by Staff Reporter | Apr 15, 2011 | Featured 1, News
AS another quake hit Japan this week, Professor Efraim Kramer talked to Vuvuzela about his rescue mission to the country following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Kramer is head of the emergency medicine division at Wits and is also medical director of the disaster response team from Rescue SA. This is an official disaster response team of South Africans who volunteer as emergency response specialists.
Kramer said Japan was different to other earthquakes because of the tsunami.
“Although it was a developed country, [after the earthquake] it was a ghost town. I’ve never seen such destruction. It was unsettling. There was no chance to survive. You can’t out run or out swim [a tsunami]. There were doctors and nurses who fled to the fifth story of a hospital but were washed away.”
Kramer gave a clear comparison of three earthquake scenes he has worked in. In Christchurch the destruction happened mainly in the CBD and was minor compared to Haiti or Japan.
“In Haiti it was devastating [too]. It was hot as anything with 100% humidity, [but] there were more people to rescue – the damage was not in collapsed structures. In Japan the size of the destruction was greater. Our function was to rescue those alive, recover the dead and go into buildings that were no longer safe.”
He said the team never had any kind of emotional breakdown “would have their moments”. They had to be very disciplined and completely self-contained for their mission.
Kramer said the team also learnt to respect Japanese culture and people during their time there.
One special memory that has stayed with him was when a Japanese commissioner of police sewed a South African badge, given to him by Rescue SA, onto his uniform.
“You just have to go and help. If you don’t save lives and only recover bodies it’s [still] of enormous value. People would say to them ‘just give me a finger’. It’s important for families.”
Rescue SA was one of 20 teams from around the world chosen by Japan to help with the devastation.
by Staff Reporter | Apr 8, 2011 | News
Jeremy Gordin with Fusi Mofokeng and Tshokolo Joseph Mofokeng
NINETEEN is the age of the average 1st year Witsie. It is also the same amount of time two men were locked up in jail for a crime they did not commit.
Fusi Mofokeng and Tshokolo Joseph Mokoena were released from the Kroonstad prison last Saturday after the two were given parole subsequent to being found guilty for shooting two policemen and killing one of them.
Mofokeng and Mokoena were not in the shootout location at the time it took place but were convicted in 1992 under the “common purpose” doctrine.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission allowed all those who they believed were involved in the shootout in Bethlehem to be exonerated as long as they admitted that they were guilty of the crime.
As Mofokeng and Mokoena were not even in the area of the crime when it took place, they refused to lie in order to gain their freedom.
Evidence that the two men had committed the crime was given by a man who is now deceased but had admitted to giving a false testimony due to the demands made on him by security police.
In 2009 the Wits Justice Project was contacted to investigate the case of Mofokeng and Mokoena and Jeremy Gordin, head of the project, began a media campaign to make the public aware of their situation.
On September 30 last year the courts ruled that anybody who had been sentenced to life imprisonment before 1994 could be released on parole.
The work the project has done has played a pivotal role in making the case known to outsiders and while the release of Mofokeng and Mokoena is only on parole, it is still a big achievement.
“I am extremely ecstatic, they were wrongly accused. These men also happen to be immensely nice people [despite what they have gone through],” said Gordin.
The Wits Justice Project investigates the unreasonably long time some awaiting-trial detainees spend in prison. “Our country has a very bad crime situation with a very high murder rate. We also have a very bad justice system with long waiting for trials… and some of the people are innocent,” Gordin said.
Carte Blanche will be airing Mofokeng and Mokoena’s release this Sunday, April 10.
by Staff Reporter | Apr 1, 2011 | Featured 1
Photo: Ainsley Haag
GRAFFITI on the walls of bathrooms has become a common sight on campus. The back of the toilet door held the position of the local chat room way before Twitter and BBM came on the scene.
Writing on walls around campus includes messages ranging from the philosophical “Fire Escapism” to the political “Gaza Boycott” to the religious “There are no atheists in fox holes”.
In terms of graphics, Wits is no stranger to such art, having several popular hotspots as outlets for the self-expression.
Alex Jones, who is doing her masters in digital arts, commented on the ‘art/vandalism’ debate: “I think graffiti cannot help but be recognised as a form of art, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t vandalism.
“I’m not talking about the tipexed ‘I heart peter’ on the bathroom walls, I think that isn’t really art, just purely narcissistic vandalism, [but ultimately] I think it can be both.”
