke to a number of Witsies about whether they felt their cars were safe on campus. Candice Griev, 3rd year BA Law, said nothing major had ever happened to her car except for a minor scrape.
Griev said she had seen vandalised cars at the parking lot for third and fourth years next to the Origins Centre. She saw one incident where someone had written on a parked vehicle with glue “How dare you park here?”
“The thing is there are security guards around here. I don’t understand why this was never addressed and why the person was never caught,” said Griev.
Mitchell Leering, MA Chemical Engineering, said he did not feel that cars were safe on campus late at night. “My car has been hit five times in the last three years,” he said.
Leering said his car had only ever incurred light damage. He said he had friends who had been victims of hit-and-runs with enough damage to be sent in for panel beating over a long period of time.
Leering told Wits Vuvuzela that they had not reported the matter to Campus Control.
“It’s not really worth it, because in our building we get alarms going off for hours without Campus Control coming. What’s the chance that Campus Control will come around to talk about your car?”
Robert Kemp, head of security for Campus Control, said that some parking lots have CCTV camera’s monitoring them. Along with this he said that there are regular patrols in the parking lots during the day.
He stressed the importance of students reporting their issues, so that they could get the help they needed.
Kemp encouraged those who had accidentally damaged cars to always leave a note with their name, number and student number on it. The repercussions for not doing so could be bad if the culprit later caught.
*Name changed to protect identity.
About WCJ
We Should Be Writing podcast
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