What is the most outrageous thing you’d do to raise registration money?
A series of the most outrageous things Wits students would do to raise money for waived fees.
EFF show IAW solidarity at Wits
The EFF showed its solidarity with Palestine in a gathering on the Wits University campus earlier today.
Pikitup strike turns violent
Protest action in Braamfontein causes violent disruptions with rocks hurled at bystanders. (more…)
Arrests in “criminal activities” at Wits
by Zimasa Mpemnyama and Masego Panyane
UPDATE: Following their release on Friday evening from the Hilbrow Police Station, the students appeared at the Hilbrow Magistrates Court where the case against them was withdrawn by the prosecutor for further investigation.
Twenty #WitsFeesMustFall protestors were arrested earlier today following an alleged contravention of a court interdict obtained by Wits University. The students will likely spend the weekend at the Hillbrow police station as they are expected to appear in court on Monday.
Possible R8 million spent on additional security at Wits
By Michelle Gumede and Masego Panyane
The number of private security on Wits university’s campuses have reached unprecedented levels with security occupying almost every corner of campus at exorbitant prices.
OPINION LETTER: I love vandals
THE WRITINGS ON THE WALL: The words “Fuck white power” are sprayed onto the Great Hall staircase. Graffiti messages have popped up all over campus. While some find them offensive, the colourful messages express how some students on campus feel about power. Photo: Michelle Gumede
WITS University seems to have noticed the graffiti around campus and, in a performance of horrifying moral indignation, has sent out emails to all students condemning it as a form of vandalism. The email that the university urgently sent out proves shockingly ignorant to the content and the conversation that the graffiti was attempting to initiate. The university has, for a long time, consistently and tenaciously silenced and neutralised certain forms and articulations of protest. The university has been arrogantly denying students the space to participate in meaningful political action and active demonstrations that could potentially engage the fundamental problems in any substantial manner, or even at least attempt to alter the material conditions. Wits demonstrated this when it invited military-like private security to deal with students who were raising legitimate questions about the access and commodification of education. The university was more interested in the form in which the questions were raised instead of responding or at least acknowledging the substance of the questions. Through its actions and decisions Wits has criminalised certain ideas and modes of thinking.
If at all we are interested in understanding the intentions of the ‘vandals’ then it becomes necessary that we broaden the restrictive definition of protest that university has imposed on us. Protest comprises of both the material and symbolic and in most cases less emphasis is put on the latter. To protest is to resist against a discomfort and one cannot dismiss the efficacy of graffiti as a voice and medium of expression for marginal movements that have not in their favour traditional, established and dominant media outlets. The forms of graffiti at Wits could at the very least be considered of strategic importance as means by which it has been able to elicit responses from management. This alternative method of ensuring responses to the graffiti effectively allows for a possibility of a discussion that could potentially culminate in a substantive interrogation of the content of these expressions, which arguably, could be linked to arguments and critical analyses that identifies the university as anti-black and antagonistic to the poor and marginalised.
The graffiti connotes the existence of an activist. The graffiti stops being just vandalism but it becomes an assault against a dominant culture, a culture of silent protests and boardroom negotiations that have not changed anything. The graffiti reveals an emerging movement that is uncomfortable with and existentially displaced in relation to the university. Those that speak against the graffiti are not only repressing the act because of the message it conveys but more importantly could be seen as another reactionary attack on its symbolic dynamic. The graffiti symbolises a culture of resistance. It is a form of art that rebels existentially against the current order by brazenly confronting power. In the end, graffiti is sticking a middle finger at the university. It brutalises the sensibilities of management by effectively becoming a threat to what is most dear to them – order and suppression of an untamed radical voice.
The graffiti demands nothing and everything. The desperate attempt by the university to challenge it is obfuscating the intentions of those who have decorated the dull buildings of our campus with spray paint.
Mbhele is an activist and a Law student
Q&A with ‘5th Respondent’: #WitsFMF member speaks out
Kagisho Nkadimeng is one of six students who Wits University has taken to court and have an interdict against. In court papers Wits’ has called him “5th Respondent”. He is a member of the Fees Must Fall movement at Wits and a third-year Sociology and International Relations student.
How did you end up in the interdict?
We had been planning to close down the University as a continuation from last year and it took about a week of planning in January and on the 11th we closed it [Wits] down and we were interdicted.
What led to the events on January 11?
We were not that many [people] so we chose to take the main admin building, the core of Wits which is Senate House. We closed the lifts so that staff couldn’t go up. We closed some entrances but not all of them. And we were just singing around the place.
Why were you doing that?
I came here around the 6th of January because I had financial issues so I came here to clear them up. Upon the grand realisation that many things that were promised last year were not adhered to by the same management that went on national and international media signing many documents saying that they would do this, but they didn’t do anything. So what happened was that, we were like, “so what should happen if you are relegating on the positions or agreements that you were party to?” Because we kept our end of the bargain in terms of continuing the academic program, writing and passing, we still don’t have fees. Children are crying [because] it’s still the same situation as last year… So we went back to the picket line.
What do you say to the belief some people hold that the movement has now become violent, racist and has degenerated to vandalism?
Society and the world is systematically violent against black bodies. Violence is the only way that we can make people listen. I am not saying that we support violence and all those things but closing down the university and stopping its businesses that seems, it’s seen as violent by the university. I mean, the SRC for example, pre the initial strike had been negotiating with management and nobody seemed to listen. Only when we took to the picket line did council come and negotiate with us. So it’s not violence but [protest] is the only tool of power that we have in order to make them listen. In order to make them aware and be cognisant of what is going on, on the ground. I think they [management] are just being ignorant of what’s happening.
Do you think that the movement is still relevant?
The movement is more relevant than ever. The issues of academic and financial exclusions are micro issues, there are [other] broader and underlying issues. By our very nature, coming to Wits we are sort of a privileged class, even if we are a privileged poor class, so then perhaps when Fees Must Fall has achieved all they want to achieve on campus, and across all campuses nationwide then it will be time to go and hit the communities. Maybe or maybe not in the same unorthodox way of shutting things down because outside the university you are dealing with the state organ and the state is different from dealing with an entity such as Wits, but through engaging communities, concientising them and making them aware that they have to start playing an active role in the world. I don’t think we will ever get to a utopia and say all our goals are met, there are so many socio-economic issues in society. We are all social activists even though not in the same numbers as last year we go to our individual communities and try to develop them whichever way we can. There will always be someone who will be inspire by the generation of Fees Must Fall. Perhaps the [mechanism] of protest of closing down might have ended, I don’t know, but there are still people who are driven by the goals and ethos of the movement. I don’t think the movement can ever really die.
Cool kid on campus: Ous Kudu
Do you have a burning question to ask or an unsolvable problem, but have nowhere to turn to? Look no further because Ous Kudu is here for you!
Ous Kudu is a love guru from the valleys of Witwatersrandfontien. She’s a Wits University graduate who holds a Masters degree in matters of the soul. “I’ve always wanted to help people,” she says.
“There’s a whole community of people, particularly at Wits, who need a little guidance in navigating their way around love. And I really just want to help these people get there life right.”
Ous Kudu has experience in love lost, love gained and all the trials that come with being a young bokkie. You can send your anonymous relationship dilemmas to Ous Kudu on the Wits Vuvuzela email or tweet her @OusKudu.
“I want Witsies to know that I am here for them. The school of life has taught me so much, that I feel its time I shared with the masses some of my wisdom.”
Rape threats and racism: when the trolls arrived at Wits Vuvuzela
It has been an incredibly testing couple of days for us at the Wits Vuvuzela since the publication of the “F#ck White People” album on our Facebook page. The comments section on the album gained traction almost overnight and attracted a variety of reactions to a story we published on Monday, February 8. The story, about a lunch time demonstration on Wits University’s East Campus seems have ignited the kinds of reactions we never thought possible. Many were run of the mill comments we’re used to in our newsroom but so many others were hate-filled vitriol, so violent in nature that we were moved to the uncharacteristic act of moderating comments.
The story itself, which you can read here has not garnered as much reaction as the Facebook book album did. The images in the album contain different shots from a small protest where demonstrating students wore t-shirts marked with various slogans. The demonstration itself was a show of solidarity with a fellow student who had been reported to the Human Rights Commission for wearing a t-shirt declaring “F**K White People”.
Screengrabs of some of the comments left on our facebook page this past week. Graphic: Wits Vuvuzela.
When we initially wrote the story, the idea was to report on an important piece of news that was happening at our university. Given the rather awkward space that the university has been trapped in over the last few weeks of trying to move forward whilst the threat of protest lingers, this demonstration highlighted the fact that we are not quite back to normal. Our decision to publish that collection of photographs and the article was part of us doing what we believe we are meant to do as journalists – to inform and educate our community about what’s happening around us.
We expected some responses to the posts. We expected the usual amount of commentary, generally quite limited. But instead what we got was an onslaught of some of the most hateful and violent comments we have ever encountered in our student newsroom.
We knew that once the trolls came out that it was time that we, as media producers, took some responsibility for what was happening on our Facebook page. Our newsroom gathered and together, we had frank discussions about the comments, what that meant to us as people who produce the news but also what that means for our reputation and what we stand for as a community paper.
As a result, we at the Wits Vuvuzela have decided that the offensive comments on our Facebook page which could be challenged as incitement and hate speech, including but not limited to: death threats, rape threats and anything we deem to be overly offensive, in line with our social media/website usage policy, will be hidden from our page which means that the comments will continue to exist on the profile of the person who made the post visible to them and their friends. The rest of the comments, will remain untouched.
We want to emphasise that we appreciate and welcome engagement from all our readers but we cannot in clear conscience allow hatred and violence to be spurred on by the commentary on our pages. Especially if it has nothing to do with the actual article.
Q&A with Trevor Ngwane
Trevor Ngwane is an activist at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), a socialist and a member of the Democratic Left Front. Ngwane studied and has taught sociology at Wits. Wits Vuvuzela caught up with Ngwane to discuss the student movements and more.
REBEL WITH A CAUSE: Trevor Ngwane believes the student movement should seek to include other social justice causes. Photo: Wits Communications
What do you think is the way forward for the current Must Fall movements that have emerged around the country?
I think the students have done a lot to actually take forward the struggle for free education. I think that education is a basic human right and it is a key to building a better society. One of the things that they did was to unite with the struggle of the workers to end outsourcing and to end exploitation on campus. I think they should continue that way. Also they should fight against the elitism of university education. So if they want to criticize Eurocentrism they shouldn’t assume that its hierarchical nature is ok. It shouldn’t be that “we want to be black professors and join the exclusive club of 5%”, we should fight for an equal society. We should fight for an egalitarian society with less inequality. And lastly I think we should fight against racism, but in fighting against racism we should allow those white people who support our struggle to be with us and to join, and to trust that they will do and act and aspire to what we aspire to.
Do you think social media is a useful tool for activism and organising social movements?
I think social media is a useful organising tool if it is used in a good way. What I don’t agree with is when proper meetings are not called or meetings are called using social media at short notice so that only a few, even if you have a group, if you hear that, it’s like 12 noon “comrades there is a meeting at three”, so I don’t like that with social media. I don’t like when social media allows people to change positions and decisions which have been collectively taken. I also don’t like it when it is used to slander and attack individuals. But I think it is very good to spread the word, to make sure even those who are not interested get to know what is going on. It’s useful when we need to take action and we must communicate quickly. So I support social media, I think it has done a lot.
What do you think is the connection between broader worker’s struggles and FMF?
There is inequality is society, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The children of the poor end up doing manual work in poorly paid jobs. They never go to university [and] even if they go to university they get financially excluded. But if you look carefully the working class, the poor, there are many ways in which they are financially excluded. They are excluded from eating good food because it is expensive, they are excluded from having good health care because they don’t have medical aid, and they are excluded from moving around because they don’t have money for transport. There are so many ways in which financial exclusion can be extended beyond education. So for the struggle of the students it needs to see and to join up with other financial exclusions, with other struggles, the struggle for water for everyone, for electricity, for houses – nine, ten million people live in shacks, the struggle for health care, the struggle for decent public transport, the struggle for, I can call it recreation, for culture. Poor people, working class people, they have quite limited avenues for cultural and recreational activity. That’s why many of them just end up drinking because it’s the easiest thing which is near to them. Also I don’t think the movement for students can advance very far, I’m not saying it won’t advance at all, without linking up with other struggles in general society, so I’d like to see the student organisations link up with the trade unions, with community organisations, with Left groups.
Why do you feel ‘trust’ is an integral part of struggle?
Trust and generosity. With generosity I think you cannot have solidarity unless you are prepared to give something of yourself, even when it does not immediately benefit you. Youth should be able to support pensioners fighting for a bigger pension even though it’s another 40 years before they get old. A white person should be able to sympathise and support the struggle of black people even though that white person enjoys white privilege. The employed should be able to support the struggle of the unemployed and the unemployed should be able to support the struggle of the employed. So this is generosity.
Trust, we should trust each other. You see there is too much suspicion. “You are too old to support our youthful movement”, “you are too white to support the struggle of the blacks”, “you are too UJ to know about the struggle of the Wits students”, “you are a civil engineer student you don’t know anything about sociology and we in the humanities we know more”. We have to trust that the comrade next to us who says “I am of the movement”, unless they prove otherwise, that they aspire just as us to change society in the way that we desire. I have noticed that often students don’t trust each other, we don’t trust members of SASCO, I’m not saying that sometimes the leaders don’t deserve not to be trusted, but I am just saying rank and file members, SASCO members, PYA members, if they say they also want Fees Must Fall and they are prepared to put their bodies on the line to join, lets trust them. But obviously if they do things that undermine the movement they must censure them.
And about disruptions?
I just want to say one last thing about disruption. I have heard the vice chancellor Adam Habib and also the vice chancellor Ihron Rensburg saying that it is most important that universities must continue without disruption, in a way they are saying that normal life must continue but I must remind them that under apartheid we used to say there can be no normal life in an abnormal society. You know in a society where half the workers earn less than R3000 a month, it’s not normal. So, I think that to defend normality and to fight against disruption, I don’t support it. I think that at some point everything must change and it might entail that we disrupt what is going on so that change can come.
Cool Kid on campus
GHETTO SNOB OF THE AIRWAVES: Swaggered up in DMD, Sista Ntswembu is a colourful and quirky character who has her listeners in stitches from laughter. Photo: Michelle Gumede
Nolwazi “Sista Ntswembu” Zondo is a radio dj on VoWfm and upcoming comedian. Currently completing her higher certificate in radio studies at the Wits Radio academy, Sista Ntswembu is the host of #ThatLunchShow on VoWfm every Monday to Wednesday at Midday.
Our Cool Kid of the week is a refreshing combination of lokshin culture meets urban street style, without trying too hard.
She dreams of following in the footsteps of radio giants like Yfm’s Khabzela and Dj Fresh and hopes her journey will lead to her being South Africa’s next great radio personality. “I want to bring back the radio personality to South African airwaves, while I’m also trying to find my license to be funny!” She says.
Twitter: @Lwazi_Zond0
The O’week special
O- Week was a blast for first timers and a bittersweet treat for returning students. While many students were still struggling to pay for fees and accommodation; res students moved in, the Flea market rolled into town, clubs and societies were canvasing for members, Vowfm kept students nay naying with awesome jams and the beer garden was a haven for anyone looking to let loose. Witsies did not let the presence of private security from enjoying O-week.
About WCJ
We Should Be Writing podcast
- Bonus Episode: There's a Zille on my stoepSince her announcement as the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Helen Zille has dominated national headlines. In this bonus episode of We Should Be Writing podcast, hosts Lulah Mapiye and Bonolo Mokonoto dissect a media meet-and-greet with the mayoral hopeful. From her extensive political résumé to her controversial public utterance, we examine why the Democratic Alliance has chosen Hellen Zille as their candidate for the 2027 local mayoral elections. Additionally, […]