Indeed, ”varsities are not islands of privilege” as Wits University vice-chancellor Loyiso Nongxa tells us (October 12). However, the ”success stories” of both Wits and the professor himself have prominently proved the contrary.
This does not cease to amuse those who have been closely observing the university’s desperate search for vindication where there is none to be found. The latest example is the stressing of Nongxa’s seeming ascent from ”herd boy” to ”head” of university.
Nongxa’s romanticisation of rural life and poverty are an insult to some of us. I fail to understand how the young Loyiso would not have studied to doctorate level while having one of his parents as a school principal who owned a general dealer store and a number of herds. Indeed, it would have been a far-fetched choice not to exploit such an enabling material environment to obtain the best education.
How many comparably materially fortunate young people were there in the country then? The failure to ask this question indicates how power chooses not to question itself, resulting in this institution’s repeated failure to enhance greater cohesion.
The university’s permanent display of nostalgia, in combination with selective amnesia, comes as no surprise when we see police being called in to quell ”isolated incidents [of] assault … force and intimidation” using rubber bullets.
Similarly, claims to ”intellectual vibrancy” are nothing but a pretext for a dull and dampening ambience. The quality of teaching material does not rise to the intellectual challenge, nor does the quantity of facilities adequately serve the size of the student population. Unfortunately, non-SADC students’ fees are being increased by more than 30% as of 2008! Perhaps this is what being ”an African university” means today.
Following the initial phase of the university’s restructuring in 2003, Nongxa was given a ten-year term as vice-chancellor, at which point he stated that Wits was ”living beyond its means”. Yet in the middle of his tenure, Wits is still in search of ”strategies to address financial challenges systematically”. How myopic are the university’s executive and governing structures?
Wits is playing a make-believe game. This university has been privileged, and continually seeks to maintain that position.
Motsoakgomo Nkoli is a doctorate of philosophy candidate at Wits University in Johannesburg