Ferial Haffajee’s article ”In office, but not in power” (February 1) was a response to an earlier article by African staff and student leaders at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (”Selective outrage: on racism and rape at UKZN”, January 25). Her response is disappointing. She did not investigate the issues before responding; she was not at the relevant meetings. Hence she misses the central point in our article, while supporting Lubna Nadvi’s earlier article (”On rape and race at UKZN”, December 3), to which our response was directed.
Haffajee criticises African managers for not focusing on ensuring that UKZN residences are safe. Yet she does not tell Nadvi and colleagues to focus on their core scholarly activities instead of creating trouble in student residences.
An editor should be a mediator, but Haffajee’s article is biased. Should management not engage in public debate on issues at work? Haffajee suggests that those in management should remain silent when they are verbally abused, man-handled and given no space to provide the necessary information to those who require it.
I believe managers of a public institution are accountable to the public and must be transparent. A public university should be accountable to its staff, students, the taxpayers and government. In my view the disruptive actions of Nadvi and her colleagues were discriminatory; they resulted in harassment of the university officials and prevented open discussion inside the university.
Professor Nceba Gqaleni is a member of UKZN’s Black African Academics Forum and former deputy dean of the NR Mandela School of Medicine. He writes in his personal capacity