Stuart Hess and Mukoni Rashitanga
Peninsula Technikon (Pentech) has drawn a flurry of criticism following its extraordinary decision on Wednesday to expel student journalist Max Hamata.
Hamata’s fallout with the institution comes in the wake of a report which was published in the Mail & Guardian and which this week led to him being booted out of the institution by an internal disciplinary committee.
For his article on September 18 to 25, Hamata interviewed students at Pentech who claimed that they were prostituting themselves for extra cash. He also interviewed, on the record, various officials at Pentech who admitted that they were aware of the problem.
The hearing, chaired by Pentech’s registrar for student affairs, Tobie Titus, dismissed Hamata on the grounds that he brought the technikon’s name into disrepute.
When Hamata arrived at the hearing with his legal representative, Jacques Louw, he was told that he could not be represented by an outsider as this was a violation of technikon rules.
Hamata refused to attend the hearing without Louw and waited outside as the proceedings continued and found him guilty.
A day after Hamata’s expulsion, Pentech’s rector, Brian Figaji, had not yet been informed of the decision. He said the institution was still to decide if it would lay a complaint with the press ombudsman.
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) had grave misgivings with the decision. “In acting this way, the convenors of the hearing have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the constitutional right of Mr Hamata to legal representation,” the organisation said in a statement.
FXI added that Pentech failed to recognise that Hamata was “acting as journalist first and foremost and as a student second, and therefore to attempt to resolve the disputes around the article through a disciplinary procedure is tantamount to harassment of a journalist”. The FXI announced it would throw its weight behind any possible court action against Pentech.
The South African Student Press Union (Saspu) echoed similar sentiments and likened the proceedings to repressive acts carried out under the apartheid regime.
Saspu called upon the ministers of justice and education to intervene and clarify the “aspects of autonomy and rules of institutions in compliance with the current Constitution”.
Pentech’s journalism department refused to comment as it had not yet received formal notification of Hamata’s expulsion. However, the M&G understands that the management of the engineering faculty – which includes the journalism department – appealed to the technikon’s administration to drop the case, but this fell on deaf ears.
Students and staff at Pentech claimed that a day before the hearing, senior members of the disciplinary committee were seen asking journalism students to present them with documents on media ethics.
Each year Pentech journalism students are sent on 12-month internship programmes. Fears abound that with Hamata’s expulsion, the students’ ability to expose controversial issues during their training period will be impaired.
One of the regulations with which Hamata was charged prohibits students “whether on the technikon premises or not” from publishing material which discredits the technikon.
The regulations appear to be at odds with both the Higher Education Act and the Constitution, which guarantee freedom of expression.