Alan Finlay
WITS: A UNIVERSITY IN THE APARTHEID ERA by Mervyn Shear (Wits University, R69)
INhis history of the University of the Witwatersrand -Wits – from 1919 to t= he=20
1990s, Mervyn Shear tries to uphold the idea of a place of learning that is= ab
le to negotiate an even-handed response to a torn society. In this sense hi= s b ook provides an interesting account of an attempt at order, understanding a= nd=20
careful negotiation, in the face of injustices.
The main aim of the book is to chart the movement towards an ”open” univers= ity
– towards the free admission and integration of black students in an essen=
tia
lly white university. Shear, who was deputy vice-chancellor responsible for= st
udent affairs during much of the 1980s, also discusses the growing vocifero= usn
ess of student politics during this time, as well as attacks by the state -= bo
th physica l and legislative – on students, staff and on the autonomy of the universit= y.=20
He concludes with a felt sense of the transformation of the university into= a=20
democratic institution.
Administrative decisions and proclamations are documented, as are the respo= nse
s from student bodies and where the university stood in relation to them.= =20
What emerges from beneath the figures and dates and decisions is the ongoin= g t ension between the university’s autonomy – as an institution of learning fr= ee=20
from interference from the state and, to some measure, from society – and t= he=20
competing idea of the necessity for active involvement in society.
Shear shows that this has never been an open-and-shut case. Wits’s growing = rea
lisation of the need for transformation has always been accompanied by the = nee
d for self-preservation. What especially needed to be preserved was the uni= ver
sity’s belief in its own impartiality – which became increasingly difficult= in
a polarised society.
Wits: AUniversity in the Apartheid Era is probably as impartial as an accou= nt=20
of Wits during the apartheid years gets.