by Reuven Blignault | May 23, 2015 | News
In response to the controversial Men’s Res anthem, “I smell pussy”, the wits alumni office aims to replace that war-cry with something more positive.
The Wits Alumni Society is aiming to unite Witsies by choosing a new anthem that Wits can be proud of and that creates a reinvigorated sense of team spirit.
Students, staff and alumni around the world are encouraged to send their punchy and funky new war-cry options that people can learn easily, and that Witsies will sing for years to come.
The new war-cry will be launched in September, replacing less favourable war-cries,in the hopethat all Witsies will be singing it for the new sports season.
The competition will starton July, 20 and end on August, 15. There are prizes to be won, worth R10 000.
Wits Vuvuzela previously covered the story of members of the Men’s Residence singing a war-cry with lyrics saying “I smell pussy” at a rugby match earlier in the year. This prompted the Alumni office to discuss why students would want to sing a song like this, it was determined that it was because there are no official war-cries at Wits.
The Wits Gender Equity Office previously said that itwill be implementing “systemic holistic intervention programmes” in residences next semester in response to Men’s Residence’s war-cry lyrics.
Historically, the Wits war-cry was an important part of inter-varsity competition however, most songs would not be favourable today as they were highly Eurocentric and concentrated more on varsity rivals.
Wits has not had an official war-cry since the 1960’s.
Students are encouraged to submit their lyrics to warcry.alumni@wits.ac.za from now until the end of July. More information can be found on posters that will be put up at the end of the mid-term break.
by Reuven Blignault | May 4, 2015 | News
The former Metro FM host was arrested this weekend for drunk driving and released on bail. A court date has not yet been confirmed.
WHAT’S WRONG?: The controversial DJ Sbu, seen here speaking at Wits, was caught speeding over the weekend. Photo: Boipelo Boikhutso
Controversial former Metro FM radio personality DJ Sbusisio Leope was arrested for drunk driving this weekend and released on R1 500 bail.
The former DJ will only make his first appearance in court when the police receive his blood test results.
Police spokesperson Kay Makhubela confirmed that DJ Sbu would not be appearing in court today as many had expected.
The DJ was returning from a gig in Westonaria when police pursued him after learning that he had allegedly been driving recklessly and running red traffic lights.
Gauteng police spokesman, Captain Tsekiso Mofokeng, confirmed yesterday that the 37-year-old “was arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol and will be appearing in court on Monday.
“He was arrested on Main Reef road, near Randfontein, and was later released on R1500 bail,” said Mofokeng.
In December 2007 the former Sbu was reportedly caught driving at 257km/h on the Golden Highway, south of Johannesburg. In 2012 he allegedly collided with an ADT vehicle while driving then girlfriend Terry Pheto’s car in Sandton.
The former Metro FM DJ was last year arrested for the second time for reportedly being caught driving beyond the speed limit. In 2012, he allegedly collided with a security vehicle while driving then girlfriend, Terry Pheto’s car.
DJ Sbu came under heavy legal pressure this past year after promoting his energy drink without paying for the space on his previous job at Metro FM.
Sbu then used a fake South African Bureau of Standards approved logo on the product.
Last month, Sbu was on the Wits campus, speaking at a talk hosted by the Wits Black Lawyers Association (BLA) on west campus, promoting his “Mofaya” energy drink.
by Reuven Blignault | Apr 30, 2015 | Lifestyle
With the passing of Freedom Day on Monday, and so much talk about Xenophobia and racism, it is sometimes best to remember those who fought for freedom in our land and elsewhere, portrayed through film.
We have compiled a list of the top 10 most popular movies about the struggle for freedom in South Africa, according to their popularity on the IMDB (Internet Movie Database). So if you are hyped up or stressed about the events in our country in the past few weeks, take some time to relax with some popcorn this weekend with a few of these movies:
1. Cry Freedom
South African journalist Donald Woods (Kevin Kline) is forced to flee the country after attempting to investigate the death in custody of his friend of Steve Biko (Denzel Washington).
by Reuven Blignault | Apr 24, 2015 | News
Three cities concert with “cyber-guitarist” and Wits music lecturer to rock the Great Hall on 28 April.
HACKED EQUIPMENT: The “cyber-guitarist” Jonathan Crossley stands with his heavily modified Ibanez guitar that he will play at the 3 cities concert in the Great Hall on 28 April. Photo: Reuven Blignault.
Three cities, three musicians, one Great Hall.
Wits music lecturer and “cyber guitarist” Jonathan Crossley will unite with New York based drummer, Lukas Ligeti and Capetonian drummer, Jonno Sweetman for a performance of epic proportions in the Great Hall on Tuesday, 28 April.
In the hopes of duplicating the success of last year’s show, the trio will come together again in the hopes of making an even more successful performance.
Crossley will be performing on his unique cyber guitar system, a hardware “hacked” Suzuki Omnichord, as well as playing an array of other unique instruments.
Jonno Sweetman, a musician and avid surfer, will be packing his surfboard away and bringing his drumsticks on his way from Cape Town.
With 32 years of study, Crossley is a classically trained guitarist, but on stage he appears to be something of a combination of man, robot, and guitar.
Crossley put on a world-first musical performance a few months ago, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for his doctorate in music.
It took Crossley three years to create what he calls his “hardware hacked electric jazz guitar”. Crossley describes himself as a guitarist, technologist, cyber-protagonist and composer.
When asked about his “unique” instrument, Crossley describes “the instrument system itself is completely software free… no PCs or laptops are engaged actively whatsoever in the performance and further no music is pre-prepared in a recorded audio format. All music is improvised wholly live”.
“The performance will be completely unlike traditional music, which is either pre-prepared or improvised over a predesigned set of constraints”, Crossley said illustrating further on the upcoming performance.
Lukas Ligeti will be jetting in from New York where John Zorn’s Stone Club where they have recently presented a week-long retrospective of his work. Ligeti lives in Joburg and New York and is currently completing his PhD at Wits.
Ligeti often leads or co-leads several bands such as Burkina Electric (the first electronic band from Burkina Faso), Sonic Youth and the Grateful Dead. Ligeti has collaborated with musicians across Africa, and in 2010 he received the Alpert Award in Music.
Jonno Sweetman is much in demand as a drummer and has played with the Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner, Kyle Shepherd, and has travelled beyond his borders to perform in Europe and Asia.
The trio will be performing improvisations between each other, playing original works and rock classics from bands such as Nirvana.
by Reuven Blignault | Mar 30, 2015 | Featured 1, News
Wits University’s efforts to preventing sexual harassment, which caused a scandal in 2013 and led to the dismissal of three lecturers, is “not that good,” said Prof Melissa Steyn, director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies.
“Commitment to policies of sexual harassment on the universities part and the university community as a whole was not that good,” said Prof Melissa Steyn, director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies.
Steyn made her comments to Wits Vuvuzela following a roundtable discussion held last week that was poorly attended.
“We have a lot of commitment from a small group of people”
“The turn out to Friday’s roundtable discussion was not great at all, only about 25 people attended,” Steyn said.
“We have a lot of commitment from a small group of people,” said Steyn. However, wider support from the Wits community had not yet been forthcoming.
“We all have to care about these issues, otherwise these problems will not go away,” said Steyn.
Since its establishment last year in response to recommendations of a formal inquiry into sexual harassment in 2013, the Gender Equity Office has received over 100 cases of sexual and gender-based harassment at Wits.
The inquiry followed a series of reports about sexual harassment published by Wits Vuvuzela in 2013. The reports led to the suspension and disciplinary hearings of four lecturers. Three of the lecturers were ultimately dismissed while a fourth resigned.
“In recent years, the university has revamped relevant policies and has overhauled awareness campaigns, reporting structures and legal processes to deal with any form of abuse, particularly sexual harassment of any form,” Steyn said.
She said that while the university had received over 100 complaints of sexual or gender-based harassment, there were probably more cases going unreported.
“As any institution, or society more generally, we understand that reported incidents do not represent the full picture, and we are working to encourage reporting of incidents as well as to act against perpetrators of gender-based harm,” Steyn said.
The roundtable discussion on Friday was to reflect on sexual harassment at Wits and if there were any changes taking place.
by Reuven Blignault | Mar 20, 2015 | News
A South African novelist who scooped a global literary prize this year has joined the English Creative Writing department at Wits.
CREATIVE COHESION: Prof Ivan Vladislavic has recently joined the Wits Creative Writing Department and hopes to pass the writing torch on to students. Photo: Provided
Award-winning novelist and non-fiction writer Professor Ivan Vladislavic is the recent winner of the 2015 Yale University Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction, a prize which is only awarded to one of nine authors worldwide.
Novelists Donald Windham and Sandy M Campbell established the prize in 2013 to call attention to literary achievement and provide writers with the opportunity to focus on their work independently of financial concerns. The prize is $150,000, approximately R1,8-million.
This award-winning novelist and editor has decided to use his many years of writing experience to help students develop their own writing skills in the Wits Creative Writing Department.
“The energy of Braamfontein is fascinating.”
Vladislavic said: “The energy of Braamfontein is fascinating and I love the way that Wits has helped to shape the urban development of Braamfontein, with projects such as WAM.” He sees Wits’ help in urban development as a positive factor in his decision to join the Wits team.
A freelance novelist and editor for over 30 years, Vladislavic decided he had reached a point in his life where he was “ready to give back some of the knowledge” he has gained over the years.
His work has taken “a long time”, more than 20 years, to find resounding international recognition, he said.
“The attention that the prize has given to my books together with my distinguished professorship at Wits allow me to pursue my own work in a way that’s never been possible before. I’m a lucky man,” Vladislavic told BDlive.
Born in Pretoria, Vladislavic has always had a passion for nearby Johannesburg. His 2006 internationally acclaimed book, Portrait with Keys, captured the essence of Johannesburg in a compilation of his thoughts, observations and memories of the city.
Vladislavic studied at Wits over 40 years ago and has kept a strong relationship with other writers at Wits, having a board membership at Wits Press. He has written novels such as The Restless Supermarket, The Exploded View and Double Negative and has edited books on architecture, art and photography.
by Reuven Blignault | Mar 18, 2015 | News
FLYING OFF THE SHELF: A Vuvuzela stand at Medical School stands empty.
The Journalism Department at Wits has received complaints that there are not enough newspapers being delivered to the Medical and Education campuses.
Do Wits students actually read the Wits Vuvuzela? Does the University distribute too many copies of the newspaper on campus? Or are there too few?
“If you find something interesting, then you would want to read it.”
Sometimes you can find what you are looking for and sometimes you cannot. On parts of campus such as the Medical School and Education Campus, distributers of the newspaper have received complaints that there are not enough papers delivered there.
The amount of Wits Vuvuzela newspapers in news-stands at Wits has varied at distribution points on campus.
On East Campus, where the Vuvuzela is produced, many news-stands have a large amount of left-over newspapers by the time the newspapers have to be replaced.
On the other hand, Students and staff at the Wits Medical School have complained that there are not enough papers distributed there. “There are 12 of us on security here at the Medical School” said campus control security guard Thanduxo Nozibele, “we love reading the newspaper because it is free and we love the stories, but when we look for the latest issue, we can’t find even one”.
Zain Patel, a 4th year medical student, said “If you find something interesting, then you would want to read it. There should be 3 newsstands placed around our campus so that every Friday those who can’t find a paper at the one entrance can find one somewhere else”.
Opinions vary on the causes for both the leftovers and the backlog. Some students claim that they are far too busy to take a newspaper. “I don’t read the Vuvuzela” said 4th year medical student Dimo Sithole, “I don’t usually get involved in campus activity, I’m just here to study and I go straight home after lectures, I’m way too busy with work”.
Micaela Gradidge, a 3rd year BHSC student, suggested that she does not read the paper as “everything in the Vuvuzela is on main campus” and that she “only read the paper when there was a story about medical school”.
There are approximately 5000 students based at the medical school, yet there are only 300 newspapers scheduled to be delivered there.
Several students at the Wits Medical School who spoke to the Wits Vuvuzela, claim that they enjoy reading the Vuvuzela and get upset when the newsstand is empty. Lerato Segodi, a 4th year medical student said “I love reading Vuvuzela when I see an interesting article, when I can’t find one then I usually get one from a friend on West Campus, and when I can’t find a copy that upsets me.”
The Vuvuzela distributers have aimed to correct this by scheduling more papers to be delivered to higher flow areas, such as the medical school and education campus, and less to areas where there is a low demand. The Vuvuzela has a current distribution of 10000 newspapers.
The Vuvuzela is distributed by the students of the Wits Journalism Programme every Friday at 12 o’clock.
