Senior Executive Team contracts up for review
Two members of the Wits Senior Executive Team (SET) have indicated that they do not intend to renew their contracts which will be coming to an end between December 2017 and late 2018. (more…)
Leaked recording confirms Wits SRC president has been suspended
SUSPENDED: Wits SRC president, Mcebo Dlamini during his speech at the Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) rally this week. Photo: Reuven Blignaut.
By Lutho Mtongana and Ilanit Chernick
Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) president Mcebo Dlamini has been suspended from his position, according to a leaked recording of an emergency meeting between the student leaders and Dean of Students Dr Pamela Dube.
In the recording obtained by Wits Vuvuzela, Dube told SRC members on Monday that a disciplinary hearing had found Dlamini guilty of “assaulting” and insulting senior members of university staff via emails at the end of last year.
As a result, Dlamini has been suspended from his duties as SRC president but would be able to continue studying as a student.
“He is still allowed to carry on with his studies and is still a Wits student during this period,” Dube said in the meeting.
Dlamini was also given a suspended sentence of expulsion for one year, meaning that if he is found guilty of another offence in the next year he will be automatically expelled from the institution.
Dube told the SRC members that Dlamini would have 14 days to appeal the judgement.
Wits Vuvuzela contacted Dube for comment but
was not able to get a response as of press time.
Community service changed to expulsion
Initially, Dlamini had faced two charges of assault and insulting senior members of staff, the first incident taking place before he was elected SRC president. One of the university staff members was director of Residence Life Rob Sharman. The two charges were later combined into a single charge presented at the disciplinary hearing.
Dlamini had been given a punishment for the first charge of 25 hours of community service. Later, this was changed to the suspended sentence of expulsion.
In the recording, Dube said the SRC deputy president, Shaeera Kalla, would become acting president pending Dlamini’s appeal.
“We wish it could be different, we wish they [charges] hadn’t happened … Mcebo knew this was coming”
Dube said that depending on the outcome of the appeal, the SRC would have to “sit down together and try and find a way forward”.
If the appeal “yielded negative outcomes” Dlamini would have to stand down as the SRC president for good. However, if Dlamini wins his appeal he can return to his position.
“We wish it could be different, we wish they [the charges] hadn’t happened … Mcebo knew this was coming,” Dube said in the recording.
However, Dube said the disciplinary process had to unfold despite Dlamini’s status as SRC president: “We don’t just ignore this because someone is a CEO or the SRC president.”
Both Dlamini and Kalla were not available for comment.
Wits Vuvuzela has previously reported that on Feb 28 Dlamini apparently made two Facebook posts announcing his resignation. In one of the posts he said that vice chancellor Prof Adam Habib had used the “racist zionist controlled” Wits Legal Office to find him guilty of misconduct and sentenced him one year of expulsion from the university.
The posts were subsequently deleted hours later.
Photographs celebrate hairy diversity
HOT SHOTS: Winners of the “Identity Through Hair” photographic competition, were announced last night at the John Moffat auditorium. From left: Junaid Sheik Hussein (public vote winner), Lanice Jegels (second place), Ntokozo Xaba (first place), Realeboga Lebogang Oagile (fifth place) and Lindiwe Gugushe (third place). Photo: Luke Matthews
This year’s tranformation photography competition celebrated diversity and “identity through hair” at Wits University. Winners were announced last night at an exhibition at the John Moffat Building showcasing the best of the photographs submitted by students.
The competition, run by the Wits Transformation Office, was described by Prof Tawana Kupe (Wits deputy vice-chancellor), as “an important occasion that happens every year.”
“A picture shows a thousand words about identity… Art expresses transformation, it also feeds into identities,” he said.
Ntokozo Xaba, 3rd year BSc Urban Regional Planning won the competition with her photograph of a young woman standing on a rooftop in Hillbrow, overlooking the city.
Xaba said because she lives in Hillbrow, she can’t afford the luxury of taking a walk outside for fresh air. “So, I go to the rooftop to unwind and get inspired.”
Lanice Jegels, 3rd year BA Psychology took second place. The subjects in her photograph, all women, were of different races, body shapes and had different hairstyles. “The world informs us on how to express identity … In South Africa we see identity as colour,” she said.
Marcel Kutumela took 3rd place, Lindiwe Gugushe took 4th place and Realeboga Oagile was placed 5th. Junaid Sheik Hussein, 2nd year BSc Civil Eng, won on the public vote via Facebook, for the second year in a row.
The theme, “identity through hair” was selected as people are discriminated against because of their different hair types. Instead, “we should use hair to celebrate diversity,” said Pura Mgolombane, manager of diversity, ethics & social justice at the Transformation Office.
Winning entries will be part of the new exhibition about hair and African art at the Wits Art Museum.
RELATED ARTICLES:
- Wits Vuvuzela. Photography exhibition illuminates he inner city. April 24, 2013.
Immigration laws snare lecturers
REGULATION WAR: Deputy Vice-chancellor Tawana Kupe outlines effects the new immigration regulations will have on the functioning of the university.
Photo: Palesa Tshandu
SOUTH Africa’s new immigration laws have left international lecturers in a regulatory crossfire creating a headache for universities across the country.
A researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) Roni Amit said the new laws have created less flexibility for lecturers who are currently working in the country under the exceptional skills visa.
“They [South African government] have eliminated the exceptional skills visa. Individuals must now apply for a critical skills visa,” said Amit.
The critical skills visa would require individuals to submit the work they have done to support the claims of their qualifications including a published list of their skills, said Amit.
This means that foreign lecturers without doctoral degrees will not qualify for this visa “unless they fall under one of the other published categories of skills”.
Opposing Immigration Laws
This could make the transition from researcher to lecturer more difficult, according to Amit.
“We are opposing the law, but while we are opposing it we actually have to obey it,” said Deputy Vice-chancellor Prof Tawana Kupe.
“We have sent in representations to say that the law will affect the way that we function as universities, those representations will be done through HESA (Higher Education South Africa),” said Kupe.
Kupe said Wits had co-ordinated a meeting together with the Department of Home Affairs with 26 human resource officers from the country’s universities. They met to discuss the new laws and express their frustration with the laws, Kupe said.
The university has taken measures to ensure the government is aware of the implications the new regulations will have on how the university functions.
“We have sent in representations to say that the law will affect the way that we function as universities, those representations will be done through HESA (Higher Education South Africa),” said Kupe.
Dr Ufuoma Akpojioi, a lecturer in the media studies department who is originally from Nigeria said the new regulations are “strange” and make it difficult for his family to visit him here.
According to Amit, aspirant researchers who want to complete a doctoral or post-doctoral degree in South Africa will also be affected by the new regulations.
An International Dilemma
Researchers will have to apply for a visitor’s visa which will have had to be authorised through university-based research, the regulations however will “not allow a holder of a visitor’s visa to apply for a different visa from inside the country”.
Overstaying your welcome in the country could result in being declared as “undesirable” meaning that individuals could be banned from the country for one to five years, said Amit.
“I was in Italy and the United Kingdom recently and all South Africans expressed their concern – there is a lack of faith in home affairs’ efficiency,” said senior lecturer in Italian studies Alida Poeti.
However not all international lecturers will be affected by the regulations as “it depends on what permit they have”, said Kupe.
Head of International Office Gita Patel will be responsible for organising international staff members with the eligible paperwork.
Academics critical of Wits in a survey
WITS university management have welcomed the recent survey featuring academic staff concerns of governance and salaries at the university.
The survey titled Whither Wits? was commissioned by the Academic Staff Association at Wits University (Asawu) and features 400 academic staff who voiced their grievances in their line of work.
“Asawu felt that it was time to get a sense of how academics perceive the institution and how they feel in relation to the university affecting academic life, especially with new management, “ acting vice president Fiona Horne told Wits Vuvuzela.
Asawu last commissioned a survey to gauge academic staff perceptions of the university in 2010.
Since then Horne said there have been a lot of critical issues affecting the university and widespread dissatisfaction amongst academics.
Issues raised in the survey
The number one widespread dissatisfaction among academic staff is salaries.
“Few people are happy with salary levels, which received a satisfaction rating of only 5.1%, while satisfaction rating for individual’s own position on the salary scale was 8.7%,” the report read.
The academics also took a swipe at the poor communication process with management regarding salaries at Wits.
The union representing Wits academic staff proposes that the university should use the bench-marking system, where salaries are compared with those offered at other universities.
Horne added: “If you are a lecturer you must be paid as a lecturer and not a tutor.”
[pullquote]It’s spot on [on] some of the issues of service delivery. We are on to those issues of service delivery. Some of the issues raised in the survey are historical issues. Some are quite regular issues that were raised by the survey[/pullquote]The university is generally not well governed, that is according to academics in the survey.
“This issue received a dissatisfaction rating of 64.6% of the sample with comments focusing on management’s distance from and inability to hear both staff and student concerns,” the report said.
Wits management responds
Deputy vice chancellor of finance and operations Prof Tawana Kupe confirmed receiving the report and told Wits Vuvuzela that by the time the survey was released the university had already started to address the issues raised.
“It’s spot on [on] some of the issues of service delivery. We are onto those issues of service delivery. Some of the issues raised in the survey are historical issues. Some are quite regular issues that were raised by the survey,” said Kupe.
He also said the issues identified in the survey are justified.
Horne said Asawu has the confidence in the new management, led by incoming vice chancellor Prof Adam Habib (@AdHabb), but cautioned that some issues affecting academic staff are not simple to address.
More issues plaguing academics
Another point of contention at Wits according to Horne is medical aid contribution.
She added: “Over 60% of staff are on maximum contribution. The vice chancellor and tutors are paying the exact amount of medical aid. It’s unfair, and it’s a huge chunk of their salary.”
Horne said another big issue academics are faced with is the workload, as they have to cope with teaching large class sizes and the pressure to do research.
“Demands are made on us. People are feeling tired and frustrated,” she said.
Alleged unfilled vacancies
Earlier this year Wits Vuvuzela reported that the academic union was concerned with unfilled vacancies at the university, which management denied that this was the case. The union also alleged that the number of unfilled vacancies has cost the university “R 100-million”.
“Certain departments are definitely under-staffed. That’s the trend in all universities, especially with the incoming vice chancellor’s [plans] to make it [Wits] a research intensive university. It’s all fine but, when academics are not getting the support they need, they’ve got huge workloads, it puts them in stressful conditions, “she said.
Kupe said the university has a policy of having a three month window period to replace staff members who have vacated their positions.
Other conditions of service raised in the survey are the lack of parking spaces on campus, the need for child care facilities and academic leave taken by teaching commitments.
Despite the issues raised by Asawu, Horne said academics are proud to be working at the institution.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Wits Vuvuzela, Vacancies worry academics, April 5, 2013
- Wits Vuvuzela, Asawu remains in wage dispute,February 6, 2013
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- BONUS: What do Witsies have to say about the ongoing #WitsShutdown?Today we’re taking a look at the #WitsShutdown protests which are over historical debt and unaffordable accommodation, which have seen several students suspended, physical clashes between protestors and security and disruptions to the academic programme for many. In this bonus episode of We Should Be Writing, we let students unpack their views on what has […]