October 2007

OCTOBER 2007

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EDITION:  VUVUZELA, OCTOBER 26, 2007

Photo courtesy flickr.com

Women have to do more than men

ERICA DREIJER

GENDER does still make a difference to people’s lives, even at a privileged institution like Wits.

“South Africa is a very patriarchal society and Wits is not exempt from the results of this,” said Professor Belinda Bozzoli, Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research.

“But in broad terms, we have managed to escape many of the worst features of a system which condemns many women outside privileged environments.”

Vuvuzela set out to explore how women perceived gender issues at Wits, which as an intellectual institution, is expected to be a progressive force within society.

According to Bozzoli, it’s a general fact that women have to do more than men to get to the same posts. 

“However nice and kind people may be, we do live in a highly patriarchal society and this is one of the results of that fact. All oppressive systems make it difficult for individuals from the disadvantaged groups [in this case women] to achieve within them.  Often this is more a result of structural rather than personal restrictions.”
 
According to Professor Margaret Orr, Director for the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development (CLTD), “People have their own view on the gender issues on campus.  Men tend to think it’s all fine, we’re all equal now, everything is sorted and women don’t quite feel that.  There are still a lot of gender issues,” explained Orr.

“The acid test for transformation is you want to get a reaction. Embarking on a transformation initiative and – this is so cool, and this is so nice – you are probably not doing enough.

“Transformation is painful and people don’t like pain and you are going to get negative and positive reactions.”

For Dr Sheila Meintjes, who lectures in feminist politics and Gender Studies, it’s not simply a gender issue. “I think there are disparities between academics and the administration that are unjust and unfair.

“It’s more an issue of the way we, as women, negotiate our position at university, because of the fact that women don’t promote themselves as easily as men do.  That’s an issue.

“Women are judged more harshly than men around performance, especially when trying to balance a family life.  And I think that women are still in fact in charge of the home in many ways,” said Meintjes.

The differences that exist appear to vary across disciplines and are affected by seniority and race.

“It’s different in different faculties,” said Dr Ashleigh Harris, senior lecturer in English. “I know from colleagues in Science and Health Sciences, that those faculties are extremely patronising. It’s a male domain. In the humanities there’s ways of resisting those kinds of assumptions.”

On the issue of age, she added: “There are instances where I have seen other women being accepting of being patronised. Often around the notion of being a young scholar, so: you’re a young scholar – that’s sweet.

“In some instances, it’s not just family-related, it’s also an insecurity bred of an institutional culture that makes more young women than young men perhaps feel that they are not doing enough.  It’s a complex set of facts,” she offered.

Meintjes thinks society is “still very andocentric [male-centric].  I think that it’s still very difficult for a large number of young women students. It’s still very difficult for younger women to be promoted as well.”

Bozzoli said she did experience a “sense of unease” among some men “at the presence of a woman in a position of authority”. “Competitiveness in academia is notorious and it is no surprise that this sometimes takes the form of tensions between the genders.

“Young women then don’t challenge the structures.  I don’t think that you can easily lay blame either way, but I also think there is the glass ceiling problem – it might be easier for young women to go from lecturer to senior lecturer, but up to associate professor or professor – that’s where it gets tricky, which is evident in the numbers,” she said.

While Orr believes: “It’s 10 times worse for black women. They have the double whammy.” 

Harris thought it “telling” that, in a culture where academics are expected to produce research at an incredible rate, “most women – except for [Professor] Deborah Posel and Professor Bozzoli – that have managed to do a lot of research either have much older children or don’t have children at all.”

Orr explained: “It seems that women are doing a lot of the low profile ‘housework’ in the institution just like they do at home. They are doing first year teaching, they are doing academic support, a lot of counselling with students, committee work and doing a lot of admin. So its way more complicated than: they are not doing research papers.”

“The public message is: it’s a struggle, but it’s possible and fulfilling, especially since a job in academia has a degree of flexibility,” said Professor Deborah Posel, Director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER).

“I don’t think that the balance is particularly about academia,” said Cathi Albertyn, Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS). “Yes, there’s a struggle.  I was raised with a stay-at-home mother – for me it’s a lot about your expectations.”

Orr added: “We are trying to be like our fathers and have a career and success and like our mothers by having the perfect house.  We are killing ourselves with this Superwomen syndrome.  You feel like a failure on all fronts because you are just barely hanging on at home and barely hanging on at work and you have these terrible decisions.”

“On the one hand it’s necessary to self-invest in the process of promotion,” said Harris.  “But because of the culture of guilt, of not doing enough, women’s own internalisation of that guilt has resulted in them accepting that they should not be the ones promoted, and where you tend to see younger male colleagues having a far more accurate sense of their worth at the university.  It seems to be a gender culture: I am not doing enough, I am not doing it well enough.”

“It’s quite a dilemma,” ventured Orr. “Do you fix the women?  Is it the women that are the problem or do you fix the environment, their husbands?  Do you go into Wits and say your criteria for recognising or emphasising one kind of academic work needs to change?  You are not valuing the type of work, like counselling students and academic support, and as a university you should be noticing all the contributions.”

However, Harris said that “a lot of the complexities of institutions are that it might look perfect on paper, but it comes down to the individuals in certain roles. In black and white it looks fine, but when you are engaged in the everyday life of an institution you do hit all kinds of complexities.”

So have gender issues changed?

For Bozzoli, “it’s a mixed picture”.  Gender inequalities are highly dependent on “where you are in society. For poor women in violent families and communities, things seem to be deteriorating rather than improving.” 

While, “on the other hand middle class women from all racial backgrounds seem to have made gains in recent years, in terms of the jobs they have access to, and the general acceptance of their rights to occupy significant positions in society”.

On a Wits front, Meintjes is of the opinion that “things have changed a lot in the last 20 years”.

But Harris pointed to “sexual harassment claims being lost or not followed through. You do kind of wonder. It’s about certain people, but it’s also about an institutional disregard for what sexual harassment is. Those things symptomatically show where those glitches in the institutional culture around gender lie.”

Bozzolli concluded: “Since we are the society with the highest rate of rape in the world, I do not think we have any room for complacency on the gender front.”

Friday, October 26, 2007

Education ‘wrong way round’

ERICA DREIJER

TEACHING, even if it is sitting under a tree, is the business that universities are essentially in, according to Professor Yunus Ballim, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic.

Ballim spoke to Vuvuzela about the responsibilities and the issues tertiary education institutions faced, especially in light of the recent strikes at Wits and the University of Johannesburg.

Funding was extremely important in redressing the past and helping South Africa’s economic development, he said. But focusing only on this would mean missing the challenges institutions like Wits had to weigh up.

Ballim felt universities essentially had three core responsibilities in a society. These were research and learning, teaching and scholarship and engagement with its community.

Of these, education was, in itself, a problematic area, fraught with challenges.

According to Ballim, “disproportionate numbers of students are registered in degree-awarding qualifications at university, as opposed to technikon and artisan training”.

“We’re the wrong way around.  It should be the other way around, especially in developing countries.”

In addition, universities are also “carrying a load of a very fragile secondary education system, which they are expected to address”.

“For me, a range of areas or battlefields exists. The one thing is, we must get the high school system right. It’s a problem, and it’s a problem that needs to be addressed. 

“It’s the quality of the teaching that goes on in the school systems, the way they are managed and how they are resourced. I think that we have a lot to learn from the rest of Africa. There are a lot of countries in Africa that do well in their school systems. 

“I think that there is an enormous responsibility on universities themselves … there are unacceptable failure rates, especially in third and fourth year, for which you cannot blame high schools entirely. We have unacceptable failure rates and unacceptable rates in post graduate studies. 

“Leading institutions throughout the world have the mentality that if we admit someone, it’s our responsibility to allow them to pass.”

These complexities affect institutions financially.

“The question is raised: if universities are expected to address these issues, then the universities need to be funded properly.

“You can’t expect people who teach at universities that have a lot of research expectations, to also be the people that are concerned about pedagogy and the cultural issues that make good teachers.”

According to Ballim, universities don’t necessary employ people “with good teaching skills, but rather to be competent at a certain level”.

“So the nuances of dealing with a difficult learning history are not always obvious to academics.”

Universities also had a responsibility to involve themselves in their communities.

“The challenge is for the university to recognise its place in its community,” he said. Universities needed to recognise the contribution they could make in creating a more civilised view of ourselves as a human society.

“It’s about critical engagement with the important matters of the human condition.  That’s what universities must do and what they must represent.

“We don’t teach because we think that we are the custodians of the truth. We teach because we think that to intellectually engage with citizens is good for this country and for human views of the self.

“We live our lives next to some really serious deprivation. I don’t believe that society can comfortably call itself civilised if we are able to let these two worlds live right next to each other.

“Universities must be reminded about the two-world problem that South Africa and Africa face.  That’s why it’s so important to create structures and facilities to make sure poor people can come to university.

“If someone is really deserving of a place for our education, their financial conditions must not be a barrier. Students are right that we need resources.

“I’m embarrassed about the wastage that happens in this country.  Fine minds get lost by the wayside.  Inadequate advice, no money – that type of thing. Where you get students with As in high school and then see them as a night-watch three months later. That’s really unacceptable.”

But, the “relationship between fees and government is a far more complex issue than simply saying the government needs to regulate fees,” he said.

Funding should be a strategic tool. Both politically and academically, it was an issue that needed to be addressed with sensitivity. 

“The case to be made for higher education is not an easy one. There is a discourse in this country where there is a focus on sites, engineering for example.

“If you take a utilitarian view on education, then you focus on science and engineering and technology, because they feed into industry, and of course, it’s really scientific achievement that makes the most visible progress. And society bows down to that.”

But “the humanising benefits of a degree in English or History are not that obvious to society.  Its ability to create a humanising effect is not obvious. You need to maintain a balance between Humanities and science, engineering and technology.”

Ballim felt one should ask if it was healthy for an institution that presented itself as a “social good” to be entirely dependent on government funding, or very strongly dependent on government funding.

“So the relationship with government will always be one of attention to governance and relationship,” he said.

Friday, October 26, 2007

EDITION:  VUVUZELA, OCTOBER 19, 2007

Mandela and Wits unite for kids

ERICA DREIJER

THE NELSON Mandela Children’s Fund is in discussions with Wits to build a children’s hospital in Gauteng.

In 2006 Nelson Mandela announced that based on the need for a dedicated children’s hospital, the children’s fund will be building a hospital that will be able to serve countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The children’s fund is considering partnering with Wits, based on the university’s strength of being “one of the leading assets in research, teaching and capacity building for Africa’s development”, said Oupa Ngwenya, spokesperson for the fund.

“There’s a synergy between Wits’ medical school and the children’s hospital, especially in paediatrics,” said Professor Loyiso Nongxa, Vice Chancellor and Principal of Wits.

“We see the academic value of a referral children’s hospital and will be exploring with [the fund] what their needs are and what it would mean for the institution. But we are very keen to enter into a discussion,” said Nongxa.

In recent years, South Africa’s child health care demands have increased greatly due to an influx of children from neighbouring countries.

A need was identified for “a dedicated children’s specialist referral hospital, not just for children in South Africa but for children in SADC,” said Ngwenya.

In Australia, with a population of about 20 million people, 19 children’s hospitals exist and Germany with a population of 82 million people has 20 children’s hospital, while the SADC region, which is home to 283 million people, only has one children’s hospital.

Currently, there are only three children’s hospitals in Africa: the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town and The Cairo University Specialized Pediatric Hospital and Moniera Children’s Hospital, both in Egypt.

A need for a specialised children’s hospital is also driven by the fact that there is a difference between children’s health care needs and those of adults. According to Ngwenya, children require health care that is responsive to and supportive of their physical and socio-psychological needs.

A second children’s hospital in South Africa will help to ease the burden of providing specialised child health care on the Red Cross and serve as a complementary service to the paediatric services offered at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Coronation and the Johannesburg Academic hospitals.

At the moment, discussions are still at a “feasibility level” but indications from the children’s fund are that Wits is considered the “desired partner” from a training, education and research perspective.  Gauteng was identified as an appropriate area, since it is the economic and transportation hub for South Africa and the SADC region and is the most densely populated province the country.

In addition, Wits might also be involved as a landowner, since it “owns two of the four sites that have been identified to build the hospital on”, Ngwenya told Vuvuzela.

The sites owned by Wits include JCE in Parktown and Frankenweld, which is next to the Marlboro off -ramp on the N3. Other sites identified include Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto and TMI adjacent to the Constitutional Court in Parktown.

Pre-feasibility studies were completed at the end of 2006 and feasibility studies will be completed by December 2007. These will provide direction on the range of services provided, the size and location of the hospital, the legal persona of the hospital and issues regarding financing the hospital.

At the moment, paediatric services under consideration include: oncology, cardiothoracic, pulmonary, endocrine, craniofacial, orthopaedic and a transplant unit.

Construction will start in 2010, Ngwenya said.

In the words of Nelson Mandela: “Our bodies may give in to the force of age, but the dreams that lie in our hearts may not retire.”

Friday, October 19, 2007 

Wits set to lose head

ERICA DREIJER

WITS will be losing Professor Deborah Posel in two years’ time since her husband has been appointed vice chancellor at the University of Cape Town.

Posel’s husband, Dr Max Price, was the previous dean at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits and will be taking over as vice chancellor at UCT when Professor Njabulo Ndebele’s term comes to an end in July 2008.

Posel is the director of WISER and told Vuvuzela that she will only be leaving Wits after her son matriculates.

“I will stay at WISER until the end of 2009, which gives us plenty of time to plan for a new director,” she said.  “I am very proud of him, it’s a great achievement.

“He’s an outsider to Cape Town and UCT; the other two candidates were both insiders… According to UCT they appointed the best candidate.

“His deanship turned him on to senior management.”  And “on the strength of his experience as dean, he realised he wanted to do this.”

Price had applied for the deputy vice chancellor position at Wits, which Professor Yunus Ballim got.  Price left Wits in July 2006 after his second term as dean came to an end, and has been working as an independent consultant with the Department of Education.

He served as dean for 10 years.

And in his period as dean, “he oversaw a series of innovations” and changes in the Wits Health Sciences Faculty that have allowed Wits’ medical centre to maintain its position as one of the best in the country.

Some of the projects spearheaded by Price include a major restructuring of the medical curriculum, including the introduction of a new Bachelor of Health Sciences degree, a graduate entry medical programme, the inauguration of the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, and new academic programmes in rural health, emergency medicine and others.

Posel started WISER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) in July 2000.

Wits had identified a gap to create a research space for social sciences and
“wanted to do something different”.

The vision was for it not to only be a space that did research, but one for intellectual debate and exchange, for research to become more “energised”.

“It’s very sad in a way. WISER is my baby, it’s been very rewarding.

“I have had very exciting times here.  I was privileged to start something and build it up,” she said.

WISER is well known on campus for hosting discussions and conferences on topical issues like crime, the effect of HIV/Aids on society and political and gender issues.

Posel describes it as a “space where academics and practitioners can engage”, that “brings the university more forcefully into the public sphere”.

WISER attracts international audiences as well as local audiences and is open to the public as well as students.

“I often get asked by students if they are allowed to attend, and I want to extend an open invitation. Every single WISER event is open to anyone that is interested,” she said.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Slice of Life:

Driving me up the wall

ERICA DREIJER

MY husband and I belong to a generation that is not scared to use our mental powers, but shirk at the implications of having to use our hands.

Do-It-Yourself is something you watch other people do or, as is the case in James’ family, attempted with a butter knife, cello tape and a piece of string.

Thus, things that normally help to turn a house into a home and give people the idea that someone actually “lives” here, in our house gave the impression that we had newly moved in, were moving out, or running some kind of “at home decorating store”.

We would wait for opportunities to turn unsuspecting house guests into “handy-friends” by performing small tasks or, when things got out of hand, James would resort to his favourite modus operandi:  throwing money at the problem – we would hire “Dial-a-Handyman” to create some order.

Recently, after weeks of feeling as if we were walking into a store and too embarrassed to abuse another friend, we decided that the time had come to slay the DIY monster ourselves. 

The task of mounting pictures and mirrors that have been decorating the floor for months lay like a mountain ahead of us. 

Being procrastinators by nature, it was either something that we collectively – as a newly wed couple – would overcome or collectively it would overcome us.

On Sunday morning early, I sowed my first seed of “let’s just get on with this” and by mid-morning had motivated James into action with “okay, let’s do this”.  He was going to be the driver of nails into walls, after all.

One might be surprised to find out that a couple so averse to handy work actually owns a perfectly “well-rounded” and fully stocked toolbox – but in our defence, that’s more for pretences and… to ensure we have the right tools when calling on our friends.

We hauled out the tools we have seen others using before:  a hammer, Hilti (yes, we even have one of those!), measuring tape, plaster (a handy hint from my mom that will apparently ensure that the walls won’t crack), nails, ruler and stepladder.

And so our journey across the mountain started.

We jumped into the deep end by trying to align a set of three pictures, which except for being too high came out perfectly.  Gaining momentum, we moved on to simpler tasks requiring only a single nail procedure. 
House-proud and perfectly happy that the task was behind us, we looked around… It was over, and so easy… We have learned a valuable lesson:  eat that monster, before it eats you!

Friday, October 19, 2007

Over in a Blink

ERICA DREIJER

CLARE Loveday blinked and her trip to Austria was over.

It took Loveday six months to compose Blink, which was performed by some of the top saxophonists in the world at the opening of the Arnold Schönberg symposium earlier this month. Blink was inspired by the changes and restless energy that are part of life in Johannesburg.

For Loveday, a lecturer in Music Theory and Composition at Wits, it was all worth it, especially when “all these terribly serious musicians” called her composition “cool”, she said.

Having her piece performed in Vienna made Loveday realise “there are people that want to hear what I want to say in my music. You [as a South African] go to these things all apologetic… but we have something to give.”  And the experience has given her much more confidence in her own ability, and the abilities of other local musicians.

Loveday was part of a group of five composers, of whom three were from Africa, whose music was performed by the Ensemble Reconcil.  The other African composers were Michael Blake (South Africa), with whom Loveday worked closely, and Justinian Tamasuza from Uganda.

“What was common about the African work is that we are less afraid of convention.  We have a riskier attitude – of just jumping in and doing things, because it might be fun,” she explained.

For Loveday, it was an honour when the head of the Schönberg Centre told her that her piece “was so fresh.  He had never heard anything like it.”  For her, it is more important how musicians react to her music than audiences since they have a better sense of the music as opposed to audiences that “only listen to it once”.

“I loved working with such professionals.  They are so committed to what they are doing instead of just hacking out music,” she said.

She is of the opinion that musicians in South Africa focus too much on Europe and America for inspiration in their compositions.

Loveday thinks that South Africans have a lot of imagination, which they should explore to find their voice.  “I think our students really have something valuable to offer the world.  What worries me is that we are not encouraging them.  We focus too much on the Western style. 

“We [as South African composers] have something very valuable to offer in a European context,” she said. 

Loveday explained “art music by definition should always be seeking out new areas, and not capture the past.  We might be developing in some ways, but man, in terms of ideas and imagination, we’re good,” she said.

“You can always tell honesty in music.  It’s so clear and it’s so fabulous,” she concluded.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Wits sets rules of the game

ERICA DREIJER

WITS ruled when we beat Roodepoort City in a cricket league match played last Sunday.

Croxley Wits’ third team scored 239/9 and bowled Roodepoort City out for 80 runs.

Player-coach Zain Fredericks told Vuvuzela: “We gave them a bit of a batting lesson, even though they weren’t bad bowlers.”

He attributes Wits’ victory to “putting into play what we had learned in the last month.  We were disciplined in the shots that we played and our shot selection.  Practice has improved our game in the last month. Our batting and bowling skills have definitely improved.”

Top scorers were Fredericks (73) and Kurt McBain-Charles (41) and best bowlers were Brian Ndouvhada (4 wickets), Matthew Mashabela (3 wickets).

“The Roodepoort City guys were really friendly. There was none of normal competitiveness and snobbishness found at other cricket matches,” Fredericks said.

On Sunday, Wits’ second team played against Jeppe in the Presidents League and the first team took on Azad Swaraj Sporting.

Azad Swaraj Sporting scored 220 all out and Croxley Wits got 65/3 when it started to rain. And in the match against Jeppe, Croxley Wits assessed the wicket and decided to bat. 

“We had a positive approach, but were bowled out for 211 all out,” said Fredericks. “We had a really good start, but in the last 10 overs, lost all of our wickets. We were really doing well from a bowling side and found some of their weaknesses but had to stop playing when the rain came down.”

Jeppe scored 100/4 when it started to rain. According to Fredericks, Jonathan Speller and Mark Thomas bowled really well.

Upcoming fixtures for this weekend are:
Croxley Wits will be playing Norbak Alberton at the Lindeque Oval in a Premier league match.
Croxley Wits will be playing Phillips Glenvista at the MBCG Oval in a Presidents match.
On Saturday Croxley Wits’ second will be playing Roodepoort City at Sturrock Park
On Saturday Croxley Wits’ fourth will playing against Heidelberg at WEC
On Sunday Croxley Wits’ first team will be playing Old Parks at Walter Milton B

Friday, October 19, 2007
EDITION:  VUVUZELA, OCTOBER 12, 2007 

Wits changes

ERICA DREIJER

WITS’ campus is set to undergo a large metamorphosis in the next three years when management is planning to spend R351 million to upgrade university facilities, mainly for science, engineering and technology.

Part of the money comes from a R205 million grant that the Department of Education (DoE) has agreed to give to Wits.

The grant forms part of the DoE’s drive to improve education in the country by ensuring that more people will have an opportunity to receive a university education.

Professor Yunus Ballim, Vice Chancellor of Education, explained to Vuvuzela that the money was earmarked to help Wits “grow the Wits student population to 28 000 by 2010”.  Currently, around 25 000 students enrol at Wits each year, but in order to grow, additional facilities were required.

Wits had an obligation to “produce graduates that can bring about change in the world they work in, by seeing things in new ways.  Students must leave here with values and a positive influence on the world they live in,” Ballim said.

A focus area for management is the current skills shortages in science, engineering and technology (SET) disciplines. Improving the facilities available to teach subjects in these fields will allow management to meet the criteria set by government for addressing these shortages.

As part of the DoE’s mandate, Wits needs to make sure that a healthy balance is maintained between the enrolment of business and management and humanities students in relation to SET fields. 

The main thrust that the money will be used for includes upgrading and building new teaching venues to allow more students into lecture halls, improving teaching facilities by upgrading laboratories and computer facilities and creating additional teaching support.

Structural changes planned include building a new undergraduate science building to help increase capacity for SET students. In addition, plans have been submitted to complete the fourth quadrant of the Chamber of Mines building.

The total budget allocated to create the new undergraduate science facility is R178 million. It “is the biggest initiative” that Wits will be attempting, and it will help to increase capacity for SET students, Ballim explained.

“We haven’t quite thought where we will be putting this building.  One of the ideas, which I happen to like, is to put up a building up on Jorissen street [where the parking lot currently is] with a walk-way across to Senate House.  Science needs to stay on the main campus – the cluster and facilities are here,” he continued. The new building would include four levels of parking space below four levels of classrooms and laboratories.

By completing the Chamber of Mines building, and upgrading teaching facilities, Ballim aims to create “the best undergraduate facility for engineering available in South Africa.”   R70 million has been budgeted for this project, of which R42 million will be for adding the new wing and the remainder will be spent on improving the facilities.

In addition, management has proposed to extend the FNB building on West Campus – which is currently used as lecture halls for undergraduate engineering – by building two extra lecture halls that will be able to seat 450 and 350 students, upgrading existing lecture halls and creating more seminar and tutorial rooms.

“Our plans are already approved, and we can start immediately; in fact, we will start turning soil in November,” Ballim said.

Other plans include improving teaching support by spending R16 million over the next three years, to help students deal with academic demands for post-graduate studies.

“We also want to increase the teaching facilities, the minister [Naledi Pandor] has put an important imperative on us to improve throughputs [i.e. pass rates], and this will help to address this issue. The money may be spent on tutors or lecturers or on software to help teach better, but it’s about improved teaching and learning support,” Ballim explained.

In order to qualify for the grant from the DoE, management needed to agree to strict criteria by the minister relating to the university’s undergraduate and post-graduate breakdown (i.e. 70% of students need to be at an undergraduate level), growing the student population, the “shape” of the university with regard to the numbers of students enrolled into different disciplines and improving pass rates.  All these factors have been taken into consideration in allocating resources.

The remainder of the funds will be coming from donations and other money available to Wits. 

Ballim told Vuvuzela that the university “will ring-fence every cent of the interest we earn on this money [from the DoE] so that the interest is also spent on these projects, so under no circumstances will we receive this money and spend it on other things”.

In due time, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Loyiso Nongxa, will also be announcing two other initiatives that Wits is planning, that will help the university with this step-up, Ballim said.

“What this means is that governance and senior project management is going to become important for these initiatives; this is not a task that we can do here. We are going to employ a high level position for a capital programme manager that will get total oversight on all our new projects and make sure the financial governance is hygienic and everything is properly reported to donors, to the Department of Education, to council and our senior executive team. 

“The proper procedures are in place. We are not giving work to our family members or to our friends with good connections.  All that has to be above board,” he concluded.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Researchers chairing for Wits

ERICA DREIJER

WITH a minimum annual boost of at least R30 million for research for the next five years, Wits is set to remain top of its game.

Wits has been awarded 12 research chairs out of a total of 51 released by the government to encourage local economic growth.

“I think it is actually a very good initiative. It will help us to train people at the highest level and gives us access to knowledge to allow us to participate as global players.  It allows us to get access to the highest technologies and an understanding of how they work at a worldwide level,” said Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, who holds the chair for Intelligent Systems at Wits.

“There’s a saying that if you want to look at a country’s potential to grow, you need to look at the number of masters and PhD students … coming through,” Marwala said.  Currently, Wits’ composition of post-graduate students is at 30%, but the long-term plan is to increase it to 50% of the total student population.

It’s not unheard of in other parts of the world, said Professor Belinda Bozzoli, Vice Chancellor for Research. “Canada is one of the other countries that also have a chairs programme. It gives universities a big injection of research money.”

“Universities need a financial boost, as the government is not funding us properly.  They want to fund at a research level, as it correlates with financial growth in the economy.”

Most funding from government is generated from two sources, she explained. The Department of Education is the biggest source of income; in addition, universities get their funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), which mainly focuses on research in developing countries.

Each chair is worth R2.5 million a year for five years. This period is renewable for an additional 10 or 15 years.

“By government investing in universities by giving out research chairs, [it] gives universities enough time and money to do the research, and the research also gives the university a big advantage,” Bozzoli said.

The government is planning to extend the number of research chairs available in the country to 210 by 2010. The next round for applications will start in the next couple of months.

To date two rounds of applications for research chairs have taken place.  During the first round, the government agreed to fund 20 chairs and during the next round an additional 31 chairs were established.

Marwala was one of four researchers at Wits who qualified during the first round, and an additional eight researchers from Wits were awarded chairs during the second round.

The main focus is on engineering and the health sciences, but Wits was also awarded a chair in history and humanities.

“Chairs are given to the best proposals. And it is up to us to make sure that we put in exciting and viable chairs.  The best university wins,” Bozzoli said.

To win a chair, it helps to have an already strong research component.  “Quality attracts quality,” she said.

The eight new chairs awarded to Wits include:  Professor Bruce A Bassett (Research Chair in Theoretical Particle Cosmology); Professor Maureen Coetzee (Research Chair in Medical Entomology and Vector Control); Professor Robert de Mello Koch (Research Chair in Fundamental Physics and String Theory); Professor Heinrich W Dirr (Research Chair in Protein Biochemistry and Structural Biology); Professor Christopher S Henshilwood (Research Chair in the Origins of Modern Human Behaviour); Dr Shabir Ahmed Madhi (Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases); Professor Helder Marques (Research Chair in Bio-Inorganic Chemistry) and Professor Viness Pillay (Research Chair in Pharmaceutical Biomaterials and Polymer-Engineered Drug Delivery Technologies).

And the previous four chairs include: Professor Phil Bonner (Local Histories and Present Realities); Professor RJ Durrheim (Exploration, Earthquakes and Mining Seismology); Professor Diane Hildebrandt (Sustainable Process Engineering) and Professor Tshilidzi Marwala (Intelligent Systems).

Friday, October 12, 2007

Creepy crawly get-togethers

ERICA DREIJER

SIMULATING a mini-earthquake was only one of the “cool” experiences that those visiting this year’s Yebo Gogga exhibition could experience.

The exhibition, called Ubuntu in Nature, is all about how humans, animals and plants “should learn to live in partnership with each other”, explained Professor Marcus Byrne of the School of Animal, Plants and Environmental Sciences (APES).

Organisers estimate that between 6 000 and 8 000 people will be coming to see the exhibition this year.

On the first day, about 650 children from 12 schools all around Johannesburg came to see the exhibition. 

“Some schools made a day of it by visiting the exhibition, Origins Centre and the planetarium,” said Alistair Hay, a second year APES student. 

Kids enjoyed each exhibition so much that it was difficult to get them to move from one stall to the next.

At most stalls, visitors had the opportunity to interact with the displays.

For the brave Melissa Hier, it was a delightful experience overcoming her fear for scorpions, when she held one and learned that not all scorpions are dangerous.

“I was so scared.  I thought it was going to sting me.  It’s the first time I ever held a scorpion.  I didn’t even feel afraid,” she boasted.

Children were told about the value of a dung ball –that it does not only serve as food or a place for dung beetles to lay their eggs, but that male beetles also use it as a courtship gift (much like humans use roses or chocolates!).

Bronwyn and Bridgette da Costa “loved the baby owl.  It’s so cute and fluffy.  We love it most,” they said.

Unfortunately the cockroach race didn’t take place on Wednesday, as “they are Madagascar Hissing cockroaches, which are extremely laid back. I will see if I can persuade my roaches to race or alternatively I will need to use crickets,” exhibitor Donald McCallum explained.

Jason Damerel loved the snake exhibition.  He even dragged all his friends to come and see them.  “They’re just cool creatures.  I guess they are misunderstood, that’s what they are,” he said.  But then again, he keeps them as pets.

“I also like snakes.  I just wish they would rather be vegetarians,” said Hay.

Vuvuzela also learned that people tend to confuse violin and sac spiders, but that they are equally dangerous as “both release cytotoxic venom that attack skin cells and tissue, whilst button spiders release neurotoxic venom which is easier to treat,” exhibitor Ruan Lambrecht explained.

For those interested in attending the exhibition, it is hosted at the Life Sciences Museum and Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building and will be running until 4pm on Sunday.  Access is free.  For more information contact Cheryl or Nelly at 011 717 6470.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Cricket cancelled

ERICA DREIJER

ONLY Croxley Wits’ third team managed to play cricket last weekend, when the other scheduled matches were rained out.

Croxley Wits came up against Old Eds in a Sunday 1 League match that took place at Wits.

Old Eds batted first and was bowled out for 123 in 50 overs and Croxley Wits made 264/4 when they batted. Good performances came from Peter Vonya (35), Peter Bendixon (50), Michael Chilvers (70) and Bheki Ngulube (68).

The opposition was sent in again but ran out of time and the Students could only manage a first innings win.

Best bowlers for Wits were Brent Clark who took 4/23/10 and Chris Chilvers who took 2/10/6.

Upcoming fixtures for this weekend:
Saturday: 
Croxley Wits against Roodepoort City at Sturrock Park in a Saturday 4 League match.
Sunday:
Croxley Wits against AzadSwarajSporting at Progress Grounds in a Sunday 1 League match.
Croxley Wits against Jeppe at Sturrock Park in a Presidents League match.

Friday, October 12, 2007

EDITION:  VUVUZELA, OCTOBER 5, 2007

Kids walk on the wild side

ERICA DREIJER

LEARN how to live in peace with your six-legged neighbours is the message that this year’s Yebo Gogga event will be drumming home.

Yebo Gogga is an annual event hosted at Wits. This year’s event is titled Ubuntu in Nature and will be focused on showing “how plants interact with each other and how people interact with plants”, explained Caroline Crumb, Zoological Curator at Wits.

Crumb describes it as a community event that sets out to embrace and create a sense of ubuntu – by helping everyone live peacefully with their surroundings as well as establishing a sense of community.

“People living in the city have often become fearful of all flora and fauna. This will help them to remove the fear and replace it with interest.  During past events, we have even managed to cure a couple of people suffering from arachnophobia,” Crumb said. 

A big part of the event is “myth busting”.

Visitors will have the opportunity to interact and learn more about a myriad of insects, arachnids and reptiles. And brave hearts will have an opportunity to nibble (or is that crunch?) on some insects, drape a boa constrictor like a feather boa around their shoulders or make friends with spiders, scorpions or chameleons.

Other activities include lectures and talks over the weekend, a race using crickets and an insect braai.

The event will be hosted at the Life Sciences Museum and Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building and will run from Wednesday until Sunday.  Times:  weekdays from 9am to 4pm and weekend from 10am to 4pam. Free access. For more information, contact Cheryl or Nelly at 011 717 6470.

Friday, October 5, 2007

An un-poetic thing to say…

ERICA DREIJER

EGOS were bruised when Julius “Makweru” Moeletsi from Yfm commented that there is a lot of bad poetry out there today, and that it needs to be vetted before he will consider putting it on his radio show.

Moeletsi was speaking out at Arts Alive’s Tradition through Rendition poetry workshop last weekend on the topic:  “How poetry has been used in the past as the voice of the people” which mainly focused on the struggle years.

Moeletsi went on by saying: “If you want to be on Yfm, you need to be good. When you want to compete, you are opening yourself to judgement.”

To which an audience member retorted: “We are on a learning curve, we are all learning, it’s a spiritual journey.  Who are you to judge us?”

“By shooting people down when we don’t agree with what they say, we are moving backwards,” said Mphutlane Wa Bofelo, well-known for slampoet and one of the panel members.

In his opening address, Alan Hobitz, another panel member, said that during the struggle there was “no phenomenon of a mass audience. Poetry was an isolated and marginalised art form.”  It wasn’t just “art for art’s sake”, but rather a case of poets being “socially committed to art”.

“Underground poetry helps to question society.  But today it often happens that the point becomes the mike, to take the stage,” Bofelo said.

He warned: “Don’t be hungry for the stage or for the mike – you will be exploited by capitalism. Write for an audience and you will no longer question society.”

He was challenged by an audience member wanting to know how poets were meant to make a living from this art form if they did not focus on an audience.

Younger poets in the audience stated they were still committed to the art form which helped artists to speak out against social wrongs, but they struggled to accept that one cannot really make a living from it.

“Art or poetry has never been a reliable source of income, but a way of living,” Bofelo replied.

To be sustainable, artists needed to create a community through “solidarity of other artists”.  This “association I belong to will buy my new book”, visiting shows and “a collaboration of efforts, skills and expertise” will be used to help each other.

The workshop was facilitated by ex-Skeen kwaito artist Teba Shumba. Thendeka “Nkqo” Vabaza – aka “Knock, knock” – a well-known poet who raps in Xhosa was also on the panel.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Romeo where for art thou?

ERICA DREIJER

WITH family murders on the increase, Romeo and Juliet could read like just another day in Jozi.

Students at Wits School of Arts are currently hosting this classic with a modern-day twist at the Wits Amphitheatre. It takes a look at: What are the circumstances that divide us as Mzansizens today? 

The scene is set by a backstreet floozie – fishnet stockings, scarlet lips and boobs popping out of her clothes – and goes on to depict modern-day issues: absent parents, gangster life, mixed relationships and illiteracy. Romeo is a modern-day lover in combat pants, tattoos and dreads.

The play also tries to show us the conflict teenagers face. It looks at “identity, family and social bonds to the legacies of the past, which ring very true in today’s Mzansi,” the brochure explained. Timeless evils like envy, forbidden love and long-standing bad blood continue to bring about tragedy.

“Never was there a tale of more woe than that of Juliet and her Romeo.”

The play was directed by part-time Wits tutor, Warona Sean – known for her performances in TV programmes like 90 Plein Street, Justice for All and Home Affairs (recently nominated for an Emmy) – and choreographed by Khathala Knomo.

The play runs from October 2 to 13 at 7.30pm.  Tickets are available at www.computicket.com or www.strictlyticktets.com.  They cost R56.50 (full price) and R35.50 (for Wits staff, pensioners, students and block bookings of ten or more).  For more details, contact Catherine Pisanti at catherine.pisanti@wits.ac.za or 011 717 1376.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Stumped by rain

ERICA DREIJER

WITS’ league cricket match against Old Parktonians ended in a draw last Sunday, when the game was called off due to bad light.

A practice came to a halt the Thursday prior to the match, as a result of heavy rain. And when players arrived at Old Parktonians for the match, they were met with a green wicket and wet outfield.

Croxley Wits won the toss and had to bowl first. Inconsistency in our play and five drop catches allowed Old Parktonians to reach 228 before being bowled out.

Just as Wits came in to bat, the rain came down, forcing players to wait 35 minutes for it to clear. This resulted in the loss of seven valuable overs.

Matt Benton and Andrew Kirkland got Croxley Wits’ innings underway, but three overs in, Benton fell to a poor shot.

Russel Tindale and Kirkland almost got a partnership going, but an expansive shot by Kirkland made him pay for it with his wicket. 

Captain Neil Whinspear and Tindale got a good partnership going before Tindale was bowled out for 42.

Whinspear and coach-player Aldo van den Berg were at the wicket with only 22 overs to go and needing 120 runs. Whinspear played a match-winning inning before he was bowled out for 72.

The umpires called the game off with only seven overs to go.

Upcoming fixtures:
Croxley Wits Saturday four against Old Maristonians at JCE Educational Campus, from 1pm.
Croxley Wits will be playing Soweto at the Elkah stadium in Soweto on Sunday at 9am.
Wits’ second team against Randburg in Randburg on Sunday at 9am.
Wits’ third team against Old Eds at Walton B on Sunday at 9am.

Friday, October 5, 2007