witsreview december 2015 vol 33

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December 2015 | WITSReview | 1

EDITORIAL

They have also grown up with the rise of social

media, which has profoundly democratised

communication, discourse, and the dissemination

of ideas on a global scale. Experiences, images and

ideas can be shared instantly and globally with millions.

Communities, constituencies, and even nations can be

mobilised in a way that was never possible before.

We are still coming to understand the wave of student

protests that spread throughout the country in October

2015 - and its implications - but we know that 20

years after the end of apartheid, there is a disconnect

between the promise of democracy and the harsh

reality of continuing poverty and inequality. Even the

ideal of a rainbow nation is undermined by ongoing

prejudice, discrimination and race-based solidarity.

Whilst older generations who experienced the horror

of apartheid may be complacent in the knowledge

that lives have vastly improved under freedom and

democracy, “born frees” are not using life under

apartheid as a yardstick.

Frustration at continuing disparities in wealth, access

and opportunity has been brewing and significant

student fee increases for 2016 provided the spark

to ignite nation-wide student protests. The rapidity,

intensity, extent, and form the protest action took were

unexpected, signalling that students are organising in

new ways and testing boundaries.

No-one can predict how this will play out in the new

year, but we may have seen only the beginning of this

new wave of student activism.

A new generation has found its voice and is

determined to use it to ensure access to education.

As in the past, Witsies are at the forefront of this new

struggle. Our challenge it to ensure that protest is

peaceful and that the right to learn is not ironically

infringed by those fighting for greater access to

learning.

This is also a moment for national reflection and

introspection by political, civil, business, religious,

and university leaders. There are systemic failures in

our society that must be resolved if we are to create

a prosperous and inclusive society with education

opportunities for all.

Peter Maher Director: Alumni Relations

A new generation

finds its voice

From the day they were born the current generation of students have been told they are special. They have spent their whole lives being reminded that they are the “born free” generation. This has instilled a sense of destiny and expectation. They expect that the promises that accompanied liberation and democracy will be fulfilled.

2 | WITSReview | December 2015

10

CONTENTS1 EDITORIAL

4 LETTERS

6 SOCIAL

8 PHILANTHROPY: GIFT FUNDS NEW

CHAIR IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS

10 #FEESMUSTFALL

24 FUNDING THE FUTURE

25 NOT POOR ENOUGH

26 WITS SPORT SERIES: ADRIAN CARTER

FIGHTING FOR THAT INCH

32 1975 WITS UNIVERSITY BOAT CLUB

33 KARATE: SIMBARASHE TEVERA

34 ROWING: DAN ROBINSON

36 Q&A WITH MARK MIDDLEWICK:

TELLING STORIES IN HOLLYWOOD


38 MUKOVHE MORRIS MASUTHA:

A MAN CALLED MUKOVHE

46 THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS:

WHAT HOMO NALEDI MEANS TO WITS

53 WITSIES WITH THE WRITING EDGE

56 BOOK REVIEWS

60 OBITUARIES

67 WITS END

46

36

Carl & Emily Fuchs Foundation Top Achiever Award 2015 (MACE)

Best External Magazine 2015, 2012 & 2010 (MACE)

Best External Magazine 2014, 2013, 2012 & 2011 (SA Publication Forum)

Cover: Recent student protests were symbolised by #FeesMustFall. See story on pgs.10-25. Typography by Nicole Sterling

Editor:

Peter Maher [email protected]

Contributors:

Heather Dugmore [email protected]

Deborah Minors [email protected]

Kathy Munro [email protected]

Keyan G Tomaselli [email protected]

Design & Layout:

Nicole Sterling [email protected]

Printing: Colorpress (Pty) Limited

Published by the Office of Alumni Relations, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Address: Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050, South Africa. Tel: +27 (0)11 717 1090 | Fax: 0864 064 146. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.wits.ac.za/alumni Update contact details: www.wits.ac.za/alumni/update

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WITSReview is published three times a year. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor, the Office of Alumni Relations or of the University of the Witwatersrand. © Copyright of all material in this publication is vested in the authors thereof. Requests to reproduce any of the material should be directed to the editor.

mailto:[email protected]








Raikes Memorial

Dear Editor,

What happened to the Raikes Memorial Match opening the season, when past Wits RF players vs. the current selection played? At one Rugby Committee meeting in 1955, Frank Lucas (then Secretary) and I (Chairman) founded the match. When it succumbed I do not know. Humphrey Raikes, model of a Vice-Chancellor, worthy successor to Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, had died a while previously.

Mark Lowenthal (MBBCh 1957), Israel

Ed. The Raikes Memorial still takes place. It is Wits Rugby’s season closer. Contenders in 2015 included Wits Old Boys vs. Pirates Madalas. The main game pitted Wits XV against Suparugby Invitational XV (comprising the best of other clubs), which the Invitational XV won by two points in the final minutes.

Lady Felicia’s legacy

Dear Editor,

Thank you for yet another remarkable WITSReview. Even though I have been living and working in Australia for more than 35 years, and probably nearing the end of my legal career, I have continued to acknowledge everything that Wits enabled me to do, and to form the lawyer I became.

The obituary to Lady Felicia Kentridge (WR July 2015) was particularly poignant. Felicia inspired and motivated her flock of well-meaning, innocent students at the Law Faculty's legal aid service at Riverleigh and on campus. She was a vivacious, patient and inspiring teacher. Felicia fostered and cemented a lifelong commitment to human rights and the rule of law, both of which remain under serious challenge here in Australia today. We, her grateful former students, will remember her fondly.

This edition of WITSReview made me feel as if I was still in Jo’burg! It just felt so intimate and connected to the University. I really enjoyed it and really appreciate the effort you and your staff put into creating this profession-al and interesting communication.

John Bolitho (BCom 1971, LLB 1975), Australia

Wits University Boat Club buoyant

Dear Editor,

I was in the 1975 Henley rowing crew; an incredible period of my life. We have just had a 40 year reunion this last July at Henley. Guys came from all over the world and we borrowed a boat and had a few outings on the Thames. The 1980 crew joined us (John Myburgh – son of Bertie Myburgh who was Professor of Surgery at Wits – John Stark, Andy Pike and others, all Witsies of

course); a wonderful experience. We and others really believe that the training we did for Henley in ‘75 was a turning point for SA rowing in general. The stimulus and standards set then put the country on the world rowing map, as the recent Olympics showed. Wynand “Wig” Dreyer was the captain during my Wits days, and he continues to devote a huge amount of time and energy to SA rowing. He is currently involved with getting WUBC into peak form again, and both crews (1975 and 1980) will be doing our bit with financial help.

PS. As it was a first for SA (and there-fore Wits) I will mention that I was the first South African to summit an 8000m mountain in 1995, Cho-Oyo (8200m), about a Table Mountain lower than Everest.

Ian Woods (BSc 1977), Cape Town

Interesting alumni

Dear Editor,

Kudos on the latest WITSReview (July 2015), full of interesting articles on interesting people. I was intrigued by Dr Ashley Davidoff because of my semi-medical background, as well as being an amateur painter and ceramic sculptor. So I looked him up – fascinating!

I was also tickled by the bit on Dr Alan Menter and remembered the time I got a lift down to Cape Town with him – sometime in the early ‘60s.

Errata • Mr Black Illuminated (WR July 2015, pg. 7) incorrectly stated that Bram Fischer led the defence team in the Rivonia and Treason trials. Israel Maisels (BA 1926, LLB 1928, honorary LLD 1978) in fact led the defence team. • 10 Top Witsie Distance Runners (WR July 2015, pg. 27) incorrectly stated that Bruce Fordyce’s best time for a Comrades Marathon win was 5:27:42 in 1988. In fact, he won in 5:24:07 in 1986. We regret the inaccuracies.

LETTERS


LETTERS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME AND CAN BE SENT C/O THE ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE OR E-MAIL [email protected].

I was supposed to share the driving so he could catch a nap occasionally, but he had a rude awakening in the middle of the night, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, when the car went bumpity-bump and he found we had a flat tyre, which he had to change.

On the other hand, I couldn’t under-stand Dr Fred Sanders’ eagerness to “disown Wits” and reject his BDS. I wouldn’t want to reject my PhD because of what a bunch of hotheads spout at a rowdy meeting. I worked jolly hard for that degree, as I’m sure he did, and nothing will take it away!

Dr Jenni Tsafrir (BSc 1960, BSc Hons 1964, PhD 1969), Israel

Accessing evolution for humanity

The Editor,

The muddled thinking of the ex-president of the SRC, Mcebo Dlamini, is a side-effect of the failure of our education system and Wits itself to spread an understanding of evolution and all that it reveals about human beings in the world.

We were unfortunate in having a government which clung to false science and wrong ideas of inherited intelligence, using them to establish an unjust society. Apartheid forbade the teaching of evolution in schools and this was combined effectively with its practical policies to keep alive the poisonous ideas of the European conservatives and their Nazi friends, long after they had been abandoned by the rest of the world, especially after the consequences had been seen in the destruction during the Second World War.

Contemporary science does not find evidence of separate races yet I won-der how much of this has penetrated our South African culture. A survey of Wits students would, I suggest, reveal that most believe that they belong to a particular race, separate from other races. This belief in separate races is inimical to social cohesion, tolerance, and fairness. It weakens modern scientific thinking and allows more room for flourishing ignorance and superstition to hold our country back. To counter this, why does Wits not make it compulsory for all students to attend a free lecture on evolution at the Origins Centre? All staff should be included.

It is so horribly depressing to see that the business frenzy has so suffused every aspect of Wits that there is a charge to visit this museum, and a bigger charge to have a guided tour. Charging for entry to any museum is harmful, especially considering the educational deficit we have to make up.

Joyce Ozynski (BA Hons 1973), Johannesburg

The Man who drove with Mandela

Dear Editor,

Deborah Minors’ article (WR March 2015) about the sculpture Release honouring Nelson Mandela at the site where he was captured in 1962, in what was then either Zululand or Natal, is part of the story of that eventful trip which needs to be told in full, and probably needs a sculpture supplemented to honour the man who was with Mandela when the capture took place.

Cecil Williams had gone to fetch Mandela from a meeting in Natal and they were returning to Johannesburg. Quoting from the DVD called The Man who Drove with Mandela, the story unfolds as follows:

“Driving a gleaming Austin Westminster, Mandela was able to travel around the country by disguising himself as a chauffeur for an elegant, impeccably dressed white man. That man, Cecil Williams, was a leading Johannesburg theatre director and a committed anti-apartheid freedom fighter.”

In fact, Cecil Williams was so very much more than that. When WWII started on 3 September 1939, he was teaching English at King Edward VII High School in Johannesburg. He had a flat in Anstey’s Building in Joubert Street and, apart from his gay activities which some of us at the school had heard about, he was involved with the South African Communist Party. He also broadcast on SABC and acted in theatre. When the war started he joined the navy (he was an Englishman) and after the war his political activities increased until the fateful day when he was in the car with Mandela, the whereabouts of whom had been revealed to the South African authorities by those in the USA who didn’t want apartheid to end.

Cecil Williams needs to be recorded historically in the South African anti-apartheid struggle, and the DVD of this episode is well worth seeing. Actor Corin Redgrave plays Cecil Williams in the 1998 film directed by Greta Schiller.

Mannie De Saxe (BSc Eng Mech 1951), Australia



ALUMNI ROCK 111TH GEOSCIENCES REUNION The School of Geosciences held its inaugural alumni event on 7 March 2015 to celebrate the School’s

111th anniversary. Over 100 alumni and their partners enjoyed a tour of the new geoscience facilities,

which include a seismic research centre and microprobe, as well as a tour of the museum at the

Evolutionary Studies Institute and of the petrology lab with 70 microscopes. Lunch at the Wits Club on

West Campus included talks about the School’s history and the changing landscape of student funding.

The Geoscience Alumni Scholarship fund was duly established. VIEW PHOTOS

A FIRST FOR ZIMBABWE About 80 guests attended the first ever Zimbabwe alumni reunion,

held on 25 September at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Harare.

Alumni Relations Director Peter Maher presented an overview of

the alumni programme and the various ways in which alumni in

Zimbabwe could engage with each other and with the University.

In his keynote address, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Advancement,

Human Resources & Transformation Professor Tawana Kupe

(himself Zimbabwean) spoke about research progress and initiatives

at Wits that ensured the University was responsive to national and

African concerns while remaining globally competitive.

Prof. Kupe also pointed out that Wits had produced a large

number of graduates who were leaders in politics, business and

civil society and that 80% of Wits graduates found

employment within three months of completing their

studies. VIEW PHOTOS

Top: (L-R) Blessing Mandeya, Phil Kufakwaro, Ray Zvoushe and Tasha Basopo. Left: (Seated L-R) Tatenda Ngandu, Khumbula Mkandla, Trevor Chimombe, –, Precious Chitsunge, Sinini Ndlovu.

SOC

IAL

https://www.flickr.com/photos/witsalumni/albums/72157650802767300








SOCIAL

KUDUS STAMPEDE IN PARKTOWNThe Wits Road Race, hosted by Varsity Kudus

AC and Alumni Relations, took place on

Sunday morning, 16 August. A festive carnival

atmosphere prevailed as some 2 000 athletes

gathered outside Alumni House on West

Campus. Wits mascot Kudos Kudu trotted

about, lending encouragement. The challenging,

hilly, but scenic 21.1km and a 10km race routes

traversed Parktown and Westcliff. First man past

the line in the 10km race was S Mathabatha (22)

in a time of 00:32:11. The first woman home

in the 10km was F Mathibela (33) in 00:41:45.

M Mazibuko (29) won the 21km in 01:09:41,

and P Mlambo (34) was the first woman to finish

the 21km in 01:28:00.

The road race has been an annual fixture on the

Central Gauteng Athletics calendar and Alumni

Relations has partnered with the Varsity Kudus

since 2011.

On your marks: Mascot Kudos Kudu and athletes ready to run

HEARTY FUN AT HEALTH GRADUATES’ REUNIONThe Faculty of Health Sciences and the Health

Graduates' Association (HGA) hosted a reunion

in Johannesburg from 1 to 3 October 2015. Over

100 alumni participated in an engaging programme

that included a morning at Medical School hosted

by Brendon Billings, Curator of the Raymond

Dart Collection of Human Skeletons. Professor

Lionel Green-Thompson, Professor Laetitia Rispel

and Sandra Benn conducted a campus tour, and

many alumni attended the AJ Orenstein Memorial

lecture, “Drones in Health Care”, by Professor Barry

Mendelow. Professor Bruce Rubidge led a visit to

the Evolutionary Studies Institute, while Dr Dominic

Stratford, Research Coordinator at Sterkfontein,

showcased the work of Wits scientists. Many alumni

also visited Maropeng to meet Homo naledi. The

reunion culminated in a gala dinner at the Southern

Sun Hyde Park, where the Dean, Professor Martin

Veller, and the President of the HGA, Dr Paul Davis,

amongst others, addressed alumni. VIEW PHOTOS

Seated: (L-R) Mrs Veller, Philippa Veriava, Dr John Callaghan and Dr Ronel Callaghan.

Standing: (L-R) Prof. Martin Veller, Prof. Beverley Kramer, Prof. Joe Veriava, Dr Frederick

van Gelder and Dr Chris Hammond.








PHILANTHROPY

A generous donation by a San Francisco couple,

Derek Schrier and Cecily Cameron, has made

it possible for Wits to endow in perpetuity a

new Chair in Development Economics in the

Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management.

Schrier and Cameron’s gift of $1-million (about R12-million)

helps establish the Chair, which was launched in July with

Professor Vishnu Padayachee, Distinguished Scholar at Wits,

as its first incumbent.

The Derek Schrier and Cecily Cameron Chair in Development

Economics aims to foster research into issues such as South

Africa’s transition in relation to sustainable development

and democracy, macro-economic policy and corporate

transformation.

Schrier has had a close relationship with South Africa for over

20 years. He came here in 1992 to work with the non-profit,

CASE, led by Wits Professor Mark Orkin (BSc Hons 1971, PhD

1990), and to manage election polls for the ANC’s political

campaign in South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.

GIFT FUNDS NEW CHAIR IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS

“My time in South Africa impacted me in

ways I couldn’t have imagined when I made

the decision, at the age of 25, to come here,”

Schrier says. “The experience helped shape

who I am today. I am better off for it, and I owe

South Africa a debt of gratitude.”

Schrier says Wits was a natural choice for the

Chair. “Wits is and should be one of the most

important institutions in Africa and is central to

the future of the continent.”

Cameron, a former consultant with McKinsey

& Co, adds: “Together we can ensure that

Wits continues its commitment to academic

excellence, public discourse and an engaged civil

society.”

Schrier, now Chief Investment Officer at Indaba

Capital Management, L.P., graduated from

Princeton University, and he and Cameron

met during postgraduate studies at Stanford

University. Endowments are much more

common at leading universities in the US than

in South Africa. Schrier and Cameron hope that

their endowment will inspire similar initiatives

from others with meaningful ties to Wits,

including its successful alumni in corporate and

professional sectors.

Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Adam

Habib says: “We are particularly grateful to

Derek and Cecily for their commitment to

South African higher education. This Chair is

important not only to producing high quality

research, but also to enabling that research

to impact on policy and assist South Africa in

building an inclusive society. We look forward

to working with Derek and Cecily to open up

further support from South African donors

and philanthropists. There is an urgent need to

support South African higher education if we are

to retain our standing in the global academy.”


PHILANTHROPY

Above: Derek Schrier. Opposite page: Professor Vishnu Padayachee, new Chair in Development Economics. Credit: Wits University


PAGE NAME

Fees Must Fall

#BY HEATHER DUGMORE


Fees Must Fall

“THE DOORS OF LEARNING SHALL BE OPEN TO ALL” – THIS REFERENCE FROM SOUTH AFRICA’S FREEDOM CHARTER, LAST HEARD ON WITS CAMPUS IN THE 1980S, MADE A RESOUNDING RETURN IN THE SPRING OF 2015 DURING THE NATIONAL STUDENT PROTESTS KNOWN AS #FEESMUSTFALL.

Pretoria, South Africa, October 23, 2015: Students during a march to the Union Buildings. Wits student leaders (L-R) Nompendulo Mkhatshwa (incoming SRC President), Vuyani Pambo,

Shaeera Kalla (outgoing SRC President), Mcebo Dlamini Photo: Gallo Images / Nicholas Rawhani


PAGE NAME

From mid-October the largest and

most effective student campaign in

post-apartheid South Africa spread

from Wits University to campuses

across the country. The trigger was

the decision at some universities,

including Wits, to increase student

fees by over 10% for 2016.

Social media, particularly Twitter, played a key role

in mobilising students around the country and

across party political lines, thus giving rise to its

iconic name, "#FeesMustFall", and comparisons

drawn with the ‘Arab Spring’ uprising.

While the potency of the protests might have

come as a surprise, student opposition to the

increase was not unexpected. Many students and

their families are stretched beyond their limits.

Undergraduate students need to find about

R40 000 to R50 000 a year, excluding living costs,

to attend university in this country, where fewer

than 100 000 South Africans earn more than

R1-million a year.

Balancing the books

At the same time, Wits Vice-Chancellor Professor

Adam Habib repeatedly emphasises that he has to

balance the books.

Balancing the budget has become increasingly

difficult for South Africa’s vice-chancellors, who

have been appealing to government for years

to address the dire under-funding of higher

education institutions.

Without appropriate financial support from

government, universities are battling to compete

internationally.

South Africa is not alone in this. The cost of

higher education and the best way to support

students to pay for it, especially in times of

economic crisis, is one of the most debated public

policy topics in the European Parliament.

@Noxxcee tweeted at 2:01 PM , 24 Oct 2015: The students have spoken. Witsies are not happy. CAMPUS SHUT DOWN ON MONDAY.


#FEESMUSTFALL

The gauntlet of student power

And so, when Wits announced

a 10.5% fee increase for 2016, it

proved to be a step too far. The

gauntlet of student power was

thrown down, first at the leaders of

the universities, then at the heart

of government as thousands of

“Born Frees” (South Africans born

after the attainment of democracy)

marched on parliament and then

on the Union Buildings on Friday 23

October, when student leaders and

university representatives met with

President Jacob Zuma.

Underlying the #FeesMustFall protest

was not only student dissatisfaction

but a rising anger among South

Africa’s citizens that the promise

of educational and employment

opportunities for all has not

materialised.

As South African economist and Wits

alumnus Dr Azar Jammine says: “The

#FeesMustFall protests might be the

thin end of the wedge that leads to

further uprising against the leaders

in government, with a call to replace

them with leaders who are more

sympathetic to the people of South

Africa’s needs.

“This is why Nkandla is such a

symbolic issue. At the heart of it is a

president who seems only interested

in looking after himself, surrounded,

in the main, by likeminded ministers

and public servants.”

Jammine adds that the

young people of South

Africa “are especially fed up

with government leaders

feathering their own nests

while pandering to the

whims of the trade unions,

which effectively means

favouring an older generation

of workers rather than the

youth. The average age of

trade unionists in South Africa

today is 43. The government,

business sector and trade

unions, by their actions, have

marginalised the youth.

“It does not add up,”

says Jammine. “What it

demonstrates is that the

leaders in government do not

care about the actual needs

of the young people of South

Africa, and the students are

reacting to this. They are

being denied a future.”

A university degree is one of

the surest tickets to a better

future.

WHAT IT DEMONSTRATES IS THAT THE LEADERS IN GOVERNMENT DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE ACTUAL NEEDS OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA, AND THE STUDENTS ARE REACTING TO THIS. THEY ARE BEING DENIED A FUTURE.”

“

sta_) tweeted at 2:42 AM on Sat, Oct 17, 2015: "You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness" - Thomas Sankara

Left page: Pretoria, South Africa, October 23, 2015: Wits University’s newly elected SRC President, Nompendulo Mkhatshwa addresses students during a march to the Union Buildings. Photo: Gallo Images / Nicholas Rawhani


#FEESMUSTFALL

The symptomatic character of #FeesMustFall

Leading voices in the South African and global media

have emphasised the symptomatic character of the

#FeesMustFall protests.

In an article published in South Africa’s Rand Daily Mail

on 26 October 2015, Editor Ray Hartley wrote:

“We are witnessing a national cry of anguish from the

youth – our youth, the children of the new South Africa

– against an establishment that has excluded them and

marginalised them for decades.

“Take a fresh look at post-apartheid South Africa and

you will see the rise of an anti-youth machine that has

systematically appropriated the country’s resources at

the expense of the next generation.”

He extended the debate to the schools level:“Education

legislation opened the doors of schools to all, but it

also placed decisions about teacher and headmaster

deployment in the hands of the unions.”

Academically deserving students in financial need

Prof. Habib is publicly vocal about

the need to proactively support

academically deserving students in

financial need and uplift the poor

in our society.

“Empathy for the poor should be

part of our humanity. The millions

of young people in our country

who have no employment or

educational prospects should be

as big a concern to business as

it should be to the government

because it is a ticking time bomb,”

says Habib.

“We are all keenly aware of the failures and

corruption of government but the business elite

need to look equally hard at themselves and

realise that their interests and the interests of their

shareholders cannot be to the exclusion of the

society they live in.”

Mounting social discontent is being expressed

through different forms of mobilisation and protest,

with an average of 35 protests in South Africa

every day, says Belinda Bozzoli, a former Deputy

Vice-Chancellor: Research at Wits, now a member

of parliament and the Democratic Alliance’s Shadow

Minister of Higher Education and Training.

The realities on the ground

In an article in Politicsweb, published on 19 October

2015, Bozzoli wrote: “South Africa’s post-apartheid

reality has unfolded with massive disconnects

between the provision of the rights enshrined in our

much-lauded Constitution and the realities on the

ground.

“Students are fed up with not being able to afford

exorbitant fees, with the conditions they live in, and

with state money being wasted through corruption.”

WE ARE WITNESSING A NATIONAL CRY OF ANGUISH FROM THE YOUTH – OUR YOUTH, THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA

CRE

DIT

: ZAP

IRO

, M&

G

Ray Hartley


The October student protest

enjoyed significant public support

and was complimented for its largely

peaceful nature in which students

set aside their differences and united

in a non-racial, non-sexist, non-

political platform of protest.

There were isolated incidents of

violence and a protest strategy of

blockading university entrance and

exit points, which were strongly

condemned, but there were also

poignant moments of South African

unity where academics, clergy and

citizens displayed their support for

the students.

But there is also a sense that we are in uncharted water. Student activism

in the fees campaign has been characterised by a new form of protest

which often rejected traditional forms of student leadership for a more

“organic” mass driven one. Traditional forms of negotiation in a neutral

environment were rejected by protestors in favour of “University

Assemblies” in which university leadership was required to sit and “listen”

and agree to students demands. In such an environment and atmosphere

there was little room for considered deliberation and compromise.

Militant student groups have also continued with more aggressive forms

of protest on some campuses despite all the agreements reached and

which resulted in violent clashes and arrests at the Universities of the

Western Cape, University of Johannesburg, Cape Peninsula University of

Technology, and the Tshwane University of Technology amongst others.

In an open letter, UWC Vice-Chancellor Professor Tyrone Pretorius

said, “I am deeply disturbed that what started out as a laudable national

movement has degenerated at UWC into a violation of the basic rights

of others (freedom of choice, right to education, and right to safety and

security etc).”

In an interview with eNCA news channel on 12 November 2015 after

violent clashes continued to take a toll on his campus he said, “We would

be truly naïve if we were to choose to look at this as a purely UWC

institutional issue. It is an issue of national concern and as a society we

are on the edge of a precipice.”

It is an issue of national concern and as a

society we are on the edge of a precipice.

SA AT A TIPPING POINTThe effect, said Hartley, “has been

massive spending with few results.

It was estimated by the National

Planning Commission that a child loses

up to three years of schooling due to

teacher absenteeism alone.”

The World Economic Forum’s Global

Information Technology Report 2015

ranked South Africa last in the quality

of mathematics and science education,

lower than Angola, the Dominican Re-

public and Mozambique. South Africa

also finished close to last – 139th out

of 143 countries – when looking at the

overall quality of its education system.

The government’s own planning

commission has laid the problem out

clearly: “Efforts to raise the quality

of education for poor children have

largely failed,” said Hartley. “Apart

from a small minority of black children

who attend former white schools and

a small minority of schools performing

well in largely black areas, the quality

of public education remains poor.

“Again, the political dysfunction is

apparent: Asked to choose between

union friends and black school

children, the establishment has gone

for the former every time.”

He noted the high levels of youth

unemployment: “The failure to address

the problem of youth unemployment

and education has spilled over to

the streets, where young people are

disrupting the power narrative. Their

next step will be onto the national

political stage, where they will turn up

the heat. It can’t happen too soon.”


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Saluting people’s power

Student power ultimately triumphed on 23 October

when President Zuma, following a crisis meeting

with Vice-Chancellors, Chairpersons of Councils,

the Minister of Higher Education and Training and

representatives of student organisations, agreed

that there would be no student fee increase for

2016 and committed to addressing a package of

issues that include free education, institutional

autonomy and direct employment of currently

outsourced workers such as cleaning and security

services.

Wits management has agreed in principle to

insourcing workers and that the children of

outsourced workers who qualify to study at Wits

will receive financial aid from the University. A

commission with representatives of all stakeholders

will be established to determine the details of how

insourcing could be implemented in a way that

ensures the financial sustainability of the University.

Wits also agreed that financially stressed final

year students in 2015 who owed R15 000 or less

would not be required to pay this amount before

graduating, as this might prevent them from

finding a job.

Minister attracts criticism

Meanwhile, the response of the Minister of

Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande,

to the #FeesMustFall protests has attracted much

criticism.

He claimed the ANC was the victim of its own

successes in admitting so many students to higher

education. “Since 1994 we doubled the number of

students in higher education,” he said. “Today, we

are sitting with about a million university students‚

of which about 72% are black‚ 6% coloured

and 5% Indian. One way of putting it is that

we are victims of our own successes as the ANC

government over the last 21 years.”

But Nzimande failed to make public a report that

found that free university education for the poor

and for all academically deserving students in

financial need was indeed possible.

The report, which was handed to Nzimande

in December 2012, was based on a study by a

working group of university leaders, chaired by

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Vice-

Chancellor, Professor Derrick Swartz. It sought the

best model for free higher education.

University of Johannesburg Associate Professor

Salim Vally, who was part of the working group,

told the Mail & Guardian in an article published

on 26 October 2015 that the group had put

considerable effort into working on the numbers to

come up with a feasible model.

Key recommendations (based on 2010 figures

when the research was conducted) were that all

students who qualified to be admitted to university

and came from households earning less than the

lowest tax bracket of R54 200 a year (now

R73 650 a year) should receive free education.

Students from households earning between

R54 200 and R271 000 should be eligible for free

university education, but should be required to

make some household contribution.

Vally told the Mail & Guardian that the working

group had proposed to Nzimande that not only

their tuition should be paid for, “but the full

cost of study necessary for success at university,

including registration and tuition fees, meals and

accommodation, books and travel”.

Questioned why he had not released the report,

Nzimande responded that he had sent the report

to Treasury, which had said it could not fund

the model because it was too costly and would

compromise on other budget necessities such as

social grants.

Kele Pule (@kele_p) tweeted at 5:38 AM on Sat, Oct 17, 2015: "@benrwms: One of the lessons of #WitsFeesWILLFall is VCs have no real power. They've only recently realised this themselves. Poor muppets."

University funding in SAThe South African government’s subsidy of its 26 public universities

is just over R24-billion, which amounts to 2.3% of total government

spending and about 0.76% of South Africa’s GDP.

Spending on basic education in 2015/16, by comparison, is estimated at

R203 468-million.

In his inaugural budget speech on 25 February 2015, Finance Minister

Nhlanhla Nene said the total allocations to all post-school education

and training over the next three years would exceed R195-billion,

increasing at an annual average of 7.1%.

University operating subsidies will amount to R72.4-billion over the

three-year period. Transfers to universities for infrastructure of

R10.5-billion are proposed, including R3.2-billion for the new

universities of Mpumalanga and Sol Plaatje.

“We are mindful of the pressures on student financing at our higher

education institutions,” he said. “The National Student Financial Aid

Scheme (NSFAS) is projected to spend R11.9-billion in 2017/18, up from

R9.2-billion in 2014/15. This will support a further increase in university

enrolments and in technical and vocational colleges. Progress in the

quality of post-school education programmes is clearly critical.”

But according to StatsSA, from 2000 to 2012 the government subsidy

to higher education dropped from 49% of university income to 40%,

student fees increased from 24% to 31% and third stream income

from private sources (fund-raising, donations and endowments)

remained steady at between 27% and 29%.

The number of university students has swelled from 440 000 in 1994 to

almost 1-million, with a considerable increase in the number of students

who cannot afford the fees. Many students have had inadequate

secondary school education, and require extra support at university or

to complete an extra year.

The South African government subsidy of

±R24-billion for all 26 public universities

= 2.3% of totalgovernment spending and ±0.72%of South Africa’s GDPOther emerging economies: Russia 1.8%, Argentina 1.4%, Senegal & Ghana (1.4%). Brazil 0.95%, India 1.3%, Cuba 4.5%.

South Africa’s expenditure on higher education

of total expenditure on education=12%

Member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including Germany, Australia, Finland, Mexico and Turkey

=23.4%

rest of Africa =20%

rest of the world=19.8%

SA university educationGLOBAL COST COMPARISON

South Africa is (on average) on a par with China

Annual average university fee in US dollars for undergraduate international students at the ten largest public universities:

Australia $ 24 081 UK $ 21 365 Hong Kong $ 13 444 China $ 3 844 Mexico $ 750 India $ 581

Source: Moneyweb, 20 October 2015, Hanna Barry

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#FEESMUSTFALL

Not repaying loans

An increasing number of students are

entirely dependent on loans to finance

their university studies but large numbers

of students are not repaying student

loans in South Africa and in many other

countries.

The NSFAS is struggling to collect money

owed by its debtors. Since its inception

in 1991, this government scheme has

disbursed R50-billion in loans and

bursaries, assisting 1.5-million students.

Annual loan repayments have been

steadily decreasing, from R636-million in

2010 to R247.5-million in 2015.

Free higher education?

Economist Dr Azar Jammine says there

appears to be considerable support

for the ideal of “free” or affordable

education for all academically deserving

students in financial need. “We need to

qualify ‘free’ here, as there is no such

thing as free education. The money has

to come from somewhere. If it comes

from government it is ultimately being

paid by South Africa’s small percentage

of taxpayers,” he explains.

“There is a limit to the extent to which

you can keep raising taxes because you

depress the economy if you raise tax rates

too far. A depressed economy means

more job losses, fewer people who can

afford higher education and so the

vicious cycle continues.

“As a true economist I first calculate the

costs and affordability,” says Jammine.

“The cost of a 0% increase for higher

education fees for 2016 based on the

consumer price index is somewhere in

the region of R3-billion.

“In the broader scheme of things, this

figure is not massive. It is less than 0.1%

of South Africa’s GDP and 0.25% of the

overall government budget, so to find

that sort of money should not be too big

a problem. In fact we have been told that

the SETAs [sector education and training

authorities, which are concerned with job

skills] have a surplus of a few billion rand,

so there it is already.”

What about the affordability of free

higher education? Jammine says:

“This is a completely different order

of magnitude to the 0% increase for

2016. Free higher education would cost

South Africa R20-billion to R30-billion

more a year, over and above the current

R24-billion. This is very material in terms

of the government’s total budget. It

would be in the order of 2.5% to 4% of

government’s total budget of R1.25-

trillion a year, which puts it in the same

order of magnitude as a National Health

Insurance Scheme.”

WITS SRC #Oct14 (@WitsSRC) tweeted at 9:34 AM on Mon, Oct 19, 2015: A student revolution is brewing! #AllFeesWillFall

Johannesburg, South Africa, October 19, 2015: Wits staff members support students who are protesting over the increase of tuition fees. Photo: Gallo Images / Beeld / Felix Dlangamandla

HIGHER EDUCATION AND TECHNICAL TRAINING SHALL BE OPENED TO ALL BY MEANS OF STATE ALLOWANCES AND SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED ON THE BASIS OF MERIT

The Freedom Charter, 26 June 1955


”

A PRODUCTIVE AND WELL-EDUCATED MIDDLE CLASS IS THE GLUE THAT HOLDS SOCIETY TOGETHER.

Is free education a good idea?

Germany has maintained extremely high educational standards despite

dropping tuition fees in 2013 after mass student protests.

An article by UK journalist, David Smith in Economy Watch, published on

8 October 2014, explains: “The German Free Education Movement was

born when 200 organisations, including student unions, trade unions and

political parties, formed the Alliance against Tuition Fees. Students took to

the streets all over Germany in response to the seven West German states

that introduced fees in 2006 and 2007.

“... By 2013 there were several thousand protesters and public opinion

had shifted. The group delivered a petition for a state referendum on

higher education policy. It was signed by 1.35-million voters and caused

the state’s conservative premier to scrap tuition fees just a few days later.”

That is well and good for Germany, but in an article on 23 October in The

Conversation Africa, Professor Graeme Bloch, a Wits graduate and visiting

Professor at the School of Public and Development Management, said free

education was a worthy goal but South Africa wasn’t ready for it yet.

Nico Cloete


#FEESMUSTFALLWITS SRC #Oct14 (@WitsSRC) tweeted at 6:49 AM on Mon, Oct 19, 2015: It's a beautiful day to execute a revolution. We aren't just angry students making a noise we have a plan & we want change #WitsFeesWillFall

STUDENTS ARE EXASPERATED AND ANGRY AT THE SLOW PACE OF CHANGE.”“

“There is not enough money from any source. And

government, as the biggest subsidy provider, is not doing

well,” he said.

He added that it was a challenge that needed to start with a

discussion of what tertiary education was for and how many

graduates we needed. “Money cannot come from social

grants or basic education or health.”

Former Professor of Economics at Wits Charles Simkins,

who was a consultant to the Council on Higher Education

Commission on Tertiary Financing, concurs.

In an article published in Politicsweb on 19 October 2015 he

wrote: “The government does not have remotely enough

money to fund tuition fees, accommodation, meals, books

and travel for all students, even if there is an offset contribu-

tion related to household income.

“At the present level of NSFAS funding, tuition fees can be

fully funded for all students from households with incomes

less than the personal income tax threshold (currently R73

650 per annum). In addition, partial funding of tuition fees

on a linearly declining scale is possible up to a household

income of R150 000 per annum. But no more.”

The director of the Centre for Higher Education Trust, Dr

Nico Cloete, argues that free higher education, regardless of

income level, would exacerbate inequality in South Africa.

He believes the rallying cry should rather be “affordable

higher education for all”.

He also points to an anomaly in current NSFAS funding

policy that helps the poorest in society but ignores those in

need from the middle class. A refrain heard from many fee

protestors was that we are “too rich” for NSFAS, but “too

poor” to afford fees.

This problem is aggravated if there are siblings also needing

to study and leads to the notion of “black tax”, in which

first-generation black middle class families have multiple

financial responsibilities that many white middle class

families, who have inherited some wealth and may already

have university educated family members, don’t have. Cloete

warns against shutting the black middle class out of universi-

ty education. “A productive and well-educated middle class

is the glue that holds society together,” he says.

Pretoria, South Africa, October 23, 2015: Students march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Photo: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Thulani Mbele


#FEESMUSTFALLNOT FRIGHTENED OFF BY THE STUDENT PROTESTS Dr Saleem Badat is the Programme Director of International Higher Education and Strategic Projects at the Andrew W Mellon Foundation in New York. He was Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University between 2006 and 2014.

“The #FeesMustFall protests featured in a major article on page three of the New York Times, which is significant,” says Badat.

He wrote in Business Day in April this year that the student protests at the University of Cape Town and Rhodes marked the beginnings of a social movement that was likely to gather strength, expand and extend to other universities.

“Students are exasperated and angry at the slow pace of change. Invoking the Constitution, and higher education policies, they are demanding social justice in higher education and the wider society.

“The universities that we support in South Africa, which includes Wits, can rest assured that a large philanthropic foundation like the Andrew W Mellon Foundation will not be frightened off by the student protests. We have a long-term commitment to transformation in South African universities and will continue to work closely with universities to support their equity and development priorities.”

Badat supports free education for all academically deserving students in financial need. In an article on free higher education published by the Sunday Independent five years ago (16 March 2010), he wrote: “We should strive to progressively realise free higher education, beginning with those most in financial need, and this should be part of a wider reformulation of our social goals, priorities and policies.”

DR

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#FEESMUSTFALL

THE POWER OF A MOBILISED YOUTHWits SRC President 2014/15, Shaeera Kalla (BCom 2015) was on the frontline of #FeesMustFall. She is now a postgraduate Political Science student.

“Let it be known and forever

remembered that a mobilised youth

has the power to radically change

South Africa.

“Look at where we started and

how far we’ve come. Wits – and

I dare say, South Africa – will

never be the same. “

“The 0% increase for 2016

is a symbolic commitment to

free education but it does not

address the structural and

systematic problems of how our

universities are run. They have failed dismally to ensure

they are accessible and empowering for the most

marginalised in our society.”

“Until government adequately funds higher education,

these protests will become perpetual.”

Maintaining student unity

“The challenge to all students is to maintain our unity.

There will naturally be divisions in the student body,

and there have been disagreements about the tactics

in the #FeesMustFall campaign, but our strategic aims

remain the same.

“Political contestation and disagreement is important

in building political culture. Students will always

disagree. What’s important is that the end goal is one

that everyone can unite behind.”

Discipline, good faith and support

“We need to remind ourselves to

exercise discipline and act in good

faith. We shouldn’t make the mistake

of thinking that, just because we

started a movement, everyone will

act in good faith. There will always be

opportunists and those who seek to

divide and conquer.”

“During the shutdown we received incredible support.

A group of academic staff assisted us with food, water

and other resources. We had the ‘Gift of the Givers’

provide warm meals; we had parents, students and

alumni all providing support. This kept us grounded

– knowing so many people believed in what we were

fighting for.”

The campaign continues

“As an SRC we encourage students to ‘Protest and

Pass’. We called on all students to write exams.”

But Kalla warns that the campaign for free education

continues.

“We will meet again on the picket lines inside

Solomon Mahlangu [Senate] House to finish what we

have started.”

LET IT BE KNOWN AND FOREVER REMEMBERED THAT A MOBILISED YOUTH HAS THE POWER TO RADICALLY CHANGE SOUTH AFRICA.

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Panel Services Africa Survey of the 0% increaseA survey following President Zuma’s announcement of the 0% increase in university fees for 2016 was carried out by Panel Services Africa on their premium online research panel, TellUsAboutIt, comprising 40 000 registered online users. The survey was published by Bizcommunity.

Responses were overwhelmingly positive, with the majority of respondents seeing this as a victory for students and as a wise, beneficial move, given that South Africa needs more university graduates.

SECTION 29 OF SOUTH AFRICA’S BILL OF RIGHTS

EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO A BASIC EDUCATION, INCLUDING ADULT BASIC EDUCATION; AND TO FURTHER EDUCATION, WHICH THE STATE, THROUGH REASONABLE MEASURES, MUST MAKE PROGRESSIVELY AVAILABLE AND ACCESSIBLE.

Wits: a dynamic, influential universityPresident of Wits Convocation Professor Mamokgethi “Kgethi” Phakeng (BEd 1993, MEd 1996, PhD 2002) is Vice-Principal: Research & Innovation at Unisa.

“I’m not at all surprised that the #FeesMustFall protests started at

Wits because, as a dynamic, influential university, Wits has always

been at the forefront of politics and transformation,” says Prof.

Phakeng.

“Many of us expected something like this was coming, because

the political environment is ripe for it. Young people are not

afraid to vehemently speak out about the president and ruling

party today, which is something that they would not have done in

1995. It has taken time for the economic reality under the current

government to sink in. The Nkandla issue is a metaphor. People

are losing jobs, which puts pressure on students, as parents are

unable to support them.”

“It’s unfortunate that universities have been put in a difficult

position; they must remain sustainable yet they support free

higher education for the poor. None of the vice-chancellors want

to exclude the poor and VCs have gone to great lengths to create

opportunities for disadvantaged students. However, there are

many other costs universities need to bear, like recruiting top-

class black academics to address transformation. The number of

black academics is still limited, so you need to recruit them with

attractive packages.”

“I support free education for those who cannot afford it. Nothing

is ever free, and I believe that families who can afford to pay,

should. I believe everyone with the financial means should help

at least one person to achieve a better education. We cannot live

comfortably in a country where there is so much suffering. Let’s

make it better together.”

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it would be beneficial for South Africa because we need more university graduates

81%

it was a victory for students77%

it was a long-awaited overhaul of education policy74%the government made a wise decision75%

students should be concerned about learning and not other issues

51%

free university education for all was possible50%


#FEE REALITY

Sandane was born in Sebokeng Zone 12 township and lived there with her parents and two sisters. Their mother, the primary bread-winner, died when Sandane was 13.

The girls were raised by their father, a factory worker at ArcelorMittal. Sandane’s mother had saved early for her daughters’ education and Sandane was able to board at General Smuts High. Here she thrived and matriculated as Dux Scholar in 2010. Both Wits and UCT offered her a place in Medical School. Sandane chose Wits.

“It was my first time in Joburg. In my first month I cried all the time. I called my sister all the time,” she smiles ruefully. “I think I took a while to fit in.”

Despite the tears, Sandane excelled academically and earned two distinctions in first year. In fourth year, she had an A-average.

In 2012, Wits benefactor Bianca Brebnor, 35, (BAcc 2003) invited Sandane to apply for her Pay it Forward bursary. This grant is based on the philosophy of enriching another’s life if you have benefited, rather than repaying your benefactor. Sandane received the bursary in 2012 and 2013.

“Fees at Medical School are R120 000 a year,” explains Sandane. “A Department of Health bursary paid R85 000 and Pay it Forward R30 000.” Sandane points out that NSFAS must be repaid. “It’s not a bursary – you get so many letters…” she sighs. “I try not to think about money because it just stresses me out.”

She recognises the cost of excellence, however. “Wits is at the forefront of research and research is expensive,” she concedes. “I think to ask for it for free, it’s a big ask. Maybe set a five- to 10-year goal towards decreasing fees.”

Ten years ago an impressionable Sandane also recognised the value of reputation. “When you have a Wits degree, for many companies, I think, it carries clout,” she says. “The quality of education at Wits is very good.”

Sandane intends to specialise in neurology and will practise in South Africa. “This is home. My community and my family need my help,” she says.

And where better to pay it forward?

“I TRY NOT TO THINK ABOUT MONEY BECAUSE IT JUST STRESSES ME OUT.”

Funding the future

SANDANE CHAUKE (23) FIFTH-YEAR MEDICAL SCHOOL STUDENT

BY DEBORAH MINORS

Fifth year Medical School student Sandane Chauke (23), always wanted to come to Wits. “From primary school, I knew,” she smiles. “Wits is where I’m supposed to be.” Sandane’s sister, seven years older and a Wits sociology alumna, had paved the way.


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But Tiisetso’s mother had instilled a philosophy of academic excellence. She left savings from her receptionist job for a good secondary education. Tiisetso was one of just four black

learners at the Afrikaans-medium Salomon Senekal High in Viljoenskroon, Free State. She remembers the small-town racism in 2007; cars pulling up alongside her and friends in the street, occupants asking, “Waarom loop jy met ‘n k****r?” (‘Why’re you walking with a k****r?)

Tiisetso eventually “fell in love” with the boarding school. It was a respite from a tenuous relationship at home with her aunt, who distrusted Tiisetso’s reticence about her mother’s death. Tiisetso channelled her grief into sports and academia. She earned athletics and hockey colours and regularly placed in the top 10 academically. She matriculated in 2011 with five distinctions, the first black person in the top 10 academically at an Afrikaans high school. Her head-master gave her money to apply to university.

“I received a letter from the Wits VC, delighted to receive my application,” she recalls. Other relatives took Tiisetso under their wing and financed her first year by selling their cars. But by second year the R9300 registration fee was beyond her pensioner relatives.

Tiisetso applied to NSFAS but “they rejected me for not being poor enough”.

Ultimately a bank loaned her R47 000. Then Wits began querying outstanding fees. Tiisetso was horrified to discover her loan had been siphoned into an account other than Wits’. Outstanding fees meant she couldn’t advance. She scrambled for funds. As a Dean’s List scholar, she qualified for aid from the School of Law. A small bursary and cash from a cousin made up the shortfall. The School, saving, and working three jobs paid for third year.

“I don’t think tertiary education should be free, but it should be accessible,” says Tiisetso. “An increase in fees has such a ripple effect – it stops people’s lives.”

Despite the angst, Tiisetso says, “I don’t think a Wits degree should be for free. What is going to differentiate my degree from another institution’s? Wits is good value for money.”

In 2016 Tiisetso begins articles at a law firm. Her monthly salary will be R15 000, which must cover rent, transport, food – and R38 000 to Wits.

She’s resolute: “I’m alone. This degree is my ticket out of poverty.”

“I’M ALONE. THIS DEGREE IS MY TICKET OUT OF POVERTY.”

Not poor enough

TIISETSO RAPASA (22), FOURTH-YEAR LLB STUDENT

Meet Tiisetso Rapasa (22), a fourth-year LLB student at Wits. When Tiisetso was a teenager, her caregiver suggested she become a prostitute. At the age of 12, Tiisetso had lost her mother to HIV, and her step-father died later too. Tiisetso shuttled between relatives. “As an orphan, my path was written out for me. I was expected to be HIV+ and drop out of high school,” she says.

#FEE REALITY

BY DEBORAH MINORS

26

WITSSPORT SERIES

FIGHTING FOR

BY HEATHER DUGMORE

THAT INCH

Adrian Carter competes in the Energade Triathlon,

Vanderbijlpark

WITSReview | December 2015

adriancarterPERFORMANCE

PR

O U D L Y W I T S I EAdrian Carter joined Wits as the Head of Wits Sport in February 2014.

His mission is to achieve a high performance sporting culture at Wits

to match its academic culture.

“I have this wonderful image in my

mind of Al Pacino in Any Given

Sunday giving his ‘You’ve got to fight

for that inch’ speech,” says Carter

from behind his highly organised

desk at the Wits Sport offices on

West Campus. “But instead of Al

Pacino I see Professor Adam Habib

in our proposed YouTube version,

saying ‘At Wits we fight for that inch’

in his Al Pacino voice.”

Competing in the higher academic

space is all about fighting for that

inch if you wish to excel, explains

Carter. “This notably includes

sporting excellence, which is a

significant marketing vehicle for the

University and an integral part of

building spirit and prestige.”

He knows what he is talking about. He has

18 years of experience in sports adminis-

tration, a Bachelor of Commerce Honours

degree in Sports Management from the

University of Johannesburg (UJ), and he

is currently studying towards his Master’s

degree in Long-term Athlete Development.

Before coming to Wits he headed high

performance sport at UJ, where he achieved

remarkable successes by developing sports

talent and systems that enabled sports peo-

ple to perform at the highest level – which

he is now implementing at Wits.

“Wits has a wonderful sporting history going

back many decades, and my aim is to revive

this and build it into a high performance

sporting force, with specific emphasis on our

key sporting codes: football, rugby, basket-

ball, cricket and hockey,” explains Carter,

who has the full support of Vice-Chancellor

Habib and Wits’ senior management.

1. “Recruiting excellence from first year and

in the postgraduate cohort. This has been an

extremely positive year for our recruitment drive. We

have developed strong relationships with schools in the

greater Gauteng area and beyond, and we’ve hosted

large groups of learners on Wits campus to show them

around the University, what we offer and why they

should come and study here, including discussing the

bursary system we offer.”

2. “Recruiting top class coaches and top class

sports science personnel to support our

existing personnel with the backup they need to be

the best coaches on the field, and great mentors and

managers off the field.”

3. “Creating an elite athlete-friendly University

and an elite athlete-friendly policy (which Wits

now has) that allows for flexibility in the academic

programme for athletes when they are participating in

regional, national or international sporting events.”

4. “Continuously developing Wits’ world-class

academic standing, and its status as the best

academic university in South Africa and Africa, based on

the global Centre for World Universities Rankings. Elite

sports people must be attracted to Wits for the quality

of both its academic and sporting offerings.”

5. “Developing a top class academic support

system within Wits Sport, led by our

Academic Support & Recruitment Officer, Kerry Yates,

who has a Master’s in Counselling Psychology. This area

is ably supported by senior management at Wits who

see academic support and achieving a balanced lifestyle

while at University as an important educational objec-

tive. Kerry screens South African schools sports learners

from Grade 10, and invites selected candidates and their

families to meet us and discuss what their academic

support plan will be like if they come to Wits. This year’s

recruitment successes can largely be attributed to the

quality of her recruitment and support. Part of Kerry’s

portfolio is to monitor the academic progress of every

one of our elite sports players throughout their degree,

and to ensure they receive the support they need if they

are not performing in any subject.”

6. “Developing international relationships

with prominent international sporting

universities, such as the University of Bath in the UK.

We are finalising a formal agreement with the University

of Bath which we hope will lead to staff and student

exchange programmes, and to share knowledge and

research on sports performance and management

systems. We are aiming to start this exchange in 2016.”

28

WITSSPORT SERIES

PR

O U D L Y W I T S I EELITE SPORTS PEOPLE MUST BE ATTRACTED TO WITS FOR THE QUALITY OF BOTH ITS ACADEMIC AND SPORTING OFFERINGS.

PILLARS OF PERFORMANCE The six pillars of Carter’s high performance strategy for Wits include:



THIS YEAR’S ACHIEVEMENTS

Carter’s strategy is already paying dividends

and he says Wits’ coaches deserve all the credit

for this year’s achievements, which include:

• The best year ever for Varsity Football, with the

men’s first side reaching the semi-finals, where

they lost to the overall winner UWC Football.

In 2014, Wits Football did not even qualify

for Varsity Football. (Varsity Football is part of

Varsity Sports, a high performance competition

platform for a number sporting codes, including

athletics, hockey, cricket, football, beach

volleyball, sevens rugby and netball).

• Wits’ first team women’s hockey and netball

sides both won their sections in the inter-

varsity University Sports South Africa (USSA)

tournament, and have been promoted to the A

section for 2016.

• Wits’ first team women’s basketball side

reached the USSA finals, where they lost to the

Vaal University of Technology. Wits won the

tournament in 2014.

• Both the men’s and women’s first team

basketball sides qualified for Varsity Basketball

for 2016.

• The first team cricket side is excelling in the local

leagues and hopes through the 2015 edition of

the USSA cricket tournament to qualify for the

televised 2016 Varsity Cricket competition.

• Rebuilding the strength of Wits first team rugby

through the recruitment of outstanding first

year and postgraduate players has significantly

strengthened the side. Carter is confident about

Wits’ chances of winning the Varsity Shield in

2016 and being promoted to the Varsity Cup.

30

WITSSPORT SERIES

SCHOLARSHIPS AND BURSARIES

Wits Sport is on a major fundraising drive for sports

scholarships and bursaries, in partnership with the

Fundraising Office, alumni, business leaders and donors.

“If we want to attract students with great sporting ability

to Wits we have to be able to match the range of sports

scholarships and bursaries that other top sporting uni-

versities offer to compete for that inch, and at the same

time to advance transformation in sport,” says Carter.

TRANSFORMATION

“Transformation must happen far more intensively, from

our schools to our universities, with talented players

identified at schools and brought into our universities

where they have every opportunity to succeed in their

academic and sporting career, and who can feed into our

provincial and national systems.”

WINNING IS IMPORTANT, BALANCE IS CRUCIAL

Wits Sport regards winning as important; there is no

question about this. At the same time Carter believes

that elite sport students must also perform academically

so that they have every opportunity to succeed and take

their place in society.

“The same applies to all students,” he adds. “Someone

who has played sport at university is so much more

employable. Companies are inundated with applications

from graduates, and it is well known that they are

interested in candidates who are not only academically

capable but who also have strong people skills, who have

demonstrated their abilities as a team player and who

have engaged in community activities to help others.”

A strong proponent of community engagement, in 2014

Carter completed the Salomon Skyrun – South Africa’s

toughest 100km mountain run – to raise funds for

academically deserving sports students in financial need.



SPORTS RESIDENCE

Wits Junction will help to accommodate the growing

number of sports students, and a new sports residence

is planned for about 250 students.

“We hope to partner with the Golden Lions rugby

team at Wits Junction; their players will stay here and

use our facilities. It’s an absolute banker when it comes

to recruiting, and our intention is for the majority of

Golden Lions players who are accommodated to be Wits

students down the line,” says Carter.

CENTRE FOR EXERCISE SCIENCE AND SPORTS MEDICINE

Research-wise, Wits Sport is partnering with Wits’

Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine in the

Faculty of Health Sciences, headed by Adjunct Professor

Demitri Constantinou.

“The scope for research is endless,” says Carter. “As

Prof. Constantinou says: ‘If you think of Wits Sport you

will think of Wits Sport Science, the one cannot proceed

without the other.’ This is high performance research

and practice at its best.”

32

WITSSPORT SERIES

PR

O U D L Y W I T S I E

Crew members of the 1975 Wits

University Boat Club (WUBC) reunited at

the Royal Regatta, Henley-on-Thames,

England 40 years after racing there

in 1975. Nine of the original party of

11 crew members and their partners

convened in the village of Hambleden

from 2-5 July 2015. Stuart Cutler (BProc

1984), cox of the 1980 crew, which also

attended, was the primary convener.

Dave Van Rensburg (BSc Eng Civil

1958), at 5 in 1975 and 4 in 1980,

recalls: “I was given the book Boys in

the Boat by one of my kids and it made

me think of my life growing up in the

WUBC. I joined the WUBC in January

1974, aged 17…The Boat Club became

my family and has had an immense

effect on my life.”

At Henley, the crews reminisced over

lazy breakfasts and leisurely dinners.

Every morning both crews were rowing

in an 8 or a 4.

Despite some of the 1975 crew not

having been in a boat for 40 years, they

soon managed to get a row sitting in

their original seat formation.

Lothar Dan (BSc Eng Civil 1978), the

WUBC captain in 1975, remarked:

“A lot has been said about our reunion

and how great it was and what a

tremendous bunch of people the Boat

Club produced. Maybe Wits helped a

little?!”

Wynand “Wig” Dreyer (BSc Eng Civil

1975), at 3, concluded: “Until our

reunion, I had not appreciated just how

important ‘75 was to the Boat Club and

to us as individuals. I add my thanks to

all of you great guys for doing the hard

yards that set the principles and the

value system that propelled the WUBC

– and us – to unprecedented heights.

We acknowledge similarly great guys

in ‘78, ‘80, ’83; a purple patch in Wits’

rowing history.”

OARSOME TIME AT 40TH WITS BOAT CLUB REUNIONBY DEBORAH MINORS

In a row: (L-R) The 1975 eight: Matt Lankers, stroke (President), Lothar Dan at 3 (captain), Ian Woods at 2, and Alistair McLaren (bow)


simbateveraKARATE

Simbarashe “Simba” Tevera (BA 2015) was the only

senior brown belt selected to represent South Africa

at the JKA Africa Cup held in Johannesburg on

26 September 2015. The 22-year-old learnt the day

before that he would have to compete in the men’s

open division – comprising black belts and Senseis

(instructors) and men aged up to 39 years – as no

brown belt or under-25 division existed.

“I was one of the youngest in the group and

definitely the lowest ranked with the least

experience,” says Simba. He didn’t win but was

awarded national colours and was the only senior

brown belt to qualify for the national side and then

be “promoted” to compete in the open division.

“What a privilege that was for me to gain such

experience,” says Simba. “I wasn’t disappointed at

all. Being young, I have a lot of time on my side to

eventually be one of the best in Africa in that age

group, which is my aim. I am very proud to have

represented the country and the University.”

Simba began karate in earnest in grade 10. It was at

Wits that the value system of the martial art began

to resonate – character, ethics, loyalty, and honour.

In 2012, while reading Psychology, Simba joined the

Wits All Styles Karate Club. He graduated in April

2015 with an academic merit award, a Mandela

Rhodes Scholarship and a 20-medal record haul

under his brown belt after just three years.

On 1 October, Wits Sports awarded Simba Wits

Full Blue Cum Laude colours, the highest individual

honours the University bestows, and he won the

Mel Siff Sportsmanship Trophy. Earlier this year

Simba was named as one of the M&G’s Top 200

Young South Africans. He is currently pursuing his

Honours in Organisational Psychology at Wits.

CUB SIMBA CONQUERS KARATEBY DEBORAH MINORS

34

WITSSPORT SERIES

BY HEATHER DUGMORE

STILL ROWING

AT92YEARSAT 92 YEARS OF AGE, WITS ARCHITECTURE ALUMNUS DAN ROBINSON DOESN’T NEED TO RECALL HIS ROWING YEARS, BECAUSE HE IS STILL ROWING.

“I can’t carry my own boat down steep

banks anymore so I get my grandson or

someone to carry my boat for me, but once

I’m in the water I’ll row against anyone,”

says oarsman Robinson, who learnt to row at

Wits when he returned from service in World

War II. He graduated in 1950 and went on

to design many buildings for Wits.

“The sporting scene at Wits during my time

was mainly cricket and rugby but there was

a rowing club, the Wits University Boat Club,

which I joined because I’m no good at ball

games. Most of your rowing men are useless

at ball games, and it’s a sport you do sitting

down, so you can keep doing it all your

life,” he explains. He is demonstrating on

his rowing machine at his home in Parktown

North, which he shares with his wife, Moyra,

who has a Diploma in Quantity Surveying

from Wits (1959).


danrobinsonROWING

In December 2013 an article in the

Northcliff-Melville Times read:

At 90, Dan Robinson, one of the founders of

the Viking Rowing Club, set a new definition for

the title “grand master” when he competed in

two races in the South African Masters’ Rowing

Regatta at Wemmer Pan, Johannesburg.

Robinson’s first race was in a coxless quad event,

where he lined up at the start with his crew

comprising Wal Dean (79), Mike Martinson (86)

and John Price (83).

Later, 86-year-old Andy Mayer and Dean pitted

their strength against Price and Robinson as

they competed in a double sculls event, where

Price and Robinson clocked in at 3 minutes 58

seconds after rowing down the 702m Wemmer

Pan course.

Martinson and Mayer were two members of

the Wits University Boat Club crew in which

Robinson rowed in 1946 on his return from

wartime service.

“It seems we’re getting old, the average age of

that quad today is 86,” Robinson smiles. “We

still very much enjoy it; the only difficulty is to

find people of our age to compete.”

So if you’re in this age group and thinking of

taking up rowing, let Dan know.

The Wits University Boat Club’s home waters were at Rand

Leases on the West Rand during Robinson’s time. “Rand

Leases was a mining company and the owners granted us

use of their lake and a clubhouse with a sprung floor, where

we would hold dances. Everyone wanted to come, and we

let them in at a price or if they had a nice-looking sister.”

Wits won the annual intervarsity boat race in 1948 and

1950. “The University of Cape Town, Rhodes University

and the University of Natal were the big enemies, terrible

people,” says Robinson.

“It was hard work to win the title; we would leave varsity at

four or five in the afternoon, then head all the way to Rand

Leases and row until it was pitch dark.”

The reward was a quart of Stag Beer in the pub afterwards,

at a cost of one shilling. “In those days we had the Stag

Brewery,” he recalls.

In 1951 Robinson and a group of his Wits peers who had

graduated at the same time decided to form a graduate

rowing club, and the Viking Rowing Club was born. “We

opened it to all ex-university men from anywhere in the

world and from 12 of us it quickly grew to 45. We were

initially based at Rand Leases but when it was demolished to

make way for townships we moved to Wemmer Pan, where

we still are now.”

To date Robinson has rowed for 70 years, proving his claim

that you can row all your life. “You can also take it up at any

age,” he adds, pointing at Moyra, whom he finally con-

vinced to take up rowing when she was 63. “It took me nine

years to convince her to marry me and quite a few more

to convince her to taking up rowing, but once she did she

excelled at it and went on to win the Munich World Games

in her age group,” he says.

Moyra had to stop rowing in 2002 after a car accident, but

Dan has not only continued but is still competing in regattas

in his nineties.

“WE STILL VERY MUCH ENJOY IT; THE ONLY DIFFICULTY IS TO FIND PEOPLE OF OUR AGE TO COMPETE.”

Note: The Wits University Boat Club was established in 1924 and is one of the oldest rowing clubs in South Africa.


Q&A

Q & A

Telling stories in HollywoodBY DEBORAH MINORS

Mark Middlewick, 28, is a Hollywood-

experienced filmmaker rooted in Jo’burg. He’s a proud Witsie with

a BA Dramatic Arts degree (2010). His script The Mascot

was a winner in the Jameson First Shot short

film competition, enabling its

production in Los Angeles by

Academy Award winners Kevin

Spacey and Adrien Brody.


MARK MIDDLEWICK

Q & A

The Mascot is the story of Adam, who takes his job as a basketball team mascot very seriously. When he is fired, he decides to confront his replacement. Why such an American-type film?

A lot of South Africans ask why The Mascot isn’t

set in South Africa, but because of the nature of

the competition, and shooting in LA, I had to set

it in America. The Mascot is not something you’d

necessarily understand in this country.

I normally make work that’s only based in South

Africa, like music videos for Matthew Mole and

Nakhane Touré, and my previous short films, such as

Security. I want to make films here. I keep saying that.

And Kevin says that’s exactly what he wants to hear

from a creative. He doesn’t want to see another story

about LA.

How does South African filmmaking compare to Hollywood?

I was a script-reader when I went across the first time.

I worked at a company that did Wedding Crashers.

Everything I read was awful. And it was really eye-

opening, that there wasn’t this huge gap between me

and “them” or “us and them”.

When I went to shoot The Mascot, I also found on

a production level there wasn’t a huge gap either.

That’s the thing that I’ve learnt and I spoke to Kevin

about it: you can have hundreds of DOPs, hundreds of

producers, etc., but the big thing’s story-tellers. You

need ideas and it doesn’t matter what language it is,

or what country it’s from.

I’ve lectured at AFDA and City Varsity. I went there

because they needed an academic leaning to their

film schools. The big complaint – and you see it when

you go to the States although I’ve heard it across the

board – is that, technically, our work looks amazing,

but the big gap is story-telling and theory.

It’s frustrating for me. You’ve got to study the art! If

you want to make films that push the envelope, you

have to have people graduate who understand the

history of cinema.

What’s the reality of “Tinsel Town”?

The new thing in LA is a lot of actors are Uber drivers.

For them it’s perfect, because you can turn it off, go

to an audition, turn the app back on.

And it’s amazing; you jump in a cab and the driver’s

someone with a story. It’s probably the filmmaker in

me, but I always wind up talking to them. I spoke to

an Iranian immigrant who’d been in Syria in the war.

What are Kevin Spacey and Adrien Brody like?

Kevin is a thespian through and through. He [was]

the creative director of the Old Vic in London, and I

think that’s where the British sensibility comes from,

because he spends so much time there. He definitely

doesn’t do it for the money. He’s such a nice guy. He’s

got two programmes, this [First Shot] and a theatre

scholarship programme, so he’s big on the arts.

Adrien’s an interesting guy, a very intense personality.

He’s also quite a lone wolf; keeps to himself. I was

quite apprehensive the first day wanting to adjust

something, performance-wise, and you think to

yourself, it’s Adrien Brody! He’s worked with Roman

Polanski, who’s one of my idols. Adrien on set was

actually very open to what I gave him – I was very

surprised. It takes a lot of trust.

How has your Wits training influenced you as a filmmaker?

I loved Wits. I thought I was going to be an academic

actually. Wits TV at the time had an amazing Head of

School, Taku Kaskela. The thing I got taught – and I’ve

noticed other Wits people do well – is the theoretical

side and the creative side; that all comes from Wits.

I’m a filmmaker, but I also see myself primarily as an

artist, because I’ve been versed in the arts.


PAGE NAME


MUKOVHE MASUTHA

Bridging

Wits alumnus and SRC President (2010/11) Mukovhe Morris Masutha is helping hundreds of students from rural areas and townships throughout South Africa to succeed at university.

the gap


THUSANANI FOUNDATION

Mukovhe Masutha is a model

Wits graduate – his qualities

of commitment, humanity and

intelligence extend far beyond

himself and his achievements.

In 2010, while he was a Wits student and SRC

President, he established an educational NGO

called the Thusanani Foundation, of which he is

now the CEO.

Thusanani is currently assisting 541 students from

rural areas and townships to secure bursaries

or loans, and the recipients have a phenomenal

track record of success in a wide range of

disciplines at 20 universities throughout South

Africa, with many achieving distinctions.

What is the key to such

success? “Discipline.

Discipline is the basic of

basics. Without it you

cannot flourish in any

degree, profession or life in

general, which is why the

Thusanani Foundation’s

motto is ‘Let your marks pay

your fees’,” he replies.

Masutha says he realised the

importance of discipline as a

student and started studying

hard. “I never wanted to

return to my home village

– Mapate in rural Venda –

without something to show

for myself, and something

that could help other young

people to get to university

and succeed.”

Like millions of South Africans, he grew up

without any educational or financial advantages.

“From the age of one I was raised by my

grandmother, Vho Nyamuka, after my mother

found work as a cleaner in the closest town,

Thohoyandou, in 1989,” he explains.

“My grandmother never went to school but she

made sure I took my education very seriously and

instilled in me a belief that I could do anything in

the world.”

She is still alive today to witness what her

grandson, now 26, has achieved, although she

doesn’t like it when he travels far from home. He

is now doing his PhD at the University of Bath in

the United Kingdom.

Taking over Professor Habib’s job

“Fortunately I’m able to spend a lot of time in

South Africa as I am doing a research doctorate

on Higher Education Management in South

Africa. I’m working towards taking over Professor

Adam Habib’s job at some stage!”

He smiles but he is serious about playing a

leading role in higher education, and he aims to

do this through Wits.

“Wits is my home,” he says. “When people

ask me where I am from, I say I am from Wits

because Wits took me from being someone who

could hardly speak English to a successful, well-

rounded scholar and SRC President who could

speak to large audiences and at conferences and

sound like I knew what I was saying.”

Today, Masutha sits on a number of higher

education committees such as the Council

Readmissions Committee at Wits.

AFTER BEING ACCEPTED TO STUDY AT A NUMBER OF SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES, HE APPLIED FOR NO FEWER THAN 63 BURSARIES. HE WAS TURNED DOWN 62 TIMES.


MUKOVHE MASUTHA

Men’s Res – a name I say with pride

“It is important for me to

sit on this council because I

almost failed my first year as

a result of not understanding

how the credit system works,”

he explains. “I also regularly

return to my residence, Men’s

Res – a name I say with

pride – to talk to students

about how best to advance

at university and how to

access and apply for available

funding and bursaries.

Everyone needs someone in

life who is prepared to guide

them or give them a break.”

His breaks in life included

his grandmother’s belief in

him and a chance meeting

with a medical student from

the University of Pretoria, named Leanne

Brady, who came to his village with a group

of volunteers from the Southern African

Student Volunteers Organisation. They tutored

mathematics and science to learners there and

helped build classrooms and a clinic.

“I was a schoolboy at the time and I saw this

bunch of white people in my village, so I went

to find out what they were doing and met

Leanne, who is today a doctor in Cape Town

and with whom I struck up a friendship. From

then on she mentored me and gave me advice

about how to get to university.”

200 envelopes and 200 stamps

Another break presented itself when an aunt

of his gave him 200 envelopes, 200 stamps,

and R1000 for application fees, plus a book

that contained a template letter on how to

apply for university bursaries. “It helped you

sound like you knew what you were saying,

but I also paid very particular attention to the

entrance requirements,” Masutha recounts.

After being accepted to study at a number of

South African universities, he applied for no

fewer than 63 bursaries. He was turned down

62 times.

“I was about to give up when my mother told

me she had seen an advert in the Sowetan

newspaper for a bursary that the Limpopo

government was offering,” he recalls. “I

was despondent about my chances by then

but I got it and I made my way to Wits, with

everything covered: my tuition, my books and

my accommodation in Men’s Res. It was an

unbelievable feeling and I am ever grateful to

Thaba Mufamadi, the then MEC of Economic

Development in Limpopo, who made this

possible.”

Masutha graduated with a BA in Economic

Geography, followed by a BSc Honours in

Geography, Food Security and Environmental

Management, followed by an MSc in

Small Enterprise Development and Local

Economic Development from the University of

Johannesburg.

“My mission today is to ensure that everyone

growing up in a rural area or township realises

that this does not condemn you to poverty,”

he explains.

“Many people have no idea how difficult it is

for a learner from the rural areas or townships

to find their way to university – from getting

hold of and filling out the application form to

looking for funding to adapting to campus and

the higher education environment, including

attending lectures in English.

“MANY PEOPLE

HAVE NO IDEA HOW DIFFICULT IT IS FOR A

LEARNER FROM THE

RURAL AREAS OR

TOWNSHIPS TO FIND

THEIR WAY TO

UNIVERSITY”



The odds are stacked against rural and township youth

“The odds are stacked against rural and township youth. This

reality pushes more and more of our youth into the NEET category,

or what I like to call the NEET Tragedy. These are young people

who are ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’.”

Of the “lucky and privileged few” who manage to access

institutions of higher learning and training, he says: “Over 50%

drop out without completing their studies, both in universities and

technical vocational education and training colleges. I wanted to do

something to help change this and that’s when I sat down with a

fellow Wits student and friend of mine, Ntandokabawo James, and

we worked out the model for the Thusanani Foundation.”

Top: (L-R) Mr Mduduzi Manana (Deputy Minister: Higher Education and Training),

President Jacob Zuma, and Mr Masutha Mukovhe

Right: (L-R) Wits Profs. Maria Marchetti-Mercer (School of Human & Community

Development), Andrew Crouch (DVC: Academic),

Mr Mukovhe Masutha, Prof. Mamokgethi Phakeng

(Convocation President), and Mr Siphile Buthelezi (Thusanani

Foundation Advisory Board)


MUKOVHE MASUTHA

Model in hand, Masutha’s first call was the then

Dean of Students, Prem Coopoo, who was extremely

supportive and provided the seed funding to cover the

car hire and B&B accommodation in the rural areas.

Mustering a team of student volunteers, they headed

into the rural areas during their student vacation,

initially helping 10 students from five schools to get

into university in 2011.

50% of the students are women

Operating on a budget of R300 000 a year for the

first three years, they managed to attract a range of

partners and funders to ensure that the 541 students

who are currently in 20 South African universities are

fully funded through bursaries and loans.

Fifty percent of these students are women and over

50% are funded through the National Skills Fund.

The Foundation currently has 1200 volunteers and

they are working towards assisting 1000 students.

“The Thusanani Foundation was officially launched

at Wits on 10 November 2014 by President Jacob

Zuma, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and

Training, Mduduzi Manana, Professor Adam Habib

and the President of Wits Convocation, Professor

Kgethi Phakeng, who is a member of our advisory

board,” says Masutha. “It was wonderful, there were

hundreds of people; it was like a mass meeting!”


The Thusanani Foundation Model Motto:

‘Let your marks pay your fees’


“Our approach is if you give us five bursaries we will give you five academically deserving students who have

been guided since Grade 9. If you are a law firm, for example, you can stipulate that you want law students and that the bursary recipients need to do their articles with you.

“While the learners are still in school we host winter school programmes to improve their matric pass rates and we help them to pursue funding or bursary opportunities. Once they are at university we host on-campus programmes, including computer and English literacy skills development, to help them succeed in their studies.

“We also have a mentorship programme where a third year student mentors a first year, to show them the ropes, show them around campus, show them how the university and res system works, and help them with their studies.”

Complementing this model is the personality of Masutha. He is charismatic, with an exceptional ability to network – from President Jacob Zuma to local and international higher education partners, including Wits University and Georgia State University.

The Jacob Zuma Foundation funded the first two Thusanani Foundation students at Wits, and they are Thusanani’s first two graduates: Kholofelo Phahlamohlaka and Mfundo Khumalo. Phahlamohlaka is the Foundation’s first graduate in Nuclear Physics.

Wits Alumni on Thusanani’s Board

Two Wits alumni have been part of Thusanani from inception and now sit on Thusanani’s Board. Tshibvumo Sikhwivhilu (BSc Eng 2013) is currently pursuing his MBA in Renewable Energy through Wits Business School. Ntandokabawo James (BA 2011, BSc Hons 2012, MSc DP 2014) is working for the City of Tshwane while pursuing his PhD in Renewable Energy through the Engineering Faculty at Wits.

“We bridge the gap between the rural areas and townships and universities, starting with learners from as early as Grade 9,” says Masutha.



MIN’ENTLE MTHELELO SECOND YEAR CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

“When I was in high school, at Little Flower School in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal, a former learner, Lusanda Njenge, who has a PhD in Engineering Management from the University of Johannesburg, came and gave us a motivational talk. I went to speak to her afterwards and she gave me her contact details. I followed up and she became my mentor after that. She was the Chief Operating Officer of Thusanani at the time.

“I worked hard to achieve the results required for entry to Wits, which I got, but I simply could not find funding. I spoke to Lusanda about this and she suggested I apply through Thusanani, which I did, and I was fortunate to receive a National Skills Fund bursary.

“It was exciting and nerve-racking moving to Joburg and into my residence, Medhurst Hall, and to get used to being at university. What helped is that I met up with other Thusanani students who showed me the way.

“I also met Mukovhe and I could not believe how humble he was and how he remembered all the Thusanani students’ names. He encouraged us to email him if we had any problems and he encouraged me to pursue my Master’s, which I am going to do. I am now a Thusanani volunteer because the biggest thing I have learnt from Mukovhe is selflessness. He puts others first all the time, and even though he was so young when he started Thusanani, he knew what he needed to do.”

HUMBELANI MASIKHWA SECOND YEAR BSC GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES

“When I was in Grade 10, volunteers from Thusanani came to our school and explained what we needed to do to get to university, and how to apply for loans and bursaries.

“It was a giant shift from the reality of my environment, where you would be accused of trying to act cool if you spoke English.

“I really wanted to study at Wits, so I used to go and study at a friend’s home where they had electricity, which we didn’t. My mom, who is a primary school teacher, also encouraged me to get good marks.

“Wits accepted me and I managed to secure an NSFAS loan, but it hadn’t

come through by the time I needed to register for first year. So I phoned Mukovhe and asked him what to do. He organised a place for me to stay with one of the Thusanani volunteers and my registration was covered until my NSFAS funding came through, and I could move into my residence at Wits, Ernest Oppenheimer Hall, which is amazing.

“Thusanani and Wits have given me the edge. The opportunity to study here and meet motivated people from so many different cultures and backgrounds is inspiring. I had no idea what an institution like this could offer and I am now a volunteer so that I can help others.”

WITS STUDENTS BENEFITING FROM THUSANANI


PAGE NAME

The shoulders of giantsWhat Homo naledi means to Wits

BY DEBORAH MINORS

Homo naledi graduated into modernity at a press conference at Maropeng, Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng, on 10 September 2015. This new species of early human, discovered by Witsie Prof. Lee Berger and his Rising Star expedition, catapulted Wits into headlines worldwide.

www.wits.ac.za/homonaledi

www.wits.ac.za/homonaledi


HOMO NALEDI

The discovery is ground-

breaking not just for

the insights it provides

into our origins, but

because the researchers

surmise that this species

intentionally disposed of

its dead – a practice previously thought

to be unique to humans.

The discovery has implications for

the evolution of Wits. It builds on

the foundations laid by giants of

palaeoanthropology at Wits since 1923,

and continues the University’s world-

leading tradition in the field.

Slender spelunkers and the Chamber of Stars

The H. naledi story begins in 2013 – or,

more accurately, in 1923. “In fact, it

was 90 years of exploration started

by [Professor Raymond] Dart,” says

Professor Lee Berger, Research Professor

in Human Evolution and the Public

Understanding of Science at Wits, at

H. naledi's introduction to the world

in September 2015. “We stand on the

shoulders of giants.”

In 2013 Berger put out a call on

Facebook for spelunkers (cave explorers).

His brief was specific: he needed

palaeoscientists who had a slim physical

build able to access an 18cm (7 inch)

wide cave opening deep underground.

Applications flooded in from around

the world. Six women of the right build

and with the right qualifications were

selected as the lead scientists with

over 50 other cavers, scientists, safety

personnel, and assistants backing them

up. They risked their lives to recover

the fossil material from “some of the

most difficult and dangerous conditions

ever encountered in the search for

human origins”, says advance scientist

Dr Marina Elliott, a Wits post-doctoral

student under Berger’s supervision.

The expedition unearthed multiple

skeletons from the cave named

Rising Star. In the bowels of the cave,

down into the Dinaledi Chamber

(Chamber of Stars – “Naledi” means

“star” in SeSotho), the “underground

astronauts”, as they became known,

excavated the largest ever haul of fossil

hominins on the continent of Africa.

Thirty early-career scientists were

enlisted to analyse more than 1 500

fossils. “Analysis requires human beings

to conduct the work. Bones don’t speak

for themselves,” smiles Berger. The

subsequent scrutiny of the remains of

15 individuals revealed the likelihood of

the new human species of our genus,

Homo.


PAGE NAME

BONES OF CONTENTIONH. naledi is ground-breaking because itis a discovery of hundreds of fossils thatprovide fascinating insights into humanevolution. Like all major discoveries ofhuman ancestors though, the discoveryis not without controversy. Somescientists have spoken in the media,questioning whether H. naledi is a newspecies or just a more primitive memberof an already recognised species ofhominin, H. erectus. Others areuncomfortable with the hypothesis thatH. naledi deliberately disposed of thedead. Berger responds to these criticsthat science is a process and he and histeam of scientists eagerly await thesescientists’ publication of their criticisms inthe peer-reviewed literature so that thediscussion of this fascinating discoverycan continue and lead to a greaterunderstanding of our African origins.

Almost human

These 15 individuals indicate a range of ages from infant

through adolescent to mature adult. H. naledi had long

legs and a slender frame, stood around 1.5-metres (5 ft)

tall and weighed about 45kg.

H. naledi exhibits a blend of primitive and human fea-

tures. The brain is relatively small – about the size of an

orange. Holding the tiny skull in his palm, Berger said it

was approximately one-third the size of today’s human

brain. The many complete dental sets found among the

fossils show H. naledi had teeth similarly described for the

earliest-known Homo habilis. Most of the features of the

skull are similarly primitive, as are the hips. The extremely

curved finger bones and the shoulders, which resemble an

ape’s, are built for climbing.

By contrast, the foot is very human; virtually indistinguish-

able from our own. This suggests that the species was

equipped to walk long distances. H. naledi's hands and

wrist bones have a very human thumb and gripping finger

tips, which suggest the capacity to use tools.

The case for ritualised behaviour

Arguably most notable about H. naledi is the context of

the discovery, which led researchers to conclude that this

primitive-looking hominin may have practised a form of

behaviour previously thought to be unique to humans

– intentional body disposal, or “ritualised” (repeated)

behaviour. Here’s why:

1. The H. naledi fossils were found underground in an

inaccessible, isolated chamber. Accidental access is

impossible.

2. The Chamber is so remote that only about a dozen of

the fossils recovered are not hominin (they are mouse

and bird remains). This is unprecedented in the fossil

hominin record.

3. The H. naledi fossils bear no marks of scavengers,

carnivores, or other non-hominin agents.

4. There is no evidence of natural processes, such as

moving water, having carried these fossils.

5. The bodies did not come in at the same time, but over

a period of time.

6. In the absence of any other way to explain the context

of the fossils, ritualised deposit of the dead is the most

likely hypothesis.


PAGE NAME

RAYMOND DART & “THE TAUNG CHILD”

1925• 1922 Joins the newly-established Wits University as

Professor of Anatomy. Mentors Phillip Tobias

• 1925 Discovers the first ever australopithecine,Australopithecus africanus, the skull of a four-year-old, named “The Taung Child”

• 1925-1943 Dean of Anatomy at Wits

• 1948 Names the second Australopithecus,A. prometheus, found at Makapansgat

(honorary DSc 1964)

RON CLARKE & “LITTLE FOOT”

1994

• 1997 Ron Clarke and hisassistants Stephen Motsumi andNkwane Molefe discover themost complete Australopithecusskeleton with skull to date,Australopithecus prometheus,named “Little Foot”

• 2015 Professor and Reader inPalaeoanthropology at Wits,Clarke concludes 17 years’excavation, preparation andreconstruction of “Little Foot”

• Clarke’s career of cleaning andreconstructing hominid and otherfossils over half a century earnshim the moniker “palaeo-surgeon”

(PhD Science 1978)

PHILLIP TOBIAS & “NUTCRACKER MAN”

1959• 1959 Mary Leakey and Louis Leakey invite Tobias to

compile the monograph describing their discovery ofthe speciman Zinjanthropus, “Nutcracker Man”

• Succeeds his mentor, Raymond Dart, as Head ofAnatomy at Wits (Tobias pictured with cast of Olduvaifossil)

• 1964 Tobias, Louis Leakey and John Napier describeand name Homo habilis, “the Handyman”. Tobiasproduces a related two-volume monograph

(BSc 1946, BSc Hons 1947, MBBCh 1950, PhD Science 1953,

DSc 1967, honorary DSc 1994)

JAMES KITCHING

1945• 1945 Vertebrate palaeontologist, James Kitching,

joins the BPI as its sole employee

• Lauded as “the greatest fossil finder in the world”by Dr Broom

• 1987 Prof. Kitching becomes Director of the BPI

• 1998 James Kitching Gallery established at Wits

(PhD Science 1973, honorary DSc 1997)

ROBERT BROOM & “MRS PLES”

1947• 1936 Discovers the first Australopithecus adult

cranium (reconstruction pictured) in Sterkfontein

• 1945 Broom’s work enables establishment ofthe Bernard Price Institute for PalaeontologicalResearch at Wits (BPI)

• 1947 Co-discovers with John Robinson an adultAustralopithecus africanus skull, “Mrs Ples”

• 1949 Broom and Robinson name the first earlyHomo fossil, Telanthropus capensis, at Swartkrans

(honorary DSc 1933)

THE BONES BRIGADEFAMOUS FOSSIL WITSIES AND THEIR FINDS

2010• 2010 Announces discovery of Australopethicus

sediba, named “Karabo” (“Answer”)

LEE BERGER & “KARABO” (PhD Science 1994, DSc 2014)


EVOLUTIONARY STUDIES

Karoo fossil fascination: Professor Bruce Rubidge, interim Director of the Evolutionary Studies Institute

Evolution of an instituteThe Evolutionary Studies Institute, Wits UniversityIn 2013 the Bernard Price Institute of

Palaeontological Research (BPI) and the

Institute for Human Evolution merged to

become the Evolutionary Studies Institute

(ESI).

Professor Bruce Rubidge, a Karoo

palaeontologist and former Director of the

BPI, became interim Director of the ESI.

As one of Wits’ 21st Century Institutes

and a DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in

Palaeosciences, the ESI is an African Centre of

Excellence for the comprehensive study of the

evolution of life on Earth. The ESI:

• is the foremost palaeontological training

centre in Africa

• researches Karoo palaeontology,

palaeoanthropology, palaeozoology,

palaeobotany, and archaeology

• has 12 NRF-rated scientists, including three

A-ratings and one P-rating

• produces over 80 research publications

annually

• houses the largest fossil collection in Africa

including hominins, and Palaeozoic and

Mesozoic vertebrates

• houses the largest palaeobotany herbarium

in the Southern Hemisphere

• discovered the oldest dinosaur eggs and

nests, and the earliest sauropod dinosaurs

• was central to having the Cradle of

Humankind declared a World Heritage Site

READ MORE

http://www.wits.ac.za/academic/research/20441/about_us.html




PAGE NAME

PROF. KRISTIAN CARLSON & DR TEA JASHASHVILI

DR JOB KIBII

PROF. LEE BERGER

PROF. FRANCIS THACKERAY

DR BERNHARD ZIPFEL DR CHRISTINE STEININGER

DR LUCINDA BACKWELL (MSc 2000) Senior Researcher (NRF C-rated). Hominin taphonomist and bone tool expert

PROF. LEE BERGER (PhD 1994, DSc 2014) Research Professor in Human Evolution & Public Understanding of Science (NRF B-rated). Hominin osteology and taxonomy

PROF. KRISTIAN CARLSON Senior Researcher (NRF B-rated) Functional morphology and changes in limb structure during hominin evolution

DR TEA JASHASHVILI Researcher. Human evolution and palaeoanthropology

DR JOB KIBII (MSc 2001, PhD 2005) Senior Researcher. Hominin postcranial studies and hominid/non-hominid faunal communities

DR BRIAN KUHN Senior Researcher. Palaeozoologist and permit holder of Taung, site of first Australopithecine found (1924)

DR CHRISTINE STEININGER (MSc 2003, PhD 2011) DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences & ESI Projects Manager. Acidification of the hominin landscape

PROF. FRANCIS THACKERAY Phillip Tobias Chair in Palaeoanthropology (NRF C-rated). Early hominin cranial morphology and taxonomy

DR BERNHARD ZIPFEL (PhD 2005) Senior Collections Curator (NRF C-rated). Hominin postcranial studies and evolution of bipedalism

WITS’ HOMININ HEROES


PAGE NAME

ADLER MUSEUM OF MEDICINEWits Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown Tel +27 (0) 11 717 2081 | [email protected] Cost free but venue hire tariffs on request | Hours: Monday to Friday 09:00 – 16:00. Saturdays on request

WITS ART MUSEUM | WAMUniversity Corner, Corner Jorissen and Bertha Streets, Braamfontein | Tel + 27 (0) 11 717 1365/58 | [email protected] | www.wits.ac.za/wamHours: Wednesdays to Sundays 10:00 – 16:00WAM has a café and hosts regular events and exhibitions. Admission free. Donations encouraged.

THE ORIGINS CENTREWest Campus, Wits, cnr. Yale Road & Enoch Sontonga Avenue, Braamfontein | Tel +27 (0) 11 717 4700 | [email protected] | www.origins.org.zaHours: Daily and public holidays 09:00 – 17:00 | Costs: Adults R80, children (u/12 with adult) R40, guide fee (minimum 10) R200, learners R45, teachers (with school groups) R55, lectures, temporary exhibitions/walkabouts and films R50, Giving Back ticket R40 + 4 non-perishable food/toiletry items

WITS THEATRE COMPLEX East Campus, Wits University, Performing Arts Administration, 24 Station Street, Braamfontein | Tel +27 (0) 11 717 1376 | [email protected] | www.wits.ac.za/witstheatre | PAA reception hours, 08:00 – 16:00, Monday to Friday | Theatre costs vary according to programme | Tickets: www.webtickets.co.za

PLANETARIUMEast Campus, Wits, Yale Road off Empire Road, Entrance 10, Milner Park, Braamfontein | Tel +27 (0) 11 717 1390 | [email protected] | www.planetarium.co.zaHours: Kiddies’ show (5 – 8 years), Saturdays 10:30, R27

WITS RURAL FACILITY Directions: From JHB, N14 and from PTA, N4 to Witbank (eMalahleni) to Belfast (eMakhazeni) to R540 to Lydenburg (Mashishing) to R36 to Abel Erasmus Pass to R531 to Klaserie then Orpen Road turn-off 2km past Klaserie, Limpopo | Tel +27 (0) 15 793 7500 | [email protected] | www.wits.ac.za/wrfCost*: Terminalia and Vaalboom en-suite units: R684 for two, R278/extra person | Lodge: pps R254, single R382 | Anselia self-catering unit: pps R321, single R435 | Aerocamp: pps R285, single R399 | Bushcamp/4-person dormitory: R124 pp. * Wits rates quoted. Refer to website for public rates.

MAROPENG, THE CRADLE OF HUMANKIND AND THE STERKFONTEIN CAVESDirections: Off R563 Hekpoort Road, Sterkfontein, Gauteng | Tel +27 (0) 14 577 9000 | [email protected] | www.maropeng.co.za | Hours: 09:00 – 17:00 daily | Costs: Maropeng: Pensioner R77, student, R90, adult R144, child (4 – 14 years) R80 | Sterkfontein Caves: Pensioner R77, child (4 – 14 years) R87, student R90, adult R149 | Combination ticket: Child (4 – 14 years) R129, adult R194

DETAILS ACCURATE AT TIME OF PUBLISHING. PLEASE CONTACT FACILITIES DIRECTLY.

Places to visit at Wits









PAGE NAME

WRITING EDGE

WITSIES WITH THE

BY DEBORAH MINORS


WRITING EDGE

A Jacana Pocket Biography: Nelson Mandela, by Professor Colin Bundy

Professor Colin Bundy (BA Hons 1967) is an eminent

South African historian. He was a Rhodes Scholar

in 1968 and a Beit Senior Research Scholar at St

Antony’s, Oxford, where he earned his doctorate

in 1972. From 1997 to 2001, Prof. Bundy served as

Vice-Chancellor and Principal at Wits. Most recently he

was Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford. He

retired in 2010. Prof. Bundy wrote two other Jacana

pocketbooks, Govan Mbeki and Short-changed?

South Africa Since 1994, before Nelson Mandela

(2015). It is relatively easy to trace the history of

Mandela’s status as living legend, but virtually

impossible to imagine what it must have been like to

live as a person and a legend. This post-hagiographic

account provides an overview and summary of the

20th century icon. It aims to extricate the person of

Mandela from a pervasive "sense" of Mandela. It

distinguishes between the actual, historical person,

and an essentially mythical Mandela. Prof. Bundy first

locates Mandela’s life, his character and actions in

South African history, while the first and final chapters

question memory, remembering, and legacy.

This Is How We Do: How Women Work through Obstacles to Get into Executive and Board Positions, by Liz Makoma Ditshego

Liz Makoma Ditshego holds a BA (1993) from Wits,

a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Policy and Develop-

ment Management (1994), and an MBA (2015) from

Wits Business School. She is a PhD candidate at WBS

in 2016. Ditshego has over 15 years’ experience in

the corporate sector including marketing and brand

management roles for global corporations such as

Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Barclays Bank. Ditshego now

runs a leadership development and executive coaching

consultancy. She is passionate about the professional

development of women and their acceleration into

executive and board positions. She has hosted Women

in Leadership events since 2011 and published her

book in 2015. The book aims to inspire women and

empower them to overcome corporate obstacles they

may encounter. Drawing on lessons from women

already occupying executive and board positions,

Ditshego shares how women can successfully ascend

the corporate ladder so that they too can learn, grow,

and lead.

BIOGRAPHY SELF-HELP

PAINTING BY CYRIL COETZEE (2002)


WRITING EDGE

Who’s Knocking on My Door? by Dr Pamela Heller-Stern

Dr Pamela Heller-Stern holds a PhD (1969) from Wits

where she lectured in English from 1965 to 1970.

She is a published poet, essayist and literary critic, and

ran a framing factory, art franchise and art galleries

before retiring in 2008. Dr Heller-Stern previously

wrote The Pink Slippers and It’s a Red Moon and a

Green Man. Wisehouse Publishing’s avant-garde

imprint, Elementá, based in Sweden, brought out

Who’s Knocking on My Door? (2015), a novel which

has been described as “inescapably cinematographic”

with a poetic literary style. It presents four portraits

in response to the title question. Is it Death? Maybe

it’s Stanley, a World War II prisoner-of-war; or one

of five siblings, each representing a recurring family

curse; or perhaps it’s a missing film star; or Belinda, an

addict, who commits an irretrievable act. The book’s

originality lies in its use of imagery and fragmented

sentences to conjure up characters.

Insurgent Diplomat: Civil Talks or Civil War? by Aziz Pahad

Aziz Pahad (BA 1964) was banned in apartheid South

Africa in 1964 and went into exile in 1966. Based

mainly in the UK, he was central to developing the

anti-apartheid resistance there. He was elected to

the South African Communist Party in 1984 and as a

member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee

in 1985. Pahad was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

in democratic South Africa from 1994 to 2008. In

2014 President Jacob Zuma appointed him as a

Presidential Envoy to deal with the Middle East crisis.

Insurgent Diplomat (Penguin UK, 2014) is Pahad’s

memoir of the secret discussions that preceded official

negotiations to end apartheid. He played a key role in

these discussions and his book is the first account of

them from the ANC’s perspective. Traversing Pahad’s

early years in South Africa, which informed his political

ideology, and his time in exile, the book gives insights

into leaders including Yusuf Dadoo, Oliver Tambo and

Thabo Mbeki, and describes the ANC’s role in the

peacefully negotiated settlement.

FICTION MEMOIR


WITS PRESS

Deborah James, a South African

social anthropologist, now

Professor of Anthropology

at the London School of

Economics, researched the

theme of debt, credit and

consumption patterns in 2007

and 2008 in South Africa. It

was a time when the world

economy moved into a sharp

downward phase in the

business cycle, recession turned

to depression, banks elsewhere

were in deep trouble and the

sub-prime mortgage crisis,

wrapped up with derivatives,

impoverished more than just

the erstwhile home owner. The

impact was felt in South Africa,

although the stability of the

banks and the regulatory framework in South Africa

staved off a local financial crisis.

The South African economy had and still has deeper

structural and policy flaws that have grown out of the

capitalist-apartheid nexus and have been compounded

by post 1994 economic transition.

The consumer credit crunch is

more of an endemic problem

and unemployment remains

high. This makes it even more

difficult for South Africa to

return to higher levels of

economic growth.

The context for current

economic woes has long and

highly complex roots. The

coming to power of the ANC

Marxist-leaning government

was an interesting moment

in the country’s economic

history. The new government

had to reassure investors and

proclaim that the transition

would not mean nationalisation

or destabilisation, that private

property and title deeds were

safe. At the same time economic change had to bring

meaningful social and strategic reforms, growth had

to couple with redistribution and social welfare had to

translate into a more visibly equal and affluent society.

The objective was to grow the economic cake and

share it more equitably.

BookReviewsWITS ALUMNI, STAFF, AND STUDENTS QUALIFY FOR A 20% DISCOUNT ON WITS UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLICATIONS WHEN BOUGHT AT WITS PRESS PREMISES AT UNIVERSITY CORNER, BRAAMFONTEIN.

MONEY FROM NOTHING: INDEBTEDNESS AND ASPIRATION IN SOUTH AFRICA BY DEBORAH JAMES

Published by Wits University Press, 2014


BOOK REVIEWS

A new emergent black middle class who were

unionism minded and were often dependent on the

state for largesse and employment had to become

the beneficiaries of new opportunities through black

economic empowerment deals and scorecards. Heady

transition unleashed a rising tide of aspirations, higher

status acquisitiveness and the expectation of higher

living standards.

Consumerism was visible in the demand for high

fashion clothes, fast cars and satellite TV. For the

individual it could all be financed on credit, hire

purchase, retail department store accounts and

credit cards. The financial institutions were quick to

open their doors to the previously disadvantaged,

the so-called unbanked. But credit that was not used

to generate future assets or underpin performing

investments quickly translated into debt. If repayments

could not be met the consumer slipped into the

nightmarish world of indebtedness. Instead of

enjoying the fruits of liberation and freedom there

was a new form of economic slavery.

James explores what this indebtedness meant to

people and why individuals and groups were ready

to borrow from a string of different types of lender,

from formal institutions to informal micro money

lenders and loan sharks. She challenges the view that

aspirations were shallowly consumerist and shows the

link between aspiration and investment in education.

She skilfully brings the nuanced perspective of the

anthropologist to give depth and a human face to

economic analysis. Gender, class and intergenerational

differences are relevant in exploring the world of debt.

People borrow to achieve and retain middle class

status, to educate their children, to purchase furniture,

to meet family obligations, to pay lobola. She raises

debates about thriftiness vs extravagance and short

term consumerism vs long term personal advancement

through education. Were the new moneyed class

ignorant and uneducated when it came to budgets

and loans? Whose responsibility was it to manage the

debts of the millions? Is the creditor as much to blame

as the debtor when things go wrong? When does

interest become usury? Was credit a logical decision

aimed at delivering on aspirations in the immediate

present when it led into interminable long term

indebtedness that was illogical?

James reveals great complexities in the South African

transition after 1994. The richness of her discussion of

societal fault lines is impressive and her arguments are

convincing. Her account is readable and engaging and

she avoids an excessive amount of academic jargon.

There is an underlying anxiety that the State, having

created the opportunities for upward mobility for

many, now finds that it must increasingly regulate the

lender and the borrower and behave in a paternalist

way to manage the unexpected outcomes of the

South African brand of capitalism.

James’s book points to the need for bankers to read

anthropology and to listen to researchers who do field

work reporting on individual experiences. Perhaps the

collapse of banks might be avoided. At the same time

I would urge James to apply her methodology to the

world and mind of the banker. This has to be the next

fruitful vein.

REVIEWS BY KATHERINE MUNRO, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

Order Wits University Press publications online from www.witspress.co.za | UK & Europe: +44 (0)20 7240 0856 www.eurospanbookstore.com | North & South America: Toll-free: (800) 888 – IPG1 (4741) | [email protected] FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.witspress.co.za | +27 (0)11 717 8700 | [email protected]




WITS PRESS

In the last few years Wits

University Press has made

a significant contribution

to a new understanding of

the South African past with

its publication of a range

of scholarly but accessible

specialist works. Readers here

and abroad are given a fine

opportunity to access the

research output of historians

who are filling a national

canvas with detailed and careful

scholarship of geographical

regions.

Manson and Mbenga have

spent three decades researching

the history of the predominantly

Setswana-speaking population

of today’s North-West province.

Their approach is to probe specific events and crises

to build a coherent sequential and thematic regional

history. Theirs is a contribution to black African

history. They highlight defining moments and the

role of prominent Tswana personalities, leaders and

chiefs as traditional ethnic groups battled – through

resistance, negotiation or co-operation – to retain

their stake in this somewhat forbidding land while

adapting to inexorable economic changes.

This book fills in the gaps

in scholarship, reinterprets

or updates earlier works on

African history of the region

and quickly impresses because

the authors speak with an

authoritative voice rooted in

a huge amount of primary

research.

The North-West, with its dry,

acacia-covered bushveld and

the lack of reliable water

limiting grassland cultivation,

was frontier territory for 19th

century travellers, missionaries,

hunters and more rooted Boer

and black inhabitants. The

frontier closed towards the end

of the 19th century with the

shaping of the Bechuanaland

protectorate, Boer conquest and the trekboer

penetration of the Waterberg. The skill of the authors

lies in building a narrative around events, issues and

themes that played out over a period of 170 years.

Today the region is known for early missionary

endeavours, the troubled platinum mining industry,

the Madikwe and Pilanesberg game reserves, the

casino, golf and entertainment lifestyles of Sun City,

the palaeontological sites and for the literary images

of Herman Charles Bosman’s Marico district.

LAND, CHIEFS, MINING: AFRICAN SOCIETIES IN NORTH-WEST PROVINCE 1840-2013 BY ANDREW MANSON AND BERNARD K MBENGA

Published by Wits University Press, 2014


BOOK REVIEWS

This was also where the puppet state of Lucas

Mangope’s apartheid-shaped “homeland”,

Bophuthatswana, became the setting of high drama in

the lead up to 1994.

The advantage of the case study approach is that

deep shafts of light illuminate narrow periods and

events but become the mechanism for examining

change over a longer period. For example, the 1957

Bahurutshe resistance over the issuing of passes for

women in the reserves highlights the deeper issues

of the meaning of tighter administrative controls,

policy shifts, overcrowding in reserves, environmental

degradation, uneconomic landholdings, the limits

to the power of a chief and the nature of political

transformation. It’s all impressively captured in a single

chapter.

Manson and Mbenga trace the trials, tribulations and

conflicts of the often competing Tswana merafe or

chiefdoms, the similarities and differences, shaping

and reshaping of ethnic identities, and explain the

shifting loyalties and emerging economic opportunities

as the 20th century unfolded. In a part of the world

where cattle demarcated wealth and farming had to

be extensive because of the terrain and limited rainfall,

the acquisition of land was bitterly contested by black

and white. The platinum revolution opened up a new

terrain of conflict, court cases and corruption. It is a

story about who controls the material resources of the

land and the mines, who benefits, who owns what

and who are the rent seekers as economic and social

pressures growing out of modernity erode traditional

frameworks.

Although the authors present the history of the North-

West province through “aspects” in the disparate

chapters, the linking themes are drawn into a cohesive

whole in the introduction and conclusion. However,

the inserted additional information text boxes

interrupt the flow of the narrative and are simply

distracting. This seems to be a style imported from the

travel guide book.

I would have liked to see more evidence and

discussion around economic performance and

some comparative figures relating to different types

of profits and returns for different investments in

different periods, as the story is, at its core, about the

economic realities and prospects of people and their

land.

Nonetheless, this is a significant and timely study

in the context of the tragedy of Marikana in 2012.

It is a pity that the book could not have been

better supported in the technical aspects of book

production. The black and white photographs are

poorly reproduced. They are too dark and grainy. The

very useful maps would have been more navigable

with colour coding. The paper is too thin and text

margins narrow. One presumes that the objective of

a university press is to make its publications accessible

and affordable, but historical studies of this quality

deserve a more substantial and better designed

presentation. The bibliography, source notes, end

notes and index have been meticulously prepared. A

book such as this is likely to earn a place in the canon

of enduring African historical studies. It is Africana in

the making.


IN MEMORIAM

ObituariesBRIAN ALTSHULER (1952–2015)

Architect Brian Joseph Altshuler died suddenly on

30 April 2015, aged 63. He was a protégé of the

renowned architect and one-time Head of Architec-

ture at Wits, the late Pancho Guedes. In his research,

practice and artworks, Brian explored the qualities of

architecture derived from sacred geometries across

world cultures.

Brian (BArch 1981) was born on 6 October 1952.

He lectured in Architectural Theory and Design at

Wits. He was a visiting lecturer at other South African

architectural schools, and in Portugal and the UK. As

an accomplished sculptor, painter and photographer,

he ran a design studio in Johannesburg focusing on

landscape and furniture design. He was a freelance

lecturer and tour guide, in which capacity he played

a major role in raising awareness of Johannesburg’s

architectural heritage. His participation included re-

search, lectures and unique walking tours, particularly

to Joburg’s Art Deco and Modern Movement buildings

and those of Wilhelm Pabst, the subject of a PhD he

began. Brian’s iconic photographs were central to his

lectures.

His family bequeathed his archive to the School of

Architecture at Wits. The collection includes some

of Brian’s own art works, his plans, photographic

collection, drawings and examples of chairs he made

himself. The bequest supports the school’s positioning

as a significant architectural archive in Johannesburg.

MARY BILL (1935–2015)

Mary “Molly” Cameron Bill (MA

1989) died aged 80 in Jukskei Park,

Johannesburg on 1 June 2015,

from a chest infection. She was a

lecturer in the African Languages

department at Wits from 1979 to

1995. She was a language teaching methodologist, a

passionate translator and a linguist, fluent in French

and three South African languages, and competent

in three others. She was an activist academic who

believed in knowledge for the transformation of

human relations and human conditions.

Molly was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 11 April

1935. In 1959 she set out on a life of ministry with

her husband, François, to the Xitsonga-speaking

people of the former Transvaal province. For the next

20 years, until 1979, she was immersed in the songs,

poetry, wisdom and struggles of black people during

legislated segregation in apartheid South Africa. In

a tribute, her colleague at Wits, Professor Tinyiko

Maluleke, described her as a missionary at heart in the

best sense of the word; a missionary among Vatsonga,

white South Africans, and in the global academy.

She bequeathed a volume, Mbita ya vulombe! to

the global academy, which contains the total yield of

literature on and in the Xitsonga language from 1883

to 1983. Molly’s children, Janine, Charles and Denise,

survive her.

BY DEBORAH MINORS


OBITUARIES

BOB CHARLTON (1929–2015)

Professor Robert “Bob” William

Charlton, former Vice-Chancellor of

Wits University, died on 30 July 2015

after a short illness. He was 86.

Prof. Charlton was born on 27

January 1929. He had a passion

for education and a lifelong

commitment to Wits. His association

with the University began as a

student, when he earned BSc

(1949), MBBCh (1952) and MD

(1963) degrees. In 1967 he became

Professor of Experimental and

Clinical Pharmacology at Wits. As

a physician in the Department of

Medicine, Prof. Charlton was a

gifted bedside doctor and teacher

who will be remembered by

thousands of students he taught.

As a researcher he was author or co-

author of more than 100 scientific

articles, and (with Professor Tom

Bothwell) of a definitive book, Iron

Metabolism in Man, which has been

widely cited.

In 1975, while serving as Assistant

Dean of the Medical School, he was

elected as a Senate representative

on the University Council. He was

elected Dean in 1978. In February

1988, Prof. Charlton became Vice-

Chancellor and Principal. He held

office for two terms and was widely

acknowledged for his steadfast and

principled leadership in steering the

University through the tumultuous

1980s and 1990s. He retired in

1997. The following year, Wits

awarded Prof. Charlton an honorary

LLD. He initiated the Charlton

Awards for Service Excellence after

retiring, and was always present to

award these to exceptional support

staff.

Prof. Charlton served on several

local and national medical and

educational bodies, including the

Board of Governors of the Wits

Foundation and several independent

school boards. In 1987, he was

invited to be a trustee of the Wits

Foundation. He was reappointed

in 1997 and served voluntarily until

2008.

The Charlton family’s relationship

with Wits is entrenched and

endures. Prof. Charlton’s late wife,

Margaret, was Chairperson of the

Wits Women’s Club, the fundraising

efforts of which benefited indigent

students. Prof. Charlton himself was

a Wits benefactor. The Charltons’

four children, all Wits alumni – Sarah

(BArch 1989), Julia (BA FA 1984),

Diana (BA 1982, BA Hons 2003, MA

2005) and Robert (BA 1985, LLB

1989) – survive him.

WITS UNIVERSITY FONDLY REMEMBERS THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED AWAY

As a physician in the Department of Medicine, Prof. Charlton was a gifted bedside doctor and teacher who will be remembered by thousands of students he taught.


IN MEMORIAM

PRISCILLA KINCAID-SMITH (1926–2015)

World-renowned nephrologist Professor Priscilla

Sheath Kincaid-Smith, who discovered the link

between headache powders and kidney disease,

died in Melbourne, Australia on 18 July 2015 from

complications following a stroke. She was 88. She

was formerly Director of Nephrology at the Royal

Melbourne Hospital (1975-1991) and later, Emer-

itus Professor and Director of Epworth Hospital in

Melbourne.

A trailblazer for Australian women scientists, Prof.

Kincaid-Smith was the first female professor at the

University of Melbourne in 1975, first female chair of

the Royal Australian College of Physicians, first female

chair of the Australian Medical Association, and the

first female chair of the World Medical Association.

Prof. Kincaid-Smith was born in Johannesburg on 30

November 1926. She attended Parktown High School

for Girls, where she excelled at athletics. At Wits

she earned BSc (1946) and MBBCh (1951) degrees

while proving a formidable sportswoman. She was

an intervarsity swimmer and sprinter, and held five

half-Blues for hockey.

After graduating Prof. Kincaid-Smith worked in South

Africa and England, where she met her husband,

Ken Fairley. The couple relocated to Australia and

collaborated as scientists despite laws at the time

prohibiting married women from working. Jointly they

identified the link between headache powders and

kidney disease, and Kincaid-Smith then lobbied for

restrictions on the availability of these analgesics. She

was involved in establishing a renal transplant unit

at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and in the 1970s

focused on preventing renal failure.

In 1981, Wits awarded Prof.Kincaid-Smith an honorary

DSc (Medicine). She retired as Professor of Medicine at

the University of Melbourne in 1991.

She leaves her husband, Ken, twin sons, Stephen and

Christopher, and a daughter, Jackie.

DAWN EVENDEN (1934–2015)

Librarian Dawn Eva Evenden died

in Johannesburg on 26 February

2015, aged 80. Her career at the

Johannesburg City Council spanned

43 years and was dedicated to the

Johannesburg Public Library and,

later, the Johannesburg Museums and Art Gallery.

Dawn was born on 27 May 1934. She joined the

Johannesburg Public Library in the 1950s, earning

certifications through the South African Library

Association.

The Johannesburg City Council awarded her a bursary

in 1967 and she graduated from Wits with a BA and

a postgraduate diploma in Librarianship, with two

distinctions, in 1970. She gained experience at the

Council’s Central Reference Library, the City Engi-

neers’ Department Library and the Periodicals Depart-

ment. After overseeing the organisation of the city’s

branch libraries, she was promoted to Deputy City

Librarian in 1975. She became Director of Library and

Museum Services in Johannesburg in 1987. A leader in

her field, Dawn chaired the Southern Transvaal Branch

of the South African Institute of Librarianship and

Information Science and was a member of its council

for 10 years. She retired as Director in 1993.

Dawn was also an accomplished sportswoman and

sports administrator. She was a provincial hockey

player and referee, a cricketer, and a bowls player and

umpire. She was an honorary life member of South

African and Southern Transvaal hockey and Rhodes

Park Club cricket.


OBITUARIES

BOB HEPPLE (1934–2015)

Professor Sir Bob Alexander Hepple,

QC, died in Cambridge, England

on 21 August 2015, aged 81. Sir

Bob was Emeritus Master of Clare

College and Emeritus Professor

of Law, University of Cambridge.

He was born in Johannesburg on

11 August 1934 and matriculated

from Jeppe High School for Boys in

1952. At Wits he was President of

the SRC (1954/55). He graduated

BA (1954) and LLB cum laude

(1957) and received the Society of

Advocates Prize for being the Best

Law Graduate in 1957.

He became an attorney in 1958 and

married Shirley Goldsmith in July

1960. He lectured in Law at Wits

but resigned in 1961 to practise and

to pursue political activities. He was

on Nelson Mandela’s support team

when Mandela went underground

in May 1961. When Mandela was

arrested in 1962, he asked Sir

Bob to be his legal adviser. On 11

July 1963, Sir Bob was arrested at

Liliesleaf farm and detained without

trial. The indictment against him

was eventually quashed and he was

released, but the State Prosecutor

told him that he would have to

testify as a state witness against

Mandela and others in what became

known as the Rivonia Trial. He was

not prepared to do this and fled

South Africa for the UK. He became

a banned person in South Africa and

could not return for 27 years.

In the UK, he was called to the Bar

at Gray’s Inn in 1966. He taught at

the University of Nottingham before

becoming a Fellow of Clare College,

and lectured in Law at Cambridge

(1968–1976). He spent some time

at the University of Kent and at

University College London (UCL) and

then returned to Clare as Master

in 1993. He retired as Master of

Clare College in 2003 but continued

working until very shortly before his

death. He married Mary Coussey in

1994 after the dissolution of his first

marriage.

Sir Bob was knighted in 2004

and in 2014 the South African

Presidency awarded him the Order

of Luthuli (Gold) for his “exceptional

contribution to the struggle for

human rights and democracy”.

He received honorary degrees

from several universities, including

Wits (1996). In 2013, Sir Bob’s

autobiography, Young Man with a

Red Tie: A Memoir of Mandela and

the Failed Revolution 1960–1963

(Jacana), was published.

Sir Bob was renowned worldwide

for his human rights work and was

regarded as a pioneer in the field

of labour law. His South African

background made him more aware

of discrimination in the UK and he

worked with many international

bodies to promote labour standards.

His wife, Mary, two children and

two step-children survive him.

Sir Bob was knighted in 2004 and in 2014 the South African Presidency awarded him the Order of Luthuli (Gold) for his “exceptional contribution to the struggle for human rights and democracy”


IN MEMORIAM

ANDRÉ GIRAUD (1924–2015)

Surgeon and Wits benefactor

Professor Robert Maurice André

Giraud (MBBCh 1951) died on

1 March 2015, aged 91.

Prof. Giraud completed his

internship at the Coronation and

Baragwanath Hospitals and then worked as a medical

officer at the Victoria Hospital, Mauritius. He resumed

general practice in Johannesburg in 1955. He went

to Paris for postgraduate studies in 1957 as a bursar

of the French government. He completed fellowship

studies in the UK and worked in hospitals in Watford

and Ealing. He returned to South Africa in 1962,

where he remained at Baragwanath for almost 20

years, ultimately becoming principal surgeon. He

played a significant role in training surgeons in South

Africa. He retired in 1995.

Professor Giraud was a squash enthusiast and a family

man. He leaves his wife, Kathy, daughters Nicole,

Marie-Claire and Michéle, and five grandchildren.

JAN BOEYENS (1934–2015)

A former Professor of Chemistry at Wits, Jan

Christoffel Antonie Boeyens died on 26 August 2015

in Pretoria, aged 80. He was born on 2 October 1934

and joined Wits in 1981. He later became Head of

Department and Dean of the Faculty of Science. After

retiring from Wits he joined the Unit for Advanced

Study at the University of Pretoria and continued

to make significant scientific contributions. He

authored The Theories of Chemistry (Elsevier) in 2003.

Colleagues described Prof. Boeyens as a “universal

chemist”.

EDWIN MYER (1929–2015)

The former Chief of Child Neurology at the Medical

College of Virginia, Dr Edwin Charles Myer died in

Virginia, USA, on 8 September 2015, aged 86.

He was born in Johannesburg on 10 June 1929 and

graduated from Wits with an MBBCh in 1956. In 1970

he went to Johns Hopkins University Hospital, USA

for a fellowship in neurology and child neurology. He

moved to Richmond in 1973 and was a professor at

the Medical College of Virginia for 34 years.

In the 1980s and 1990s Dr Myer was involved in

research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and

endorphins, and was a member of many scientific

and medical societies. He was widely published and

authored or co-authored several books on child

neurology. He retired in 2007.

He enjoyed surf-fishing off the coast of North Carolina

and he loved telling jokes. Shortly before his passing

he said he hoped his friends would honour him by

telling a joke in his memory.

He leaves his wife of 45 years, Anne, their children,

Jennifer, Landon, and Jonathan, six grandchildren, and

his sister.

Ada Harris (1921–2015)

Dr Ada Carol Harris (BSc 1942, MBBCh 1946), born

26 March 1921, died 23 February 2015, aged 93. Her

son, Stephen Geffen, survives her.

Gerald Knoetze (1934–2014)

Dr Gerald Casparus Knoetze (BDS 1957), born in

Johannesburg 29 January 1934, died in Tsumeb,

Namibia on 7 August 2014.


OBITUARIES

GORDON MANDELZWEIG (1926–2015)

Ex-serviceman and Wits benefactor

Gordon Bernard Leslie Mandelzweig

(BSc Eng Civil 1950, GDE 1965),

born 12 July 1926, died in Israel on

28 May 2015 after a brief hospital-

isation. He was 89.

Gordon was a person who spent his life giving to

others. He registered at Wits in 1943 but twice

interrupted his studies to serve; he volunteered in

the South African Defence Force in World War II

and in the Israeli War of Independence in 1948.

After graduating, he volunteered for ex-servicemen

committees, synagogue committees, and as a leader

at holiday camps for underprivileged children. He was

a committed blood donor and supplied 150 pints over

the years.

Gordon worked in civil engineering for several years.

He changed direction and completed a Business

Management diploma at Wits. He then worked at

Rand Reinforcing and Steeledale Reinforcing as a

business manager. At Steeledale he chaired the South

African Reinforced Concrete Engineering Association

for 10 years, and wrote a handbook on reinforcing

for the South African Bureau of Standards. He retired

in 1989 and he and his wife of 61 years, Dorothy,

emigrated to Israel. Here he continued working until

2004, aged 79. Gordon’s wife and their children,

David and Leon, his grandchildren and one great-

grandchild survive him.

ERIC “BABE” WOODS (1926–2014)

Dr Eric “Babe” John Lance Woods

died peacefully on 27 September

2014 in Cape Town, aged 87.

He was born in Cape Town on

11 December 1926. At Sea Point

Boys High School he made his mark

in athletics. His under-15 high jump record (at 6’11”,

a world record at the time) was only recently broken.

He obtained Western Province colours for athletics

and Eastern Province colours for rugby.

Eric studied medicine at Wits under Raymond Dart and

Phillip Tobias. In his second year he married Kathleen

Caley. The couple had three sons and their marriage

endured for nearly 60 years before Kathy’s passing in

2008. Eric graduated MBBCh in 1953 and became a

partner in a Johannesburg practice for over a decade.

He then specialised in radiology, earning an MMed at

Wits in 1970, and entered private practice at Garden

City Clinic just as the first CT scanners arrived.

Eric relocated to Cape Town to join Orman & Partners

and, later, the Military Hospital, where his radiological

reports were both clinically insightful and beautifully

written. He retired after 50 years in medicine to

enjoy the outdoors and his grandchildren. He was

widely-read and knowledgeable, and his generosity

of spirit made all who met him feel special. He leaves

his sons, Ian (BSc 1976), Stephen and David, and five

grandchildren.


IN MEMORIAM

Johannes Cornelius “Neels” Coetzee (MA FA

1986) was a doyen of the School of Fine Arts

at Wits. An eminent sculptor and much-loved

teacher, mentor and innovator, he worked at

the University from 1972 to 1997. He died on

2 August 2013 after a long illness. His partner of 30

years, curator Koulla Xinisteris, survives him and his

legacy endures through her efforts.

In September 2015, Xinisteris mounted the first major

exhibition of Coetzee’s works since his passing. She

curated Crucible at Everard Read’s CIRCA gallery in

Johannesburg.

Coetzee’s work as an artist interrogated his unease

about spirituality, religion, suffering and injustice.

Themes of life, death and transformation permeate

his work. He regarded the skull as the seat of human

thought and it was an encounter with a skull at the

Wits Medical School in 1976 that inspired an epiphany.

In the University’s School of Anatomy, Coetzee found

a female skull with an abnormality. This irregularity

reflected the flaws Coetzee saw in life. He produced a

wax-cast of the skull and re-worked the cool wax. So

began his relationship with the skull – “because the

head is vulnerable, anatomically the most essential,

and the most revealing of the emotions”, he’d said.

In 2012 Wits would commission Coetzee to create

a bronze sculpture temporary installation on West

Campus. The Bier, a hollowed skull, was part of a

series which began in the 1970s.

In 2015, Xinisteris conceptualised Crucible as a “mini-

retrospective” of Coetzee’s work, which grapples

with questions of mortality, destiny, belief, justice,

torment and human suffering. She describes the

Crucible sculpture, created from melted-down AK47s,

as Coetzee’s “peace monument”. He dedicated it to

all those suffering “abuse, deprivation, incarceration,

for whatever reasons”. Xinisteris describes it as “a

culmination of a lot of his life’s work.”

The exhibition traces Coetzee’s oeuvre over three

periods: the Space Frame Series (1960s), the Skull

Series (1970s) and the Avçilar Series (1980s). It includes

‘Measure', a posthumous extension of Coetzee’s

work to fulfill his vision of having his skull sculptures

recreated at a larger scale.

The Crucible catalogue includes a bronze stainless steel

sculpture (untitled) executed in 1977, which former

Vice-Chancellor: Research at Wits, Professor Belinda

Bozzoli presented to the Wits Art Museum (WAM) in

2012. The Academic Staff Association had presented

this sculpture to the late Professor G.F Bozzoli

(1911–1998) in December 1977 when he retired as

Vice-Chancellor of Wits. The WAM collection includes

another four of Coetzee’s works, all of which continue

to resonate as powerfully today as when they were

first created.

TRIBUTE: NEELS COETZEE (1940–2013)

THINKING OF SKULLS

Neels Coetzee’s 1976 bronze on brass, untitled. An abnormal skull he found at Wits Medical School inspired his Skull Series.


WITS END

Oh Schucks,

it’s 0%BY KEYAN G TOMASELLI*

Alumni familiar with Leon Schuster’s candid camera films will know the South African English phrase “You have been Schucksed”. The “Fees Must Fall” campaign has out-schucksed and out-schustered both the government and university councils in persuading our bewildered ruling politicians to come up with this Seffrican English, “a 0% increase”, as they try to ward off the new revolution just 40 years after the last one started.

Not bad going for massed bunches of rabble rousers, a few of whom

are not averse to burning portable toilets belonging to a BEE firm,

blockading university entrances and setting a random police vehicle

alight. Having won the battle, they now want to win the war – free

education – despite it already costing the taxpayer R41-billion. As

our embattled Minister of Education, “Blade is Blunt”, told a disbelieving TV

interviewer: “South Africa has the money, we’ll get it from the private sector.”

CREDIT: JERM, DAILY MAVERICK


WITS END

In the meantime Blade would have made Schuster

proud by magically pulling out a big chunk of the

R2.3-billion needed to cover the “0% fees increase”

from his own pocket. Nevertheless, universities

are falling over themselves to embrace “austerity”

measures to express solidarity. This usually includes:

• Currently unoccupied posts and posts from which

current staff retire or resign may be frozen, which

means that students get fewer staff and fewer services

for lower fees – a fair trade.

• Departments and modules that lack viable

student numbers will be closed, and their remaining

permanent staff will be redeployed to teach disciplines

that they may know nothing about. And we all know

what happened in the cadre-deployment realm – just

look at SAA, the SABC, Eskom, the Post Office, PRASA

etc. Their fees never fall and their services never

improve – where are protesting students when you

need them?

• Tutoring and graduate assistant posts – usually

filled by senior students who use this facility to pay

their way – may be terminated. But I am sure that in

the spirit of a mass mobilisation, student volunteers

will be demanding to take on these positions without

pay in the interests of the worthy cause of nation-

building. Hey, we’re all in this together; we must

advance the concept of “volunteerism”.

• Universities will commoditise (i.e. schusticate)

anything and everything. We’ve all heard about “black

tax”. Now we can add academic tax: parking meters

will be installed on campuses; departments will be

charged for office space; research funds will be top

sliced to cover shortfalls; while academics will be

forced to spend a disproportionate amount of time

in raising their own salaries instead of delivering on

their core activities of educating students and doing

research.

• Individual academics will become a cost centre

in and of him/herself, and failure to recover total

cost-to-company will result in being Shustered. In an

ironic twist, freeing students from fees increases staff

slavery.

• Universities will corporatise further by enlarging

their rentable shopping precincts, replacing Mom-

n-Pop food outlets with branded fast food stores

that can pay top rentals, and the cost of food and

refreshments will increase in equal proportion to the

loss of nutritional value.

• Sports grounds and green spaces will be sold off as

rentable space. This will be known as schucksters rent.

• The institutional costs of rebudgeting, rescheduling

and painting over protest graffiti can be passed on

to anyone but the students engaged in this critical

pedagogy of deconstruction in this new poststructural

zero-rated accounting environment known as

“huckster schuckster bookkeeping”.

• One of the students’ demands is for the

“insourcing” of cleaning, grounds and maintenance

services. At some US universities graduate assistants

polish the floors and staff clean their own offices. Any

takers? A great learning experience in humility and

everydayness.

• Finally, staff salary increases and promotions may

be frozen, and top-performing academics may move

to greener, cleaner and more peaceful pastures.

Now we all know why Schuster is our most classless,

genderless, ethnicless, raceless, but most financially

successful film maker. In schuckstering us, he creates

an imagined space where problems can be resolved

by taking the mickey. In a previous column I called

for Schuster to be appointed national sangoma. But I

want to promote him to a post where he at least can

“pay back the money”.

* KEYAN TOMASELLI IS DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG. [email protected]


WITS MATTERS


Enquiries: Purvi Purohit, Senior Liaison Officer, [email protected] +27 (11) 717 1093 or [email protected]



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