Month: February 2016

Nwadeyi: South Africans must reclaim their humanity

28 February 2016

Saarah Survé, Stellenbosch Department of Journalism

Stellenbosch University – Lovelyn Nwadeyi, a Stellenbosch student from 2010 to 2012, has called on South Africans to reclaim their collective humanity, histories and languages so that their children will know the truth about themselves.

Nwadeyi addressed former and current students, as well as fulltime academic staff members, at the annual meeting of the Stellenbosch University Convocation on Thursday.

Nwadeyi is the youngest black woman to address the SU Convocation. Her speech reflected on the differences of the Stellenbosch she attended and the one that exists today.

Fighting back emotion, she explained that it is difficult for her to talk about courage and compassion. “The rainbow nation ideal promised… in 1994 is becoming an ever-distant one,” she said. Nwadeyi added that “perhaps we are realising that there was no rainbow to start with.”

“South Africans are now faced with the task of looking into the mirror, and asking themselves what is happening around us and why does it feel this way?” said Nwadeyi, who is cautiously questioning what is new about Stellenbosch and South Africa.

“Something is brewing in South Africa… I know it is irreversible and will continue to brew and boil over whether we give it the permission to do so or not,” she said.

“Stellenbosch is not exempt from the winds of change that are blowing through this country,” said Nwadeyi. She also stated that Stellenbosch is responsible for many of the inequalities that South Africa faces today.

Nwadeyi said that the difference between South Africa and Germany is that the Germans are genuinely sorry about the past and have written off that part of their history as unequivocally bad, whereas South Africans are nostalgic for the good old days.

“We must dismantle this inhumanity that we are all products of, by reclaiming our collective humanity…and our languages,” said Nwadeyi.

While addressing the convocation, Nwadeyi slipped effortlessly between English and Afrikaans, illustrating her point that there are many faces to Afrikaans as a language and a culture.

She ended her speech with the hope that one day it would not be necessary for her to talk to her children about racism and sexism. “That is really my dream for South Africa, and Africa as a whole, but for us to get to that point, we need to know about the roles we need to play,” she explained.

“None of us get to claim an easy victory, because there is no victory in our collective pain, there is only closure… which South Africa desperately needs,” said Nwadeyi.

At the convocation, five new members were elected onto Stellenbosch University’s executive committee. According to City Press, Nwadeyi was a candidate for the position of vice-chair on the committee, but lost by 15 votes. None of the 5 black candidates were elected.

James de Villiers, Head of Communication of Stellenbosch University’s Student Representative Council, said that Stellenbosch University’s Convocation was disappointed in the result of the meeting.

“They had a chance to vote for a truly transformed statutory body that represents Stellenbosch’s changing demographics and needs, but chose not to.

“The Convocation chose to remain within the boundaries of what is comfortable and, in real terms, regressed in its representation of diversity and much needed transformation,” said De Villiers.

De Villiers said it is concerning that Breyten Breytenbach, South African poet and writer and the second speaker at the convocation, “represents a bygone era, where the university represented one culture, one race and one language.”

Nwadeyi has a Master’s Degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution from Uppsala University in Sweden.

Antia challenges basic education stance

18 February 2016

Saarah Survé, Stellenbosch Department of Journalism

Stellenbosch University – Professor Bassey Antia from the University of the Western Cape (UWC)  has set out to challenge the Department of Basic Education’s (DoBE) statement that it is not viable to use African languages for matric exams.

Antia said that when learners are not tested in their home languages, it affects their matric results. Speakers of African languages, in particular, score the lowest.

“The exam paper itself should not be a challenge, the content of the paper should,” said Antia.

In his study of matric exams, the professor found that students would flip their exam papers over to read the Afrikaans side, when they did not understand the term in English, and vice-versa.

“Terms in one language can be more descriptive than in another language,” said Antia.

“There is knowledge embedded in terms,” said Antia. For example, there are two words for canine in Afrikaans; oogtand and slagtand. The former shows the tooth has a relation to the eye, and the latter that the tooth is used for tearing. So, knowledge of Afrikaans will enable better understanding of the word canine.

“Knowing several languages can afford different entry points to understanding,” said Antia.

For example, the word computer, when translated into English from other languages, means “machine with a brain” or “ability to calculate.”

“Processing information in testing can be influenced by languages in which the test is presented and/or languages known by the examinees,” said Antia. “When a bilingual student reads an exam paper, essentially what happens is that the individual’s two languages are acting or contesting at the same time. You cannot just switch off one language. This is called parallel activation,” Antia explained.

“We need to accommodate students to content and process,” said Antia. “This involves taking away language as a barrier. One part of that would be translating the text in an exam paper into a student’s home language. Another part would be to change the time of a paper, if students are more likely to perform better in the morning,” he said.

Antia suggested providing learning materials in the student’s home language, even if they are being lectured in another language.

Boipelo Mokgothu, a University of Johannesburg journalism graduate and native Tswana-speaker, and Velani Mboweni, a University of Cape Town Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) graduate and native Zulu-speaker commented on the lack of African languages in the educational context.

Mokgothu said that she had never come across a school that used an African language as a teaching medium and that she had only encountered English and Afrikaans schools.

“I have never heard of a school that teaches maths, life sciences and natural sciences in Tswana. I think that would be very difficult,” said Mokgothu.

“Even schools in Soweto, where I come from, will have Tswana as a subject, but all of the other subjects would be in English,” said Mokgothu.

“Given the choice, I would not have wanted to study in Tswana. It would have been too difficult and meant that I would have had to go to a non-English school, which doesn’t make sense in the world we live in,” said Mokgothu.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t have taken Tswana as an additional language, even if I could, because I was comfortable in Afrikaans,” she said.

Mboweni, who took isiZulu as his first additional language, said that he would have liked to study some subjects “concurrently with English”, because it would have enabled him to learn in his own language, but still “remain internationally competitive.”

Mboweni said that he was forced to choose English, because he wanted to study PPE at UCT. He would have been excluded from the international literature if he had not gone to an English high school.

Antia is from Nigeria and lectures at UWC’s Department of Linguistics. He speaks six languages and can order a cup of coffee in eight. Antia hopes to approach the DoBE with his findings in the middle of this year.

Breaking Boxes claims credit for university statement

15 February 2016

Saarah Survé, Stellenbosch Department of Journalism

Stellenbosch University – Breaking Boxes, a new LGBTIQA+* movement at Stellenbosch University (SU), believes that they are responsible for a recent statement which the university released.

*LGBTIQA+ refers to persons of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual and other sexual orientation.

“We believe that the statement which the university sent out was in response to the list of demands that we gave them last year. One of our first steps to making changes was for the University to make a statement,” said a member of Breaking Boxes.

The statement on dehumanisation and discrimination against students and staff, published by the Equality Unit, refers to actions against members of the LGBTIQA+ community.

The statement mentions that SU will be taking a “zero-tolerance approach with regard to all dehumanising practices on campus and in the broader society.”

Lesbigay Stellenbosch, a society at the university, posted on its Facebook page about “a continual struggle of acceptance and tolerance” for members of the LGBTIQA+ community.

Abenathi Makinana, chairperson of Lesbigay, said that even though it is a new year with infinite possibilities for their community, there is much work to be done.

“For the LGBTIQA+ community it is another year of challenging the existence of homophobia, transphobia and queerphobia (a specific type of homophobia),” said Makinana.

Makinana feels that justice has failed the LGBTIQA+ community, because only one man was convicted of the murder of David Olyn, when it is suspected that more are involved.

Olyn, who was openly gay, was from the Northern Cape and moved to Belle Vista, near Ceres, when he was 20 years old. Human rights organisation, Sonke Gender Justice, reported that his body was found bound, beaten and set alight in Bella Vista in March 2014.

After the murder of Olyn, Phoebe Titus (30), a transgender woman, was stabbed to death by a 15-year-old youth. This hate-crime took place in December 2015, in Wolseley, only ten kilometres from Ceres.

Sonke Gender Justice stated that “homophobia in the small town of Ceres is rife and that these incidents of violence and discrimination are not reported for fear of secondary victimisation from police officials and community members.”

Two members of Breaking Boxes claim that the SU environment is “hostile and violent towards members of the LGBTIQA+ community.”

Breaking Boxes was started at the end of last year, when students felt that “enough was enough,” after the university “ignored reported cases of discrimination against members of the LGBTIQA+ community.”

“It was time to speak up against the institutionalised violence against our community,” said one member.

“We are a leaderless, non-partisan collective,” they continued.

“We are coming together as a whole. It is incorrect to assume that your voice is the only one out there. That is why we have no leader,” added another member.

Unfortunately, the university’s spokesperson, Martin Viljoen, could not confirm or comment.

Zuma addresses a protesting nation

11 February 2016

Saarah Survé, Stellenbosch Department of Journalism

Cape Town – President Jacob Zuma delivered the State of the Nation address (Sona) against a backdrop of protests opposing his leadership and an ailing economy.

Last year the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) disrupted Parliament, the cell phone signal was jammed, the Democratic Alliance (DA) all wore black and the EFF wore their usual red getup. Mmusi Maimane, leader of the DA, demanded answers to the Nkandla-saga and led his party out of Parliament.

This year all eyes were on the Sona, because of the events leading up to it. In December Zuma fired and replaced then Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene with David van Rooyen and then replaced him with former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, which sent the Rand plummeting.

This sparked “Zuma Must Fall” marches in December and protests on Thursday in Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, while Zuma delivered Sona. According to Independent Online, police fired stun grenades to disperse the protesting crowds who threatened “to breach barricades erected outside Parliament” ahead of Zuma’s address.

The EFF threatened to disrupt this year’s Sona if Zuma did not explain why he fired Nene, and disrupt it they did. They were determined to be heard. As soon as it began, members of the EFF, including its leader, Julius Malema, and Chief Whip, Floyd Shivambu, stood up to “seek clarity of the rules in Parliament.” They later chanted “Zupta Must Fall” as they marched out of Parliament on the command of Speaker, Baleke Mbete.

According to News24, Julius Malema then delivered what he called the “real” State of the Nation address, outside of Parliament. Malema said, “Zuma has lost his credibility and legitimacy as a president of South Africa. Therefore, we refuse to uphold the respect which is accorded to a president. We refuse to be addressed by a criminal. To us, he does not exist and we will never respect him.”

One of Zuma’s main points in his address was that wastage must be cut because of economic pressures and that the cost of maintaining two capital cities is too high. Zuma said, “The biggest expenditure that we would like Parliament to consider is the maintenance of two capitals. The cost is too high for the executive. This is an urgent matter.”

Independent Online published an article on five of the new topics which Zuma announced. These include that the Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, will soon announce a major campaign on HIV prevention and that a state-owned pharmaceutical company has been established.

Once the President had finished his speech, Maimane had a lot to say during an interview with the SABC. “The President failed to deliver a plan for jobs for South Africans,” he said. “No decisive budget cuts were made. The President should have been bolder.” Maimane also stated that the President did not address issues of basic education and had no overall plan for the country.

Mukhtar Joonas, Honorary Consul of Mauritius in Cape Town, said that he had “never seen anything like this anywhere else in the world.” Joonas went on to say that “the speaker should have taken control and not entertained the disruptions.”

Harold Doley, American Ambassador to the Ivory Coast and founder of the US-Africa Chamber of Commerce, said that “President Zuma has made a lot of mistakes, as do all leaders.”

When asked if he had seen anything like the South African opening of Parliament elsewhere in the world, Doley said, “One of the worst and most disrespectful things I ever saw was during President Obama’s State of the Union address; a congressman shouted out, ‘You lie!’”