Daily Maverick
In all honesty, I salvaged the brief opportunity I had to be in academia whilst attending to administrative affairs on the campus. The atmosphere of academia is something special for me. I used the opportunity to reflect, and to engage with students and scholars alike. Having studied at different institutions in my life, it was wonderful to have a broader perspective on matters in the academy. It was during this period that I learnt that there had been a shutdown on the UP campus due to a rape incident which had occurred. Students had demanded for action to be taken by university management in the wake of this scourge. It was also during this time, in September 2019, that one came to learn of a matter as significant in gravitas, but seemed subdued. A student had committed suicide. One does not know what may have led to the student taking such a desperate step. I can imagine the pain this may have caused to the family and the loved ones of this student. These issues were a clear sign to me that not all was well at my Alma mater. As if to indent my sentiment, my wallet got stolen at the Coffee Buzz Coffee shop. My wallet, which had several of my cards, money and Driver's license had disappeared.
The latter was reported to security at the main entrance, which in turn was relayed to the Student Service Centre and the Merensky Library security. I was then directed to see a UP Investigator at the university's administration building. I met an investigator within 2 hours of this incident. We scoured the footage, to no avail. It was at this moment that it became clear to me that UP's plan to only allow access to visitors on the campus through an approved code or password would pale in the face of current dynamics. It was obvious to me that if the university really wanted to curb theft on the campus, they would not solely rely on this new proposed system, but would also improve camera surveillance on the campus. This would ensure that criminal syndicates operating on the campus, even those run by students or workers at the university, would find that it was no longer business as usual. There was an example of this phenomenon, on the same day on which my wallet was stolen. Someone was caught red-handed trying to steal a laptop and leave the Merensky Library with it. The individual was swiftly apprehended and dispatched to the university's administration building. Unfortunately, the UP campus has blind spots as far as camera surveillance is concerned, case in point, the Coffee Buzz Coffee shop. The criminals on campus know this. The security guards on the campus are aware of this. Why UP management does not heed this counsel is a mystery.
It is also unfortunate that my experience on the UP campus was not in isolation. It was nowhere near as vexing as my experience at UCT. In March 2019, while I was doing everything in my power to attend to my academic affairs as a student at the University of Cape Town, I had to report 2 incidents (1 incident of theft, 1 incident of assault) to UCT's inept Campus Protection Services. These incidents had occurred at the UCT School of Economics Building. They threw my life into a talespin for about 2 weeks. My meeting with CPS was followed by another initial meeting with a UCT investigator, followed by a subsequent meeting with the UCT Investigator. After submitting plenty of facts and evidence, submitted over a number of days, which included a J88 form issued by the Rondebosch Police Station and ultimately submitted to a medical doctor, as well as a sworn affidavit by an eye witness of one of these matters, the UCT Investigator informed me that she would write her report and send it to UCT's Student Disciplinary Tribunal (UCT Court). She informed me that I would then be contacted by the tribunal regarding a date for the matters to be heard. To my dismay, the University of Cape Town was arrogantly dismissive of my complaint. The cases never saw the light of day. I was never contacted by the UCT Court regarding a date for the cases to be heard. When I contacted the UCT Investigator and asked for a report, as a complainant in these matters, I was simply ignored. The veil of ignorance had been lifted. The cold and harsh reality of UCT was chilling: Africa's highest ranked academic institution, which I had held in such high esteem, is deeply flawed, in numerous ways. I encountered an institution which had a brilliant intervention in the form of the UCT Food Programme, which I was proud to be a volunteer. At times, I encountered an institution which was completely at variance with the values which it espouses to uphold. Not only was security on campus below par, UCT could not claim to have a responsive and unbiased justice apparatus. For 'where there is no explanation, there is no reason. Where there is no reason, there is no logic, and where there is no logic, there is bias."
Over the past few weeks, UCT has mourned the tragic loss of a 19-year-old student. May her precious soul rest in peace. Her brutal murder at a post office in Claremont, Cape Town, sent shockwaves and deep sadness across South Africa. It also sparked outrage and mass demonstrations across the country. This included a shutdown at UCT, as students demanded that various safety concerns be addressed by UCT management. Some of these have been addressed, and the academic programme has since continued in earnest. UCT's management has known for quite sometime now that safety and security on campus has been a major concern for students. One wonders why we had to see such a tragic loss before these concerns could be addressed.
News24
On 28 August 2019, I opened my Daily Dispatch to an article which highlighted that the University of Fort Hare was probing claims of stone pelting, attempted arson of university property and live ammunition being used by the police in trying to control a protest by students over an array of grievances, which included the state of some of the lecture halls in Alice, National Student Financial Aid-related issues and a lack of security. Five students had to be admitted to hospital at Victoria Hospital in Alice due to gunshot wounds sustained. This claim is not far-fetch in South Africa. Durban University of Technology student Mlungisi Madonsela was brutally murdered as a result of live ammunition by security personnel employed by the institution to quell a protest earlier this year. There was also another article, on the very same paper, which spoke of a fire which had broken out in a UFH chemistry building. It is understood that the fire was as a result of a chemical which exploded in the building. Alice campus SRC premier James Mfanta stated that there were no injuries, but 7 students who were in the building had to be assessed for smoke inhalation. His statement was that shortly after 13:00 on Tuesday, a fire had broken out at the chemistry building after a chemical exploded. He mentioned that these were issues which they as students had complained about, but some quarters of the public, UFH management and the media had a preoccupation with focusing on how students were slaughtering cows etc. He also stated that,"Our labs are old, the information we have is that the chemical was kept in a peanut butter container and it fell and caused the explosion. We have been raising this with management. We do not have clinics at the university and no one has come to listen to us. Management is not coming up with solutions, they are only gathering facts now... About five of the students who were there lost their computers and documents, including their IDs."
Nelson Mandela University has also had protests which took place at the university. Among these were safety concerns, as a student and lecturer had been mugged on campus. The response of the NMU management was to unleash rubber bullets by police upon students and to arrest the former SRC president. The students were met with force.
It is disappointing to note that there seems to be reactionary leadership at the helm, even at national government level. This is a far cry from having proactive leadership, leadership which is attentive, strategically adept and ensuring excellent execution of strategy in dealing with challenges. There is also a tendency to brand students who raise genuine concerns as obstinate, irascible, rogue, rudderless rabble-rousers, unfortunately until matters reach a boiling point, as has been the case time and again.
I am of the firm belief that student activism is a mainstay for progress in South African tertiary institutions: in being a vanguard voice in fearlessly championing student concerns, their plight, interests, their aspirations, and crushing injustice, wherever it rears its ugly head. I am convinced that there needs to be an independent body, not beholden to universities in any way, which will monitor and publish data frequently eg. on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis about student safety on SA campuses. Such data and reporting should include policies in place at tertiary institutions, as well as implementation metrics such as highlighting cases reported, whether such cases have been heard and whether justice has been served. This data should be made available to the international community and should be a more prominent feature in ranking universities globally.
JKSaadlaw.com
American Writer James Baldwin's view, on the decline of a kingdom, is worthy of meditation. He notes that,"Force does not work the way its advocates think it does. It does not, for example, reveal to the victim the strength of his adversary. On the contrary, it reveals the weakness, even the panic of his adversary, and this revelation invests the victim with patience. Furthermore, it is ultimately fatal to create too many victims."
Tertiary institutions should be synonymous with not only imagining and creating the future, but also with free speech, knowledge production, free and independent inquiry, critical thinking and robust debate. It is imperative for universities to be spaces of radical truthfulness and intellectual honesty. Stifling the voices of students and workers at universities is not only short-sighted, a perfect recipe for self-deceit, but is also detrimental to the academic project at large. There needs to be a better symbiosis between students, university management and workers. Upon these building blocks, we can expect vibrant spaces which produce human capital, not only for South Africa and Africa, but also for the world.
