by Pheladi Sethusa | Sep 1, 2013 | Featured 1, News
Gallery by Mfuneko Toyana
The Market Theatre’s main stage was the platform where six diverse minds gathered to discuss migration, a topic central to all of their individual work.
The last day and the last panel discussion of the Mail & Guardian Literary Festival helped to make audience members and authors alike reflect on the movement of people in and out of cities and countries.
The poor accommodating the poor
Wandile Zwane from the City of Johannesburg’s Migrant Helpdesk, used an interesting anecdote from a conversation he had had with a woman, illustrating a point made earlier about migration being a situation where the poor are accommodating the poor. [pullquote]”…people migrate to places with a gravitational pull…”[/pullquote]
The woman talked about the hierarchy that existed when it came to where one slept in her house. As a young child one was in the main bedroom, the older one got you would move to the dining room and the kitchen to make space for the younger ones. Eventually one would land up in the outside room and from there move on to their own house with a spouse.
Unfortunately her marriage had not worked out so she had to move back to the outside room with her kids, but because there was an immigrant living in that room she had to go back to the kitchen. The story points to one explanation of the animosity that exists around migration in South Africa.
Migration
Chinua Achebe’s book ‘There was a Country’ was the theme around which the conversation around which migration had to bend itself.
The panel consisted of writers who had threaded together stories and books, all zooming in on migration and themes central to resettlement. The panel discussion was largely based on the different writers’ works and their experiences of bridging political and personal narratives in their storytelling.
A young writer making waves in the literary world, NoViolet Bulawayo, said emergent personal narratives are based on political events, and that it was not possible to separate the two in one’s writing. [pullquote align=”right”]“Johannesburg is a migrant city”[/pullquote]
While the works of the six on stage were central to the discussion, engagement with audience members opened up the dialogue and brought up issues that were left out in the initial conversation.
Photographer and self-proclaimed book lover, Victor Dlamini (@victordlamini) made a poignant point from the floor, which steered the conversation to a meaningful point. He commented on people who are migrants themselves taking issue with people who migrate. He used Johannesburg as an example, saying most people who are in this city are not even from this city. “Johannesburg is a migrant city,” he added.
Panelist and writer, Achmat Dangor responded by saying that he agreed with Dlamini and pinned negative attitudes around migration on mechanisms of ‘othering’. He added that people migrate to places with a gravitational pull because of new ideas in that specific place. This is always the case with ‘big cities’, the activity and promise of economic emancipation lure people in, be it across borders or provincial lines.
Caroline Wanjiku Kihato, author of The Bookseller of Kibera, added to Dangor’s response, saying that human beings had a tendency of finding one another’s differences and using them to oppress one another.
Another audience member asked why was it that only Africans were considered immigrants. He did not understand why the Chinese and Europeans who come to this country were not treated with the same hostility that “our brothers” were.
In response Kwanele Sosibo (@KwaneleSosibo), journalist at the Mail & Guardian, simply said “we do it to ourselves”. He went on to narrate an anecdote about how people in an Eastern Cape community believe in measuring people according to certain pedigrees. Mining house recruiters divided them up according to body size, using pedigree determine who’d make best workers, exemplary of systematic ‘othering’.
Writing Invisibility
The Writing Invisibility e-book was launched. Some of the writers on the panel were contributors in the book which was a project done in collaboration with the Wits African Centre for Migration & Society.
The book is available for free download here.
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by Masimanyane Ngwenze | Jul 12, 2013 | Sport
Dirty, stained streets filled with people rushing off to their workplaces is a regular part of any city. Through it all though some boys and young men find the time to skateboard in the Joburg city centre.
‘City Rebels’ is the name the skateboarders give to themselves. They see their sport as a way to free themselves from life’s troubles in same way as graffiti artists do through their art.
Skateboarding is a art which developed in the 1950’s in the American city of California.
Jozi central is where these young men choose to skate. Some residents and security guards despise their presence and chase them away or threaten them with police action or physcial assault.
Fadill Hough, a teenager living in Newtown, says he has been physically assaulted by a security guard before. “We, the skateboarding pack, were skating around Newton laying down a few tricks. A security guard called all the boys to him and singled me out, being the smallest, and then smacked me with his big hand on my face”, said Fadill.
[pullquote align=”right”]”I see skateboarding as street culture, like an art form”[/pullquote]
Many of the boys interviewed, meet regularly at the Library Gardens in Braamfontein near Bree taxi rank. They say that even the taxi drivers don’t look out for them.
Sam Khumalo, 23, who is a professional skateboarder, says that being a skateboarder is both his job and hobby. “All skateboarders use their boards as a way of transportation unless it’s a far place then you’re going to use a car or public transport”.
Sam also added that his skateboarding idol is Stevie Williams, a black professional skateboarder who originates from Philadelphia, America.
“For me I see skateboarding as street culture, like an art form, that includes music, art and girls. I don’t skate because it’s a hobby, I skate because it’s my passion and career. Most skaters end up in music”, added Sam.
Sam currently has a number of corporate sponsors which allows him to participate in professional competitions.
Thabo Nage aged 26 is another local skateboarding professional who says good things come from touring for example: parties, life on the road can be unpredictable, being able to play any role and lastly having ‘skate groupies’.
Thabo was once knocked down in Sandhurst, and the driver drove off leaving him injured at the side of the road.
But that hasn’t stopped him from skateboarding.
by Thembela Khamango | Jul 9, 2013 | News
There has been a general increase in crime in Braamfontein according to Head of Wits Campus Control, Robert Kemp.
“Recently we have had an increase in crime in the Braamfontein area which includes muggings, theft of motor vehicles and theft out of motor vehicles,” said Kemp on Monday.
Kemp said 27 crime incidents were reported in the past two months compared to only 9 cases reported in March and April. Of the 27 crime activities reported to the police in May and June, 12 of those were also reported to Campus Control.
”We have had incidents of muggings reported in the Jorissen, de Korte Streets and along Enoch Sontonga Avenue.”
Kemp said Wits Campus Control was working with Community Policing Forums to address the “crime problem” in the area.[pullquote align=”right”]Kemp advised students not to walk around in the area after hours. [/pullquote]
Hillbrow police station’s Warrant Officer Richard Munyai said policemen were patrolling the area regularly. ”We also do what we call ‘stop and search’ with the emphasis on ‘hot spots’,” he said.
Wits student Mothupi Boipelo said she did not feel safe in the streets around campus. “I don’t go out with my cellphone anymore. When I was doing my first year I was mugged and they took a phone I had then,” said the BSc-Honours student.
Biopelo said she and a friend were accosted by a young man who took their mobile phones, while they were walking along Nelson Mandela Bridge on their way home in 2010.
Another Witsie Mbongeni Mtimkulu said although the area was “generally safe” he had heard of students being threatened with knives and their phones taken away.
Kemp urged students to make use of the “safe walk programme”. “Students can contact the Central Control Room CB1, (011-717-4444/ 011-717-6666) and request a security guard to escort them after hours.”
He said the service was offered to all students on campus, including the ones in residences and those residing in the university’s off campus residences not serviced by the institution’s busses. Kemp advised students not to walk around in the area after hours.
by Mfuneko Toyana | Jun 18, 2013 | Featured 1, News
Exhibition poster
These are the People was billed as a photographic exhibition aimed at showcasing and selling the work of young photographers in Johannesburg, and took place in the nascent art precinct of Newtown at the Mills, a day after national Youth Day.
The idea itself is unique when it comes to Youth day celebrations, and photographic prints pegged on thin metal wire in the shell of what used to be the popular club Carfax signaled the brave charting of relatively new territory.
One of the organisers, director and filmmaker Bucks, explained that the aim was to provide a “platform for talented photographers to showcase their art … and because many people haven’t had the opportunity to see photography in this way”.
The exhibition consisted of five photographers who had a selection of their photography displayed in various print-sizes for revellers to view and purchase.
Between the music and mingling amongst the small crowd that had gathered, Bucks called up each photographer to come up on to the makeshift stage in the centre of the room and say a few a words about their photographs.
Unfortunately, most of the photographers had little to say about their works and seemed almost shy to express in words what they had captured in images. A common refrain though, was that of photography as expression.
Kamogelo Mokoena pictured next to her row of photo’s. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
Kamogelo Mokoena, a strategic communications student at the University of Johannesburg, said that she started taking photography seriously after she won a competition held by Head Honcho clothing store, which saw her photographs being printed on a limited range of tee shirts.
“It’s my form of storytelling. I talk a lot and taking photographs helps,” she said.
Her photographs varied in theme, from portraits of human faces juxtaposed with side walk statues, shots from the backstage of a fashion show to a street staging of a Jack and Jill scene .
Mokoena called this “liking where we live” – her own form of street photography.
Another photographer, Bakang who hails from Mafikeng, said he had only been taking photographs for eight months, and said that because photography was an “art”, it was about showing people what he sees and how he sees it.
Bakang aka Shordy, showing his work to a potential buyer. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
Bakang said he did not focus on any particular elements in his photography, and rather preferred to “go with the moment”.
Brian Molepo, a photographer who specialises in black and white portraits, said it was his “eye” that made his photographs unique.
His part of the exhibition was series of half-length portraits, which he described as “personality shots”; photographs which “captured the spirit” of the subject.
Brian echoed a common sentiment among the photographers, one where theme took second place to expression.
It was, however, the lack of a theme unifying the different photographs that limited the full expression of the photographs from being realised.
Some themes screamed out from the photographs, fragments of life that captured moments, landscapes and emotions but stopped short of suggesting something more profound than that moment itself.
Other themes hid beneath the surface of the photographs and merely required, perhaps, the subtle hand of curation to draw a viewer’s attention to them by placing them in a sequence that formed and spoke to a wider narrative context.
Brian Molepo hanging up his black and white portraits. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
Without this, unfortunately, the exhibition had the feeling of a random, chaotic collage, of photographers and their photography.
Or perhaps this was the theme; to show in its full diversity the kaleidoscope of perspectives, bearing down on every and any fragment of Johannesburg, like curious insect eyes bristling with the curiosity of seeing.
by Mia Swart | Apr 12, 2013 | News
SCAMMERS are using a Wits student email account for internet fraud, known as phishing.
In a recent scam, students’ university email accounts were used as addresses to send fraudulent tax reports to businesses in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni . In a grammatically incorrect email, “SARS” requested the companies check attached tax reports and “confirm is up to date”.
Phishing is “the act of acquiring private or sensitive data from personal computers for use in fraudulent activities”, according to the Business Dictionary. It usually involves sending emails that seem to come from a credible source, but are in no way affiliated with the actual source. [pullquote align=”right”]”CNS is aware of the problem”[/pullquote]
The emails trick users into entering personal data, like bank details and home addresses. Phishers also create websites that appear to be operated by government agencies.
According to the Google Online Security Blog, phishers use a popular method, called “domain spoofing” for email phishing. The address in the “From” line of the email seems legitimate, but is actually a fake address.
Computer and Network Services is aware of the problem and has referred it to a research team, according to a spokesperson.
The phishing was first drawn to the attention of Wits Vuvuzela by the engineering company Ideal Patternmakers and Tooling Ltd in Germiston.
“The first thing I thought was: why would I receive a SARS Receiver report from an academic institution?” said Pieter Swart, financial director of the company.
[pullquote]”why would I receive a SARS Receiver report from an academic institution?” [/pullquote]Other companies have confirmed that phishing is a regular problem. “We get about three phishing emails a week,” said Patricia Eales from Motrade 252 Ltd. Bronwyn Estman from Viking Foundry said they also received phishing emails asking for personal, banking and other details. The company immediately deleted such emails.
Suggested ways to avoid Phishing scams:
1.Guard against spam
2.Communicate personal information only via phone or secure websites
3.Do not click on links, download files or open attachments in emails from unknown senders
4.Never email personal or financial information even if you know the recipient very well
5.Beware of links in the emails that ask for personal information, even if the emails are from companies you do business with
6.Beware of pop-ups.
7.Protect your computer with anti-virus and anti-spyware, firewalls and spam filters
8.Check your online accounts and bank statements regularly to ensure no unauthorised transfers have been made. Source: identitytheftkiller.com
by Jay Caboz | Mar 13, 2013 | Featured 1
The video showcases an interview with Callandra Youngleson, Nick Rumpelt and Carl Straussner who will be performing in Matswako “the mix”, Part 1 on Saturday 16 March 2013.
The show will showcase the best of the Wits School of Arts’ Classical and Jazz Student Musicians 2013.
The event takes place on 16 March at 19:30 in the Music Room, 8th floor, University Corner, East Campus (see map below).
View Larger Map
by Jay Caboz | Feb 15, 2013 | News
By Jay Caboz
IN THE Wits Vuvuzela newsroom, for whatever reason, there is a collective sigh from the journalists when the sounds of hundreds of marchers begin their chanting near Mary Fitzgerald Square.
When there is strike in Johannesburg, I can almost guarantee you a journalist will know about it.
There is nothing quite like a strike. You never know when someone is going to start throwing rubble. You never know if a journalist is going to be attacked. You never know if Julius Malema is going to rock up.
As someone who may not have such tentative ears, you might think to yourself, “Oh what? Another strike today?” Before you simply move on and forget about it.
How is it that we as South Africans are so used to the idea that striking is normal? I think, most importantly, we as a nation are becoming very nonchalant about the seriousness of the reasons people protest. We dismiss it, thinking that the strike will never go beyond affecting our traffic route.
But more and more, strike season is becoming strike year. According to Wikipedia, South Africa has one of the highest rates of public protest in the world. If you look back over 2012, we have seen some of the most violent protests in our democratic history. Who could forget the Marikana strike? And, in the Western Cape alone, 179 violent strikes were reported last year. I dread to think of the amount of service delivery strikes that occurred in Gauteng over the same period.
Is it your problem if farm workers down in the Western Cape are paid R69 a day? And should you care if a small township in the middle of who-knows-where has any public toilets? What about youth wage subsidies? What about our own Wits lecturers and staff protesting about low wages?
But, suddenly, it is your problem when you have to pay e-tolls.
Stop and think for a minute. Why are people so angry that they have to take to the streets on a regular basis to have their demands heard? I want you to ask yourself, “how many stories have I heard about strikes and how many of them have been resolved?”
The way things are going, striking is only going to get worse. So maybe it’s time we stopped and listened to the anger in those chants and realised that these protests affect more than just the people willing to stand up. It affects all South Africans in one way or another.
jaycaboz@witsvuvuzela.com
by Anina Mumm | Feb 5, 2013 | Featured 1, News
Whether you’re a freshman from another city or a seasoned Joburger, the new double-decker Hop-on Hop-off CitySightseeing tour bus has an open-air seat waiting for you.
A R150 ticket gets you access to an entire day of Jozi scenery, history and entertainment. Get to the Gautrain Station @ Park as early as you can to get a seat up top. For those of you who are sensitive to our sunny skies, remember a hat and some SPF.
Pop in the bright red earphones handed to you by the friendly tour guides and listen to a couple of well-spoken youngsters talk about how the City of Gold got its name.
The great thing about this tour is that you can hop off at any of the 12 stops along the route and simply hop back on the next bus when you’re done. The service runs every 40 minutes and the stops include Constitution Hill, the Apartheid Museum, Gold Reef City, Santarama Miniland, Ghandi Square, Newtown and the Wits Origins Centre.
If you don’t recognise some of those, then obviously it’s time to get your ticket online (you’ll also save 30 bucks by going through the website). And even if you’re quite familiar with the list, it’s good to have a reminder of all the wonderful things there are to do in Jozi, as well as its colourful history.
City Sightseeing Buses come to Jozi. Pic: Anina Mumm
As the bus weaves its way carefully through the narrow streets and bustling crossings, the tour guide will remind you that Jozi is a lot friendlier than its reputation would have you believe. Many people think it a dangerous, dodgy place with unsavoury characters and rampant crime. While this is true to an extent, almost all cities in the world have some of these elements and one simply needs to be alert and street-smart to avoid being a victim. In other words, don’t be afraid to get off the bus and explore in a group.
As the buzz of colourful fruit and veg markets, clothing jumble sales, sidewalk barbers and car washes whiz past, you realise very quickly that most people are just ordinary South Africans going about their daily lives. What’s so scary about that? In fact, it’s vibrant and inspiring.
From the architecture to the street-market vibe to the history and activities, this is really a great day out. Even if you just go along for the ride, you’ll learn something and you’ll probably meet a few tourists to convince that Jozi is the best city in South Africa, and maybe even the world.
The bus makes its way through the narrow and busy streets. Pic: Anina Mumm
If you think this review is biased, you’re probably right. But that said, I really had no complaints about the trip. The bus was safe and clean and the staff were friendly and helpful. The route, scenery and audio guide were all top notch and even the weather played along perfectly.
by Jay Caboz | Oct 21, 2012 | News
Team Vuvu set out to find the images that had the most impact through the year’s publication.
HARD NEWS
GENERAL NEWS, EVENTS ON CAMPUS
SPORT
by Jay Caboz | Sep 21, 2012 | Featured 1
By Jay Caboz
Clowning Around: Brennan Robinson grabs a quick break during the festivities at the Wits Engineers Breakfast on September 14. He is completing his Masters degree in the field. The breakfast is considered to be the last party of the year before the engineer faculty begins their end-of-year tests.
by Charlotte Chipangura | Aug 31, 2012 | News
A GAY man who went for a routine HIV test in the Johannesburg CBD was told by a doctor to remember “Sodom and Gomorrah” and that “the mouth is meant for eating only”.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the man shared his story in a group discussion at a health cafe at Wits recently. The health café was held to educate media practitioners on writing correctly about issues surrounding HIV.
“I don’t know the name of the clinic but it’s in the Johannesburg CBD inside Carlton Centre,” the man said. While waiting for the results, he asked the doctor about the risks of contracting HIV through oral sex.
“He [the doctor] giggled and asked if I was a Christian. I said yes and that I believed in God. And then he said that I would remember then what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. I was shocked. He told me that people back then were behaving like that. That’s why God burnt the town. He told me that the mouth is meant for eating only. I was totally taken aback by this.”
During the discussions, journalists from different media houses mentioned that they were reluctant to get tested because of the “bad attitude” displayed by nurses and doctors in conducting tests.
Another journalist, who identified himself only as Thabo, said he had also gone to a clinic for an HIV test and the nurse on duty passed a snide remark, suggesting that he had come for a test because he had been having unprotected sex.
“She then asked me to take out my penis so that she could see if there was evidence of a disease. She looked at it and told me that I was fine.”
Some women in the group complained they had been subjected to HIV tests without their consent while pregnant.
Dr Sindi Van Zyl, who specialises in HIV with Anova, encouraged patients to know their rights in the face of violation by medical personnel and overcome all barriers by getting tested for HIV. She said “angry nurses” intimidated men from clinics, but they should just go and get tested anyway.
Van Zyl added that foreigners should be able to access anti-retroviral drugs. A memo was passed in 2008 to this effect.
Melissa Meyer, HIV and AIDS media project manager with Anova, said patients should not just accept bad treatment from nurses and doctors. “The same way you go to a restaurant and say: ‘This is not what I ordered,’ is the same way you should react when you get bad service at clinics.”
The HIV and AIDS Act of 2006 stipulates that “an HIV test on another person shall not be undertaken, except with the informed consent of the other person”.
charlotte@witsvuvuzela.com
by Hazel Meda | Aug 29, 2012 | News
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc1fIgMzGlA?list=UUTFGyhrB_f1N_9nwcNjvs0w&hl=en_US&w=560&h=315]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc1fIgMzGlA?rel=0]
A shy Wits metallurgical engineering student stole the show and walked away with the top prize in the Lover+another National Performance Poetry Challenge held at the Wits Theatre last Saturday night.
The competition was part of Drama for Life’s Sex Actually festival, which opened last week.
Nosipho Gumede blew the judges away with her poems The Breeze and I just pull up my panties and walk, on the theme of multiple concurrent sexual partners and the spread of HIV.
Gumede and fellow Witsie Vuyelwa Maluleke, 4th year drama, were chosen to represent Johannesburg in the regional finals held at the University of Johannesburg two weeks ago.
During Saturday’s grand slam, Gumede and Maluleke competed against 10 poets from Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Grahamstown, Durban and Zululand.
Gumede, who had never participated in a poetry competition before this, had modest expectations on Saturday night.
“Can I just get through to the second round so that I can get to say my second poem?” she told Wits Vuvuzela.
Her poem dealt with the way people fail to talk about their emotional problems, but try to “fix” themselves by “pulling up their panties and walking” into one sexual relationship after another. It had audience members clicking their fingers in appreciation.
Competition organiser Malika Ndlovu of Drama for Life said “originality of perspective” was one of the criteria in the judging. Gumede’s fresh angle and innovative metaphor was just what the judges were looking for and secured her a spot in the top six.
She performed another hard-hitting poem, comparing the way people ignore HIV prevention messages to the way they ignore the weatherman’s predictions that there will be a strong wind rather than just a breeze.
Maluleke’s poem He said was about a mistress who regretfully accepts that she and her lover “are not for keeps”.
Maluleke, who is well-known on the Jo’burg slam poetry scene, was disappointed not to make it into the Top six, but focused on the message rather than the outcome of the competition.
“I told them a story and I hope they heard it. If they heard the story, then that’s all that matters,” she said.
Gumede won R2000. The second and third prizes went to poets who used vernacular languages and audience involvement to great effect. Durban sound engineer Mzamo Dlamini won R1500, while Pietermaritzburg rapper Nqobile Ngcobo won R1000.
