The best of Wits Vuvuzela 2012 – in photos
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
Editorial: #NewVuvu
Tanyaradzwa Nyamajiyah Photo: Jay Caboz
It has been an eventful year at our university and Wits Vuvuzela has been part of it every step of the way. The story of the 17 dismissed chefs and the Wits academic strike were two of the major news events for us in a year that saw our team tackle the demands of digital journalism while continuing to expand our skills in the print environment.
The May 11 #newvuvu launched in celebration of Wits 90 ran a lead story on thousands of Wits res students who cancelled their dining hall meals in support of 17 unfairly dismissed chefs.
Wits Vuvuzela took the lead in covering the story, going beyond the labour dispute to the heart of the story revealing the personal circumstances of the people affected. We continue to cover this story in order to bring home the realities of unemployment in our country.
In August our online paper received 13 729 hits due to our coverage of the Wits academic strike.
Lecturers were striking after Wits failed to meet their demand of a 9% salary increase among other demands. Lectures were cancelled and Wits Vuvuzela production was postponed as its core readership, the students of Wits University, stood in solidarity with the lecturers. Given its proximity to the site of the strike Wits Vuvuzela was the first to break the news of the academic strike online.
Using social media to expand our reach has been a major achievement of the #newvuvu team of 2012. Wits Vuvuzela continues to exploit Twitter and Facebook in addition to other digital tools like curation and blogging in an effort to reach readership beyond the university and the community of Braamfontein.
Man dies after fire on campus
Suspected foul play has been ruled out as the cause of a fire in the Yale Road staff residential quarters on East Campus on Friday. The fire led to the death of David Sekhoela after he sustained critical injuries.
Sekhoela, a Servest worker, died in hospital on Saturday September 15.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
Most of the Yale Road residents are contract workers at Wits.
Richard Quinton, the responsible engineer at the Property and Infrastructure Management Division, said: “Many unsubstantiated rumours are being spread concerning the circumstances surrounding the case and [we are] considering conflicting statements received from various witnessing parties.”
No answers yet: Grieving Yale Road residents are awaiting the outcome of an investigation into the cause of the fire on Friday September 14.
Some of Sekhoela’s belongings removed from the blaze.
Sekhoela’s former roommate, Paul Skotho, was in Germiston on the night of the fire. He was informed of the incident by phone on Saturday.
He remembered Sekhoela as “a joyful person who enjoyed laughing”.
“He wasn’t very vocal, like if someone made him angry, he would get angry but he would be laughing the next day.”
Chairperson of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) at Wits and Yale Road resident, Richard Sadiki, said Sekhoela had complained that as a contract worker he was not allowed to use just any pedestrian entrance to Wits.
Sadiki said Sekhoela had jokingly said it was better for him to go home because he was a “prisoner” at Wits.
“Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if he had just gone home,” Sadiki said.
Each room in the Yale Road residence traditionally contributes R50 to housemates who have suffered personal tragedies or to the families of those who die. Recently, R1100 was raised for the family of late resident Samson Makhunga. Sadiki said Sekhoela had not contributed to the fund for Makhunga.
Asking for donations for Sekhoela at a house meeting on Tuesday, Sadiki appealed for housemates to give voluntarily “in an African way”.
“Even if he made a mistake when he was alive, we cannot just punish him because he didn’t agree with us.”
Wits acting registrar Nita Lawton-Misra conveyed condolences on behalf of the university.
“Our deepest sympathies go out to the family, friends and colleagues of Mr Sekhoela, and those who knew him well.”
This tragic incident is being investigated by the SAPS in collaboration with the health and safety manager of the company the victim worked for.
Published in Wits Vuvuzela 25th edition, 21st September 2012
Witsies ask for practical leaders
David Hornsby, International Relations lecturer who chaired the debate (left), with Prof Rob Moore, Deputy Vice Chancellor: Advancement and Partnerships.
The dispute between Wits management and unions is not a short-term fix, and should be addressed “very consciously and deliberately” by incoming members of the Senior Executive Team, according to Prof Rob Moore.
The Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC): Advancement and Partnerships was speaking at a Leadership Forum, organised by the Academic Staff Association of Wits University (ASAWU) on Monday, to debate the type of leadership needed at Wits.
The SET will undergo major changes soon, with the DVC: Academic, Prof Yunus Ballim, and the DVC: Finance and Operations, Prof Patrick Fitzgerald, vacating their offices at the end of this year.
Vice Chancellor Prof Loyiso Nongxa will end his extended five-year term in May 2013, and his post has been advertised as a vacancy.
Speaking in his personal capacity, Moore said the dispute had created a stressful time, but it was commendable that academics could have heated debates with management in Senate meetings, and still enjoy tea and sandwiches “in a perfectly amiable manner at tea time”.
Witsies at the forum said the new members of the SET needed to focus as much on the practical needs of the university as they would on strategic planning.
Pontsho Pilane, 1st year BA, said the ideal vice chancellor was someone who had been a student and a lecturer long enough to know what the “gist” of Wits was.
“We need a leader who values the fact that the academic staff and students run the university, and if it wasn’t for them, there wouldn’t be a Wits University.”
The race is on
Short-listed candidates for the DVC: Academic post delivered public presentations on Tuesday.
Prof Kuzvinetsa Dzvimbo, currently Executive Dean of the College of Education at the University of South Africa, said he was “very, very” interested in having a childcare facility for staff use on campus: a joint demand by Wits’ three unions in the current dispute.
Dzvimbo, who holds degrees from Sierra Leonean and Nigerian universities, said Wits needed to strengthen its relationships with other universities on the continent.
Prof Tahir Pillay, former Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said Wits must also look eastwards, and not forget that all of the top 100 universities are not in Europe and North America.
Prof Andrew Crouch, Dean of Science, said Wits was nearing the end of a phase of heavy infrastructural investment (R1.5bn in the past few years), and needed to build “academic proficiency on top of that infrastructure”.
Related Article
Witsie attacked by fellow student on campus
A female Wits student was lucky to have escaped unscathed after being attacked by a fellow student and his accomplice on Monday September 3. To add insult to injury the student, Boitumelo Moeketsi alleges that a Hillbrow police officer told the suspect that he should have proposed to her ‘the right way,’ while she was in the same room with them.
http://storify.com/akinoyedele/attack-west-campus
Update (September 7 2012): Michael Mahada, Campus Control investigations manager, said: “the involvement of this young man is disappointing as its shows that some of our students might have been involved in the previous muggings on campus.” The student will face disciplinary charges from the university after his release from prison.
Mistaken overdose at David Webster
A Res student representative has accused the Wits counselling unit of failing “students in crisis” following another suicide attempt at David Webster Hall this week.
A David Webster Hall resident overdosed on antidepressant pills in what friends said was an attempted suicide on Sunday evening, August 26.
Hall coordinator Prof Tumai Murombo said he received an alarming message from one of the student’s friends.
The student was transported to Milpark Hospital by Campus Control within an hour, according to investigations manager, Michael Mahada.
“The information recorded in an Occurence Book shows that CB1 made an entry at 19h39 about it and they again made a cross reference at 20h31 to effect that the sick student had been transported to Milpark Hospital.”
Mahada said Campus Control does not have the qualifications or personnel to run an ambulance service, but will call an ambulance if asked to.
Chairperson of David Webster Hall, Godfrey Dlamini, said the student refused to be admitted.
Dlamini, said this was one of about five attempted suicides at David Webster this year. In some cases, the same students have tried to kill themselves more than once.
Dlamini and the hall coordinators have had to chase suicidal students across the car park, trying to calm them down.
“Career Counselling and Development Unit (CCDU) promised to address a tailor-made workshop for the David Webster students last semester but up to now have not delivered. As psychological experts in the university, the CCDU has failed students in crisis,” said Dlamini.
Murombo said the reasons for attempting suicide went beyond academic difficulties and involved social difficulties as well.
Murombo also said the CCDU’s approach of treating students on a voluntary basis was failing because it is impersonal and technical.
“Students don’t want to be treated like patients, they feel alienated. The current counselling system is too formal and technical.
The CCDU needs to initiate therapy that takes the form of a social conversation. It’s a more effective way of picking up student issues before they get out of hand,” he said.
In response to David Webster, Toinette Bradley, therapy team leader of the CCDU, said that David Webster should follow up their request for a therapy workshop before exams arrived.
Bradley said they had received the case of a mistaken overdose and were in the process of addressing it.
“We cannot force anybody to come in and see us but we do try to get their family and friends to convince them to seek treatment with us,” she said.
Co-written with Akinoluwa Oyedele
Published in Wits Vuvuzela 22nd edition, 31st August 2012.
Witsie wins national Lover+another poetry competition
[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.
ALTSA leaders break ranks
Members from the unions ALTSA, ASAWU and NEHAWU gathered outside the Great Hall Steps at 12pm to protest the break down in wage negotiations with Wits Council. Photo by Jay Caboz
By Lisa Golden and Nandi Ndlazi
Photographs by Jay Caboz
Wits Administration, Library and Technical Staff Association (ALTSA) leadership accepted the terms offered by Wits management after last-minute negotiations last night but failed to inform some of their members of this decision. This left the Academic Staff Association of Wits University (ASAWU) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) to strike by themselves today August 28 against Wits management.
This morning confused ALTSA members arrived at the picketing lines, unaware that their leaders had accepted an agreement with Wits management the night before. Some were confused and frustrated when they found out.
This is the second strike by the academic unions this month. They are demanding an increase in salaries for workers, an agreement to structure salaries around the 75th percentile, resolve issues with parking and provide a childcare facility for workers among other issues.
Ian Walters, and ALTSA member and an administrator in the Wits School of Arts, was unaware that ALTSA had backed out of the strike, and only found out when he arrived at campus in the morning.
“I’m staying on strike because I’m in support of NEHAWU and ASAWU. That was the original idea,” said Walters.
Adele Underhay, the president of ALTSA, was unavailable for comment, and some members of the union also couldn’t reach her.
David Dickinson, president of ASAWU said it was regrettable that ALTSA leaders had chosen to break ranks. “I respect the independence as a union and the decision of their leadership is what they must account for to their membership” Dickinson said.
Negotiations between the Wits Executive Council and ASAWU, ALTSA and NEHAWU was re-opened a day before the strike. Photo by Jay Caboz
The Wits Senate (the academic leadership forum) made a call to halt the striking unions “without further delay”. Photo by Jay Caboz
Fellow ALTSA members expressed their disappointment in their leadership’s acceptance of management’s offers. Barbie Pickering from the finance faculty said she didn’t know about their union pulling out at the eleventh hour and they only received the e-mail this morning.
“We went into this thing to support all the unions. We are not happy with our union leadership on that,” said Pickering.
The rally, which started at noon, had speakers that reiterated the unions’ demands. Carl Beaumont, an ASAWU member, congratulated the ALTSA members who turned up at the rally while fellow strikers applauded the group.
The Student Representation Council and the Wits Workers Solidarity Committee again pledged their support for the striking unions.
The final word from Beaumont was that the unions are prepared to strike again if their demands are not properly discussed and considered during negotiations.
nandi@witsvuvuzela.com
lisa@witsvuvuzela.com
PYA dominates SRC again
Incumbent SRC president Tebogo Thothela.
Photo: Jay Caboz
The Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) fell one candidate short of a third consecutive clean sweep in this year’s SRC elections.
Wits Registrar Kirti Menon announced the results to over 100 students outside the Great Hall steps on Friday August 24.
Members and supporters of the PYA formed a circle and had been singing for at least an hour before the announcement. Of the 30 403 students on the voter’s roll there was only a 20% voter turnout, a 4% increase from last year.
The 2012/2013 SRC election results
The top 15 candidates will form next year’s SRC.
PYA candidates and members marched to the Matrix after the announcement to celebrate their victory. Torn campaign posters belonging to the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) were seen along the route they took although it is not clear who was responsible for this.
In a related issue, Dominic Khumalo, a PYA candidate, was apparently excluded from the elections, although the chief electoral officer confirmed that he submitted a letter withdrawing his nomination.
SRC election candidate claims election exclusion
A Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) candidate was apparently removed from the ballot list days before the SRC elections.
Dominic Khumalo, 4th year LLB, claims the Legal Office recommended his removal and the decision was made at a meeting between senior Wits management and the Dean of students on Friday August 17.
A notice outside polling stations warned students that voting for ‘candidate 5’ would spoil their ballot.
Earlier this year, Khumalo and fellow members of the Men’s Res house committee were suspended and temporarily evicted for misconduct, after they allegedly disrupted an inter-residence talent show during orientation week.
But Jabu Mashinini, chief electoral officer, said Khumalo withdrew his nomination, and has confirmed that she is in possession of a withdrawal letter from him.
“It was a personal choice. He decided to withdraw for personal reasons and we had to get permission from the VC because withdrawal for nomination had closed already,” she said.
Khumalo said he was not officially informed of the decision and went to confirm with deputy vice chancellor Yunus Ballim if the “rumour” was true. According to Khumalo, Ballim confirmed that he had been excluded.
Khumalo said he consulted with an advocate who advised him that a High Court interdict for the elections was his only form of redress. However, he did not get the interdict because it was expensive, and he did not want to seem power-hungry.
Khumalo said he had written a “very long letter” to the president and the Minister of Higher Education, and was waiting for a response.
Last year, Feziwe Ndwanyana , a PYA candidate, was excluded the day before the elections. She had been found guilty of misconduct during the student protest against fee increments in 2009.
Ballim and Prem Coopoo, dean of students, were approached for comment but had not yet responded at the time of going to print.
Published in Wits Vuvuzela 21st edition, 24th August 2012
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TEDx comes to Wits
A diverse audience gathered at the Wits Theatre on Thursday August 23 for the first TedxWitsUniversity event. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, started as a four-day conference in California 26 years ago, and has grown to become a global non-profit organisation.
http://storify.com/akinoyedele/tedx-comes-to-wits
Accountability within the SRC questioned
Photo: Akinoluwa Oyedele
SRC election candidates squared off on campus radio debating one party rule, amongst other issues, just a week before students cast their votes.
Representatives from the incumbent Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) and two independent candidates participated in a live election debate on Voice of Wits’ current affairs show Breaking Ground on Wednesday night.
DASO said open debate is restricted if there are not multiple parties in the SRC.
SRC elections will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday (August 21 and 22), with the PYA’s 15 candidates hoping to create a single party council for the third year in a row.
In minutes pinned on its notice board, the SRC lists as a concern “not being able to hold each other accountable on a proper platform”.
Erin Mc Luckie, DASO candidate, said the SRC would be more effective with management in solving students’ issues if it was more diverse.
“Currently, they are speaking about ‘PYA-led SRC’… it is easy to brush off one organisation,” she said.
Candidates in the debate pointed out the PYA is made up of diverse organisations, including the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) and the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) at Wits.
Earlier this month, the SRC negotiated for students who are neither able to afford the upfront registration fee nor qualify for financial aid, to be able to register for free for the first two weeks of term.
Despite this, Mc Luckie said there was “no doubt” the current SRC had done “good things” and independent candidate Welcome Lishivha said he gave credit where it was due.
The candidates also debated the SRC’s accessibility. Tiisetso Murray, an independent candidate, said the SRC’s “poor communication” prevented him from starting a club.
“It seems like the SRC forgot,” said Murray.
Pearl Pillay, PYA candidate, said the outgoing SRC, which had nearly 2000 followers on Twitter at the time of going to print, had been described as one of the best communicating councils students have had in years.
“If you tweet the SRC and you do not get a response in 10 minutes maximum, then either Vodacom or your network is down, or the SRC has crawled into some cave and I don’t see any caves at Wits,” she said.
Published in Wits Vuvuzela 20th edition, 17 August 2012
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