Alumni wants Wits to sing a new song

by | 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.

RUGBY: Engineers disqualified from internal league, Men’s Res back in the game

by | Sep 2, 2014 | Sport

Engineers in a huddle at the Wednesday night game where they beat Men's Residence, 10 - 5. Photo: Tendai Dube

DISQUALIFIED: Engineers in a huddle at the Wednesday night game where they beat Men’s Residence, 10 – 5. Photo: Tendai Dube

The Wits Engineers rugby team has been disqualified from the internal rugby league for fielding players in breach of regulations.

The team will not play in the semi-finals tomorrow night after it was found that two of the team members who won 10-5 against Men’s Res last week, belong to other clubs.

The disqualification was confirmed today by the team’s captain, Matthew Peter, and league coordinator Alan Leonard.

The league’s regulations dictate that “a player that has played for any other club during a specific calendar year, whether it was in a friendly or in a league match, will not be allowed to participate in the competition during that specific year.”

According to Leonard, the Engineers’ captain requested permission on the morning of the game to allow a Pirates club member to play that evening but he (Leonard) denied the request. Engineers opted to field the player anyways.

“In our opinion, what would have been more fair is to discuss the terms of a rematch,” said Peter.

“As a whole the internal league has very few Wits students to begin with, there aren’t that many Wits students who are keen to come down and play internal rugby, which is a problem. If that’s the case, you’re forced to bring in outside players.”

Peter also said the issue is more about the handling of the disqualification and how Men’s Res only complained at the end of the match when they knew who the two players were from the beginning.

“Literally, as I walked off the field I was pulled into a meeting, I was standing there in my full kit, sweating off the field, having to explain the two players’ status (sic),” said Peter.

According to Leonard, the Engineers have accepted the ruling and the disqualification from the competition.

As a result of the team’s disqualification, Men’s Res has been granted a second chance to move forward in pursuit of being titled the internal league winners in the final next week Wednesday.

“We are very grateful to be given a second chance and in all honesty we think we deserve it,” said Sbonga Mthalane, Men’s Residence captain.

The semi-final will be an all “M” final, with Masakhane, Medics, Monash and Mens Res, thrashing it out in the hopes of becoming one of the two remaining teams to go head-to-head in the finals the following week.

The lineup sees Masakane playing the first game against the second time lucky Men’s Res, and Medics versus the newcomers to the league, Monash.

The semi-finals are this Wednesday, September 3, from 7 pm on Rugby Field A on East Campus.

 

 

 

 

Monash University beats Steinhoff SHA in night of rugby

by | Apr 17, 2014 | Sport

Monash and SHA tackle on the field for the ball.

Monash and SHA tackle on the field for the ball. Photo: Lutho Mtongana

Monash University won its internal rugby league match against Steinhoff South African Hellenic Association (SHA) on Wednesday, 31 to 25, but left many of its fans frustrated with their poor defense.

Steinhoff was racing for the goal line but while Monash players surrounded the ball-handler, none made an attempt to tackle, giving away an easy try.

“Do they play touch rugby when they practise?” one Monash fan said with frustration.

Steinhoff SHA’s strong tackling helped them keep up with Monash and with the score staying neck and neck throughout the match. After the first half, Monash led with 15 points while SHA was behind with only 10.

Despite the frustration from Monash supporters during the match, they were filled with enthusiasm and delight when their team ended with a victory against SHA.

Monash player Chris Ndanga said his team had one with several new players, with only four or five senior members on the field.

“They [SHA] tackled high which made them easy to defend off considering most of the guys in our team are smaller,” said Ndanga.

Ndanga acknowledged that the margin of victory could have been greater if they had given away fewer errors.

“I feel we could have won by a bigger margin if it wasn’t for a few defensive and handling errors,” Ndanga said.

The Monash match was one of three played on Wednesday night.  In the other matches, Commerce took on the Midrand Graduate Institute (MGI) Tigers and Masakhane faced Men’s Residence.

MGI Tigers, who are newcomers to the internal rugby league, got off to a bad start and wound up losing to Commerce with a score of 7 to 16.

Widely considered to be one of the best teams in the internal league, Masakhane won with a score of 26 to 0 against Men’s Residence, even after three of their players were injured and had to be replaced.

Another two matches were scheduled for the evening, Engineers versus Knockando and the Medics versus SAUJS, but were cancelled because one of the fields was closed.

Despite the cold weather, the crowd sang songs and roared with energy throughout the night. Monash received the greatest support as family, friends and schoolmates came out to watch them leave Wits rugby grounds victoriously.

Rands short of a picnic

by | Sep 21, 2012 | News

THE MEN’S Res house committee claims it does not have enough funds to subsidise the raiders for the All Res picnic.
Men’s Res house committee chairperson, Sanele Nene, said the house committee subsidised students for the All Res picnic.
“We could not raise enough funds to subsidise students to the extent that we would like,” Nene said.
Rob Sharman of Campus Housing and Residence Life said: “As the Men’s Res house committee receives one of the largest annual grants of any residence, I am not sure why they should have a shortfall.
“I have asked for a full analysis of their expenditure to date, and am happy to meet with the house committee to discuss their concerns,” Sharman said.
Nene said the reason they could not fully subsidise raiders was because of the suspension and the cancelled party.
Nene said that throughout the year Men’s Res was expected to schedule events and that the profits from these events are used to subsidise the cost of the picnic. He said they also subsidise the jackets sold to raiders.
Earlier this year the Men’s Res house committee was suspended for misconduct during orientation. Three house committee members resigned because of “frustrations” from management and the cancellation of a scheduled party.
Chairperson of the All Residence Council, Justice Nkomo, said they had a meeting on Monday September 17 with the Men’s Res house committee and “we told them that we expect Men’s Res to be there [at the picnic] and we want them to subsidise students because the amount was too much”.
He said they expected Men’s Res to fill at least 22 seats in the transport used to get to the picnic venue.
Nene said no one at Men’s Res was boycotting the All Res picnic. He said that because of the price, raiders were just not interested in going to the picnic.
“Gone are those days we used to pay R100 and get 24 drinks!” says an e-mail circulating among raiders at Men’s Res. “Wits management is trying by all means to cancel this important event and I think they are succeeding.”
Nkomo said: “management has always been very unfair when it comes to Men’s Res”.
“The issue here is that Men’s Res is trying to sabotage management and management is trying to sabotage Men’s Res.
“They don’t have the same attitude towards the other residences.”
“I am not sure where these allegations stem from”, said Sharman.
The All Res picnic is on Saturday and costs R130.

Published in Last Print Edition of WitsVuvuzela for 2012.