Wits Review Oct 08

Volume 6 October 2008
WITSReview
The magazine for ALUMNI and friends of the University of the Witwatersrand
Volume 6 October 2008
Interview with Nobel laureate

Nadine Gordimer
IN THIS ISSUE: Tata Africa and Carnegie support Wits • West Campus heritage • Celebrating diversity
Editorial
Investing in alumni relations
S
uccessful universities Lastly, regular communication is essential in
make a significant maintaining our relationship with alumni. Apart
investment in from electronic communication and a soon to be
building and maintaining launched annual newsletter, the WITSReview is a
relationships with their flagship publication for alumni that has been very
alumni as there is a correlation between the level popular and successful.
of involvement and support of alumni and the
I'm proud to say that WITSReview took second
relative success of their alma mater.
place in the annual South African Publication
Wits is very conscious of this and has been working Forum competition held in August this year in
hard at improving its relationship with alumni. As the Best External Magazine category and also
a result, the past year has been a busy and exciting received merit certificates for excellence in
one for the alumni office. communication and writing.
Our pre-alumni progamme, aimed at familiarising This is a significant achievement for a new
all students with the alumni office and the concept publication as the competition - which is open to
of alumni relations, has been one of our priorities all organisations, business and industry - attracts
and the introduction of a Wits mascot has helped the best publications corporate South Africa has
identify and brand alumni relations amongst to offer.
students.
Thank you again for your support. As this is the
A benefit programme for alumni has been another last issue for the year, I wish you all the best over
priority as incentives play a critical role in the holidays and I look forward to engaging with
motivating alumni to stay in regular contact with you in the year to come.
the University. We're therefore very pleased to
announce the launch of a Wits Alumni Lifestyle Peter Maher
Benefit Programme that offers significant benefits Director: Alumni Relations
and services to alumni (see alongside). This is in
addition to our existing alumni ICAM card which
gives alumni access to the campus and its facilities,
including all libraries.
Providing opportunities for alumni to socialise

and network, whether on campus or across the
globe, has also been priority. The holding of
networking breakfasts, tours of places of interest,
reunions, and the launching of alumni chapters
have been very successful this year and will continue Kudos for WITSReview, which took second place in the Best
External Magazine category for lower budget publications at
to be an important part of the alumni programme.
the annual SA Publication Forum competition.
October 2008 WITSReview 1

Contents
19 30
6 Nadine Gordimer: 36 Stress management

A flood of curiosity
39 Photo essay:
14 Tata Africa takes the long view Pubs and clubs at Wits
with scholarships
44 Alumni achievers
19 Carnegie gives researchers
a space to share ideas 51 Social events
22 Diversity: It takes all kinds 54 Book reviews

to tear off a label
56 Obituaries
26 Disability: Ramping up
access to education 62 At Wits End: Traditions
30 Heritage: West Campus
2 WITSReview October 2008

Contents
Editorial Team
Peter Maher Editor and Director: Alumni Relations
Shirona Patel Head: Communications
Deborah Minors Alumni Communications Officer
Design and layout

Nicole Sterling
Printing
Ultra Litho (Pty) Limited
Published by the Office of Alumni Relations,

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
62 Tel : +27 (0)11 717 1090

Fax : +27 (0)11 403 4493
Address : Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050,
South Africa
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Alumni Shop : www.witsshop.co.za
Update contact details :
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For assistance with any payment or delivery

problems or to apply for a complimentary copy
please e-mail alumni@wits.ac.za or call
Cover : Nadine Gordimer +27 (0)11 717 1090/91/93/95
Photo : Gallo Images/Getty Images
WITSReview is a quarterly publication. The views expressed in this
publication are not necessarily those of the editor, the Office of
Alumni Relations or of the University of the Witwatersrand.
Letters to the editor are welcome and can be © Copyright of all material in this publication is vested in the authors
sent c/o the Office of Alumni Relations or thereof. Requests to reproduce any of the material should be directed
e-mailed to alumni@wits.ac.za to the editor.

Letters
Comments
from our readers
News of his death was greatly exaggerated conceived opening ceremony for the Theatre
with both the current and the elected Vice-
Dear Editor
Chancellors on stage (commencing his address
Alan Swerdlow was registered as a student in with the words “My Lords...”). And he was very
the history of drama at Wits in the period much alive when, more than a year after the
preceding my three decades of lecturing there opening night, he was Master of Ceremonies
in the history of drama, so I can't be held at my wedding.
responsible for his historiographical mistakes.
Ian Steadman
His little history of the Wits Theatre (MBA, 2001; PhD, 1985) Oxford, UK
(WITSReview 5, 2008) states that “Sadly, David
A comedy of errors
Horner died before the Theatre was opened”.
David, having invited me to direct the opening A grovelling apology is owed to Alan Swerdlow who
was given the huge disservice of having his original
production of The Comedy of Errors, was very copy which referred to “Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
much alive when he sat next to me on the in London” incorrectly edited to “Stratford” and then
opening night. He was also very much alive in the printed version to “Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
when he presided over his own delightfully in Stratford-Upon-Avon” - Editor
Acknowledge role of support staff
Dear Editor
I really enjoy reading the WITSReview, however, nowhere in the article about the recent
protest action on Xenophobia or in the editorial does it include mention that support
staff also joined the march and supported this important event. It only makes reference
to academics and students. I really want us to always remember to include the support
staff when we talk or write about the University in general, a lot of good people work
behind the scenes because they have a true passion for the University and believe in doing
their bit to create a better society in the long run. If we include the support staff when
we talk or write about the University I am sure that with time we could address this silly
divide between the academic and support community.
Emannuel N Prinsloo, Director: Property and Infrastructure Management Division

University of the Witwatersrand.
The fourth paragraph of the article referred to “academics and staff...”, but point taken - Editor

Letters
Comments
from our readers
Theatre story brings back happy memories Your excellent article on the history of the
Drama Department brought back great nostalgia
Dear Editor
and happy memories of my years at Wits.
I was delighted to receive the Volume 5 July Congratulations to Wits Theatre on its 25th
2008 WITSReview and all the more so as the birthday. May you continue to grow and succeed
cover picture was of someone I had taught in in all your future endeavours.
my speech and drama studio years ago.
Doreen Feitelberg (nee Bichunsky) (BA, 1959)
In the late 1950s, when I was a student at Wits, Chicago, U.S.A.
there were no courses in the performing arts.
Those, like me, who were passionate about the
theatre, joined the University Players and Honouring famous Witsies
performed on the stage of the Great Hall. I took
part in the production of Love's Labour's Lost, Dear Editor,
sharing the lead with Janet Suzman on alternate Having just received your WITSReview I was
performances, and in Julius Caesar presented very interested in your article on Professor
on the steps of the Great Hall. Both plays were Tobias who lectured me way back in 1950
directed by the late John Boulter. I still have my when I was studying Occupational Therapy.
programmes and various pieces of memorabilia He is an extraordinary man and I have
from those productions. In the early 1980s, followed his career ever since my medical
my daughter was a student in the Drama school days. He deserves all the honour and
Department where she performed in as well as glory bestowed on him. Long may he live!
directed plays. Most of the presentations were
staged at the Nunnery Theatre. I was invited by I also had the privilege of knowing Professor
the late Professor David Horner to take the post Sydney Brenner. What an amazing man..!
of part-time lecturer in the department and I He should have been honoured more in your
juggled my duties with teaching in the Business journal... after all how many graduates from
Communication Department as well as running Wits have been awarded the Nobel prize?
my own private speech and drama studio. It was Perhaps you could do more about him in
an exciting and demanding time. It was obvious your next journal?
that Wits needed a theatre and when the Wits
Theatre was finally built it brought fresh and Joan Elias (BSc (OT), 1977) Plettenberg Bay
innovative productions to the city.
(Letters have been shortened – Editor)

Profile
Nadine
Gordimer
© Images 24/Beeld/Johann Hattingh

Interview
A flood of curiosity
Nadine Gordimer, recipient of an honorary Doctor of
Literature degree from Wits and a Nobel Prize in
Literature, spoke to Tara Turkington about writing,
education and the legacy of South Africa's past.

Profile Nadine Gordimer
Tara Turkington (TT): I've been looking at what the NG: That was in a rather good journal, one of
internet has to say about you and the first thing that the early stirrings of liberal discontent with what
struck me is that you've been writing for nearly was beginning to happen here … I think it was
60 years. called The Forum and I think the editor was Jan
Hofmeyr.
Nadine Gordimer (NG): I've been writing since
I was nine years old. TT: You were at Wits for a year and then you left.
Why?
TT: What staying power.
NG: I was an occasional student.
NG: I don't think so; if you have it inside you,
I took occasional courses.
it's an impulse and it's a necessity.
TT: What did you study?
TT: You've never struggled for motivation?
NG: English literature and
NG: No, I don't understand
English language.
that. If you have to struggle If you have to struggle
for motivation then you're for motivation then TT: So you never considered
not a writer. If you have to doing a full degree there?
struggle for motivation to you're not a writer.
NG: No, I don't know why
act or dance, you're not an
I did that really, because at
actor or a dancer.
20 I had read much more than was on the
TT: Could you ever have been anything else? reading list. I'd already educated myself. But
there were one or two good people there and I
NG: I think so, yes: when I was a little girl I
think it stimulated my critical sense, which is
wanted to be a dancer and I was rather a good
good because if you're going to be a writer at all
dancer until the age of 10 or something and
you have to develop a critical sense of your own
that was my idea of a future for myself, but then
work.
that changed. What a good thing, because as a
dancer I would long ago have been washed up. TT: I wanted to ask you about the role of education
and writing.
TT: What did your parents think?
NG: I think I would be the last person in the
NG: Luckily nobody took any notice of that, it
world to decry education, and as I get older I
was just Nadine scribbling away the way some
realise there are whole huge abysses of knowledge
other child might be doing something else, you
where my very wide reading could not lead me...
know, playing hop scotch or drawing or doing
In science, for instance, you become more and
whatever. And I think that's good; it's terrible
more interested because the connections
being made a prodigy, which I could easily have
between scientific subjects and daily living and
been made. By the time I was 15 I'd published
indeed the circumstances, ecological and
my first adult story.
otherwise, in which we live are so close, so that
TT: Where was that? if you're concerned as I am now about climate

Interview
change, a scientific background would be a great

help.
So if I look back on my life, it was silly - the

little bit of formal study that I did should not
have been literature, where I was already self-
educated. I should have gone into some other
subject and also languages, because to have read
some of the world's greatest writers only in
translation seems to me a deprivation.
TT: There are a lot of South African universities now

teaching creative writing, including Wits. What do
you think about that? Can you teach someone to
write?
NG: You cannot teach people to write. To my

shame now, because I have once in my life done
a course in creative writing, and that was the
final proof to me that it is no use. This was as
a guest professor at Columbia University in
New York and I had 12 graduate students who
were handpicked. Eleven of them would have
made competent journalists perhaps; one had
something of the natural drive and ability to be
a writer. You can train an intelligent person to
be a good journalist because there are certain
rules and traditions to be followed, but not to
write.
TT: Because it's a state of being?
NG: Of course. I happen for certain reasons to

be re-reading the works of Carlos Fuentes and
Salman Rushdie and others, and the flood of
curiosity and ideas and reaching out into this
eternal mystery of life - this is something you
can't teach anybody.
I always use the same comparison: if you're going

to be an opera singer, you're going to have
certain vocal chords. Without them, we can go

to all the singing classes but we never will be writers are all exceptionally observant, ears wide
ready for La Scala, you know? It's got to be there, open, always eavesdropping by nature, eyes wide
and I think that writers have some equivalent open, very much aware of people's body language
of these special vocal chords, which make it as well as what they say and do. So you see this
possible for them to develop themselves as couple near you and they're having an argument
writers. perhaps; you hear a few snippets, or you're
standing in a queue and you see a child obviously
TT: Do you ever have trouble choosing what to write
impatient with the mother. You invent, you
about or is it something that you know?
become intrigued, you invent, Graham Greene
NG: If you have trouble choosing, then again said, an alternative life for the person you see,
you're not a writer because you are chosen, not and I think that's true.
by some great inspiration but by something that
Of course the experiences of your own life get
captures your eye, your ear,
fed into this as well.
your perceptions, that
intrigues or troubles you. TT: What else do you read?
...you are chosen,
What are your reading habits?
Graham Greene put it not by some great
marvellously, and I've never NG: There are two public
forgotten it, in one of his
inspiration but by addresses I have to give, so
autobiographical essays. something that I'm doing some reading for
People kept asking him, captures your eye, your those. My night reading has
where do you get your always been my main
characters from? Are they ear, your perceptions, reading. I don't watch TV -
based on real people? My that intrigues or there's no time if you want
answer to that would be, you troubles you. to read. I'm either rereading,
never know anybody well especially as I get older,
enough to base your books that I desperately
character on them. You could live with someone want to read again before I die, or reading
all your life and you know that certain aspect contemporary fiction and non-fiction by writers
of your relationship with them and someone who mean a great deal to me and new writers
else who's had a different relationship knows a as well.
different person.
TT: Who are your favourites?
But Graham Greene said, in answer, well, you're
NG: It changes all the time but if I look back
sitting in a bus or standing in a queue or you're
at the last 10 years or so, for instance a discovery
eating in a restaurant or anything like this, you're
for me was José Saramago. I had never read
in some remote relationship with somebody,
anything of his until he got the Nobel Prize a
you're in their company. And now we come
few years ago, because very little was translated.
back to what makes you a writer, what your
Then the translations came, that's one of the
vocal chords are, and that is: from childhood,

Interview
good things about the Nobel, and of course he you about South Africa now and what you think the
is a great writer so that would be one. Salman challenges are for our leadership and also for education.
Rushdie I think is a wonderful writer, the so-
NG: If you had come to me two months ago,
called Latin Americans, [Gabriel Garcia]
you would have got a very different answer from
Marquez, and I mentioned Fuentes and, among
the one now, because I always call myself a
the poets, Octavio Paz, a great favourite, Günter
realist-optimist. I've always felt that we have
Grass, unfortunately I can't read German, I read
tremendous problems and the world thinks the
it in translation, a really marvellous writer, and
problems began at the end of the 1940s when
so on … and of course I read our own, not only
we invented apartheid, but the problems that
South African but African writers. Great admirer
we inherited go back centuries, of oppression,
of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka …
of totally unfair education and other kinds of
TT: Am I allowed to ask you what you are working training for black people as compared with
on at the moment? white. When I think that when my children,
who are now in their 50s, were kids, the
NG: I never talk about what I'm working on.
government spent 10 times as much on each
TT: Your whole life you have been someone who has white child as on each black, 10 times …
had very strong political convictions, a very strong
Now by the time we get around to when the
sense of justice and what was right. I wanted to ask

liberation movements were unbanned in the another, and the increasing desperation of
1990s and when we finally voted in 1994, that people who are not paid enough to live on and
was reduced but even today, where it's completely who are every day, I don't blame them, in the
equal for whatever colour you are, you've still streets protesting. But mainly it's the violence
got kids in the bush who are sitting on the floor, and of course violence arises out of desperation
not in a classroom, never mind not having a and is exploited by real criminals, not only our
laboratory, or sports field, or a library for heaven's own but some coming in from outside and
sake, not even a proper lavatory. So this backlog making a profitable business of employing others.
from the past, I always kept in mind, that with
So I'm extremely worried. I'm a member of the
our wonderful new constitution that we're so
African National Congress, I have been ever
blessed with, you can't possibly refuse to face
since it was a legal organisation and when it
the problems that we have.
wasn't a legal organisation I worked with it all
But I've still always felt that the time. But I'm very
we were tackling them and worried to see in the party
that having overcome that I believe in, such signs
apartheid we had now But I'm very worried of dissension and the split
gained the possibility of to see in the party and I'm very worried about
changing and we're applying that I believe in, Mr Zuma.
ourselves. And it's amazing
such signs of dissension TT: With all you've just said,
the number of houses we
what do you think about
have built and we've and the split education in this country and
installed sanitation and
and I'm very worried where we're going with that?
electricity and so on, but it's
never enough. about Mr Zuma. NG: That's another big
worry. I think that the
And now of course with a
universities have done a
huge complication - and here of course my
pretty good job of struggling for transformation,
realism must come into it - but I didn't realise
but what can they do about people just scraping
and none of us realised that we were going to
in to university from their matric, coming to
have this influx of many thousands of others
university but really ill-equipped for university
to be provided for from the conflicts around
subjects? I think this makes it very difficult for
us. Of course we also didn't realise the problem
the University and I think they are struggling
of HIV and AIDS.
with that. How can you bridge what your
Now, as I said, two months ago I still would education has failed to do from the age of six
have kept my balance of optimism and concern, until the age of reaching your matric? So I'm
but what's been happening since May has been very, very concerned about our education system
so terrible and now in the last two weeks, the and the fact that we have lost teachers, that they
incredible violence, school kids killing one have gone to other countries where they are

Interview
better paid. And now of course it's even more

discouraging for those who stay here that they
are in schools where you have to have the
children examined, not only for guns but for
scissors and knives, and the classroom and the
school recreation facilities are a battleground.
TT: But it's a global phenomenon, it's not only South

Africa.
NG: I know, but every country has to deal

with it.
TT: What would you like people to learn from your

writing or to take from it?
NG: I'm not teaching anybody anything. The

best that I could say and hope for is (as I find
when I read other writers) that they should
question their own set ideas. Think again about
your certainties.
TT: You've achieved so many things in your life,

Booker Prize, Commonwealth Prize, Nobel Prize.
Which are the ones that you are the proudest of, or
that mean the most for you?
NG: If you're talking about the prizes, the Nobel

is the top one, first of all because it's a world
prize. I'm always moved to get any of them
and I've never accepted a prize that I didn't
TT: What do you still want to achieve, not in terms
believe in.
of prizes, but what is it you still want to do?
TT: Have you turned down prizes?
NG: I suppose in terms of my life as a responsible
NG: A couple, yes. But what I do feel particularly human being, I would indeed like to contribute
gratified with are some other honours that I've whatever little I have to bringing about change
been given, one from Cuba, one from Chile, to make my own country and the world a little
and from France. And last year I got the Légion more human, but that is of course a minuscule
d'Honneur, but I was surprised because I thought thing that one does. And obviously, to continue
military men get this, it's not a literary one. to do, for as long as it's possible, with a proper
But it did recognise perhaps the other side of recognition that it must come to an end, the
my life. work that I've done all my life.

Tata Africa

Tata Africa
“The company has become integral to society.

Of the 100 largest economies in the world,
51, from a gross revenue point of view, are
Tata
Africa
companies and only 49 are governments.
That gives one a taste of the huge influence
which these multinational companies have
over communities. It also becomes clear why
companies are greater agents for change
today than governments. Directors of
takes
companies can no longer make only short-
term decisions for short-term gains. They have
to make decisions for the long term, so that
the
those who come after us are not
compromised by the decisions we make
today. Boards can no longer separate the
long
three aspects of people, planet and profit.”
Mervyn King, 2008 view
F
or the third year, Tata Africa has awarded The Tata Africa Scholarships 2008 represent a
full scholarships for postgraduate study new trend in corporate social investment, where
across all fields at Wits. These prestigious industry works to benefit the broader society.
awards - 39 to date - are made to financially According to Prof. Rob Moore, Deputy Vice-
needy students who have a proven academic Chancellor: Advancement and Partnerships at
track record. Wits University, the partnership between Tata
Africa and Wits University incorporates triple
“In our view, postgraduate studies are one of
bottom line reporting, which considers society,
the most strategic interventions that we can
the environment and profit.
make to uplift the human capital of our country,”
said Vice-Chancellor and Principal Prof. “The take-up of this approach in South Africa
Loyiso Nongxa. has been relatively slow,” he said.

Tata Africa
“In contrast, the Tata Africa Tata Africa understands that we contribute
Scholarships 2008 awards to the fundamental quality of
understands that we
celebrate an innovative society and together with their
approach to corporate social contribute to the investment we will usher in both
investment in South Africa and fundamental quality immediate and long-term visible
on the continent. Wits takes returns.”
great satisfaction from its role
of society and
as a partner with and a channel together with their Raman Dhawan, Managing
Director of Tata Africa, expanded
for Tata Africa's investment in investment we will on his company's values: “The Tata
broader society. The fact that
Tata Africa has chosen as a usher in both Group has always believed in
returning wealth to the society it
partner one of the premier immediate and long-
serves. Tata believes that no success
universities on the continent
term visible returns. or achievement in material terms
demonstrates the corporation's
is worthwhile unless it serves the
commitment to high-quality initiatives that
needs or interests of the country and its people
benefit the society in which it operates.”
and is achieved by fair and honest means.
Prof. Nongxa added: “Our relationship with We are committed to skills development in
Tata Africa has a particular character because South Africa and are proud to support Wits
of Tata's values and the long-term view that Tata University by providing scholarships to these
adopts to invest in society. Tata Africa deserving students.”
Raman Dhawan, Managing Director of Tata Africa, and Prof. Loyiso Nongxa with Tata Africa Scholarship 2008 recipients .

Tata Africa
Announcing the awards in August 2008, at Wits, bursary recipient Nicole de Wet
Dhawan called on students to conduct their expressed her sincere gratitude to Wits, Tata
business on the basis of values like integrity, and her mentors for their contribution to her
honesty, transparency, excellence, unity and future.
social responsibility. “Your education gives you
Evans Netshivhambe, a student reading for his
power and tomorrow you become the new
PhD in music, emphasised the obligation of
leaders of society. I leave you with two messages
students to use financial support fruitfully. “We
- avoid any form of corruption, and give back
are fortunate to have been given the key that
to society.”
can open several doors. However, we must use
'It is the Nongxa added that our knowledge to search for and open the right
t h e s ch o l a r s h i p s doors to achieve success. In this way we can
responsibility of should be seen as an create new ideas and new knowledge and
each recipient acknowledgement of information to further develop our society.”
of this award to achievement. “It is the
“Wits University is proud to partner with Tata
responsibility of each
emulate this recipient of this award
on a number of initiatives,” said Prof. Moore.
achievement' “In addition to the Tata Africa scholarships,
to emulate this
the group has donated a top-of-the-range off-
achievement,” he said.
road vehicle for use in the Ndlela Research and
“When visiting India recently, I made two
Clinical Trials Unit, a rural community health
distinctive observations which speak directly to
project driven by Wits’ School of Public Health.
the establishment of these prestigious awards -
It was established in 2006 to conduct clinical
the investment by corporations and the private
trials for the prevention and treatment of HIV
sector into higher education and knowledge
and related diseases like tuberculosis in rural
institutions, and the emphasis on producing
South Africa.”
quality teaching, learning and research (academic
excellence) despite socio-economic disparities.” Wits University also enjoys a strong relationship
with Tata Consulting Services (an IT-focused
Oluwatoyin Kolawole, an award recipient and subsidiary) and negotiations are underway for
pharmacy PhD student, said: “These awards Tata and Wits to partner in a programme to
have led to the furtherance of academic provide access to technology for marginalised
knowledge, the creation of new ideas and the communities.
development of scarce and critical skills much
needed by Africans living in a globalised Prof. Yunus Ballim, Deputy Vice-Chancellor:
economy in the 21st century.” Academic and Vice-Principal, paid tribute to
the students for challenging the assumptions
Completing her PhD in demography studies (a made in society. “This is the mark of a good
scarce skill) under Prof. Clifford Odimegwo, graduate - it is more than just passing high-level
Head of Population and Demography Studies examinations,” he said.

News Bytes
witsnews
Alumni go to war in Finland!
Two Wits alumni and a Wits PhD student participated in the War Games World Championships
in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2008. The competition pits the most adept and skilful strategists
against each other in simulated board-game battles from various eras.
As part of the South African Mind Sports team, Matthew Strachan (BEconSc, 2005), Colin
Webster (BA, 1995) and PhD student and vice-chair of the Wits War games Club, David
Vannucci, 'waged war' against some of the best players on the globe.
The objective is to defeat the enemy with guile and shrewd army and weaponry choices. All
three men played two games of about three hours each a day against opponents from France,
Finland, Ireland and Britain. Strachan competed in the pike and shot renaissance game,
historically situated in the period 1494AD-1700AD, using weaponry such as cannons and
muskets. Webster and Vannucci faced off against rivals in the game of the ancients, which pits
armies in the period 3000BC-1500AD. This year's championships were played using ancient
rules which allow games to include battles between armies from different historical eras.
Street traders graduate with A meeting of minds at COMET 2008

business skills
The Conference on Communication, Medicine
Wits Enterprise, in cooperation with the City and Ethics (COMET) took place in Africa for
of Joburg, hosted a graduation ceremony for the first time in July 2008, providing a platform
550 street traders who successfully completed to highlight South Africa's unique cultural and
a business improvement training course in July. linguistic diversity. Hosted by the Wits Health
Communication Project, COMET brings
Since 2004, some 2000 traders have benefited
together scholars from different disciplines
from training provided through the Wits/Joburg
including medicine, the humanities and the
City partnership. The six-month programme,
social sciences, to share research in the relatively
developed by a Wits academic and packaged to
new field of health communication practices.
ensure accessibility, covers fundamentals of
COMET emphasises the dissemination of
small business management including business
quality communication research, which examines
plan development, budgeting and financial
the challenges patients experience in the
management, pricing, marketing, sustaining
healthcare industry and which informs
and growing a business, legislative and metro
communication and practical ethics directly
legislative requirements, sourcing finance, and
relevant to healthcare practitioners. First held
networking. A literacy component was recently
in Cardiff, UK, in 2003, COMET is now an
added. Three Wits academics continuously
annual interdisciplinary, international event
monitor progress for quality assurance.
grounded in a problem-oriented approach.

Carnegie
Carnegie gives Wits

a space to share ideas
Photo by Dimitri Selibas

By Shirona Patel
“Only in popular education can man erect

the structure of an enduring civilisation”
Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie
“S
pace, time and distance is now
irrelevant - only knowledge and
literacy is relevant.” These were the
words of Dr Vartan Gregorian, President of the
Carnegie Corporation of New York, when he
visited Wits University in July 2008. “It is now
possible,” he said, “for every single book that is
published to be accessed via the web.”
Representatives of Carnegie's board of directors

were at Wits to open a facility funded by the
Corporation: the new Postgraduate Research
Commons, located on the north side of the
Ground Floor Reading Room of the William
Dr Vartan Gregorian and Prof. Loyiso Nongxa at the unveiling
Cullen Library. of the plaque commemorating the opening of the new
Postgraduate Research Commons.
Carnegie's involvement with Wits, one of the
educational institutions it supports in fulfilling “Young scholars now have the opportunity to
the legacy of Andrew Carnegie, dates back as realise their true potential.”
far as 1931, when the Corporation bought books
to the value of US$25 000 after a fire destroyed “For example,” Prof. Nongxa continued,
much of the original library in Central Block. “through the Carnegie-funded scholarship
programme, young black women are encouraged
“As a University, we have much to be grateful to pursue careers in which they have been
for to Carnegie for its continuous support over previously under-represented. The funding
the years,” said Vice-Chancellor and Principal received by Carnegie has also contributed to
Prof. Loyiso Nongxa. “Carnegie support the financial strength of this institution and has
addresses several of Wits' strategic goals and provided opportunities for collaboration in
ambitions. The contribution of the Corporation various areas within the University community
has specifically made an impact on developing and beyond.”
infrastructure through the funding of various
library projects like the Postgraduate Research Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Prof. Belinda
Commons, which provides better access to Bozzoli thanked Carnegie for its contribution
teaching, learning and research at Wits. Carnegie to upgrading various projects within Wits'
has supported the research agenda of the libraries, including its support in developing
University and has provided a platform to web-based library reference works, the Equity
enhance postgraduate studies at Wits. The Research Centre, the librar y academy
funding of several transformation projects has programme, numerous publications through
provided an opportunity for meaningful Wits Press and service areas like the Postgraduate
transformation to occur. Research Commons area. “Libraries are the
lifeblood of any university,” she said.

Carnegie
publications; research exhibitions; and general

administrative services.
He described libraries as Beneficiaries of the Carnegie-funded South

‘the DNA of our culture’ African Academy who visited the United States
as part of an internship programme shared their
views at the opening of the Research Commons.
Dr Gregorian concurred with Prof. Bozzoli and Paiki Muswazi said that the internship provided
emphasised the importance of making full use invaluable exposure to the latest research
of the web in teaching, learning and research. technology and current thinking on academic
He described libraries as “the DNA of our research support available through knowledge
culture” and as “invaluable to those who are and information commons. “Libraries in the
engaged in lifelong learning and who could not United States are focusing on creating spaces
imagine an existence without something new for intellectual interaction,” he said. “Similarly,
to learn about every day.” we will promote the use of the Research
Commons as a space for the exchange of ideas
According to Claire Walker, Wits University's
both formally and informally, and virtually as
Deputy Librarian, the new Research Commons
well as in person.”
will serve the needs of postgraduate students
and researchers in the digital environment. Maryna van den Heever, a senior Wits librarian,
“We envisage the Research Commons as a place agreed that there was a strong emphasis on
for engagement in interdisciplinary discussion communication technologies in the United
and the cross-fertilisation of ideas. We see it as States. “The Research Commons offers the
an inspiring workspace for contemplation, opportunity for a more personal focus and the
teaching, research and for preparing and emphasis will be on one-on-one consultation
rehearsing presentations.” and research support. It not only serves as a
computer laboratory but allows the researcher
Wits University Librarian Felix Ubogu
to build a support relationship with research
concurred: “The Research Commons provides
librarians.”
quality services, expert assistance and seamless
access to research information. The target groups The importance of these endeavours is summed
are Masters and Doctoral students and academic up in a quote by US journalist, author and
staff and researchers.” researcher Norman Cousins: “The library is not
a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a
Walker expanded on the services on offer: one-
temple where literary incense must be burned
on-one consultations with knowledgeable and
or where one's devotion to the bound book is
highly skilled research librarians; citation
expressed in ritual. A library, to modify the
searching, bibliographic management software
famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the
support; seminars to promote the cross-
delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place
fertilisation of ideas; advice on research
where history comes to life.”

Diversity
We It takes
all kinds
do not to tear off
a label
tolerate
diversity In May this year, the South African
media were replete with images
of dazed people, dust-covered
at Wits and dripping blood; a burning

man in a chaotic cloud of fire
extinguisher powder; people
- we collecting rags from the paper

ash of what had been a home
- all of them victims of a label:
celebrate 'foreigner'.
diversity. By Professor Yunus Ballim,

Vice-Principal and Deputy
Vice-Chancellor: Academic
Photos by Peter Maher

Diversity
J ust as they did under apartheid, labels allow

people who hurt and kill in the name of
identity to live with themselves - to say
their prayers, be charming socialites or bring
adorable puppies home to their children on
birthdays.
It is only natural that staff and students, However, I believe

comprising over 80 international nationalities it is the role of a
and reflecting our own country's diversity, would
university to provide an
arrive at Wits carrying with them much of the
dust of their social context and experiences. environment that allows
This is exactly what we want: to be exposed to staff and students to
a world of rich variety that we can learn from.
consider their prejudices
Some of these people may harbour prejudices
about race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and the in a different light,
like, acquired in different ways and places and particularly in the light
ingrained to different degrees. However, I believe
it is the role of a university to provide an
shone by the people they
environment that allows staff and students to are prejudiced about.
consider their prejudices in a different light, A university is a place
particularly in the light shone by the people
they are prejudiced about. where ideas are
openly contested.
A university is a place where ideas are openly
contested. This takes many forms on campus:
lecture and discussion events open to the public,
the formal and informal debates from the
classroom to the canteen and sometimes through
protest action by our staff and students against
sections of the university community itself.
Whatever form it takes, this continual challenge
to our thinking helps to form graduates who
are able to contribute to the world in new and
exciting ways.

Diversity
We cherish and celebrate

diversity because
it helps us to understand
the world we live in...
We do not tolerate diversity at Wits - we celebrate

diversity. The apartheid Group Areas Act and
bantustan policy were about tolerance, essentially
saying: “We don't like you but you can stay
because we need you. However, keep your
otherness to yourself.” Such an attitude of
tolerance does not fit with us as a University.
We cherish and celebrate diversity because it
helps us to understand the world we live in and,
in the words of Peter Scott, Kingston University's
Vice-Chancellor, to contribute to “a political
world more sensitive to reason and more civilised
in its search for truth”.
The way we relate to each other in the higher

education community is more than simply
economic. One would have difficulty putting a
I understand a university to be a place that 'fair value' price on what we actually do - nor
invites scrutiny and criticism, of learning and should we try to. I firmly believe that South
teaching, generating new knowledge and Africa needs and deserves universities that
research. We do it for the good of society. It's graduate a disproportionately large number of
a university's job to develop intellectual resources public intellectuals who are strong-willed,
in defence of citizenship and good governance, independently minded and critically engaged
in the same way that we rely on civil society with important matters of the human condition
structures such as a free press and the - across all disciplines - because this is a social
Constitutional Court to be guardians of society. good, not because it makes economic sense.
We need academics and graduates who are And Wits should always be up to this task.
sufficiently and independently critical to make Such young graduates are the custodians of the
society think differently about the way in which idea of a University going into the future. To
it goes about its business. Our students learn 'advance national transformation' - which is
that the Wits notion of 'graduate' is more than what we aim to do through our graduates - we
the ability to pass an exam - difficult as that must prepare them to engage with the world in
may be. all its wonderful variety.

News Bytes
witsnews
Wits ranked amongst top 500 Women of the Year making lifetime
universities worldwide contributions
Wits is again one of just three African Professors Lorna Jacklin (MMed, 1998) and
institutions to be ranked in the top 500 globally, Claire Penn (BA Sp&H Therapy, 1973, PhD,
according to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's 1983) were named winners in the health and
Institute of Higher Education, which compiles science and technology categories respectively
the highly regarded annual ranking. in the 2008 Shoprite Checkers/SABC2 Woman
of the Year Awards event held in Cape Town
American universities Harvard, Stanford and
in July.
California (Berkeley) took the top three spots,
followed by England's Cambridge University in Alumnae Dr Janet Poole (MBBCh, 1978) and
fourth place. Wits followed the University of Dr Lindsay Linzer (BSc Hons, 1994, PhD, 2002)
Cape Town, ranked in the top 200, but preceded were finalists in these respective categories. The
the University of KwaZulu-Natal which was awards pay tribute to women who are nominated
ranked in the top 400. by the public as having succeeded in their
respective fields, made a difference in the broader
Some 2 000 universities worldwide are reviewed
South African community and inspired others.
and scored against criteria relating to academic
or research performance. Criteria include the As Principal Consultant Paediatrician in the
number of alumni who are Nobel Laureates or Faculty of Health Sciences, Jacklin improves the
field medal winners, highly-cited researchers, lives of children with mental health problems
papers published in nature or science journals, caused by physical disabilities or abuse. Penn's
articles indexed in major citation indices and contribution to the field of speech and language
the per capita academic performance of each pathology, linguistics, sign language, child
institution. Wits is working towards being ranked language and aphasia won her the Order of
as a top 100 university by its centenary year in Mapungubwe (silver) from President Thabo
2022. Mbeki.
A leading specialist in the field of Paediatric
Entrepreneurs worldwide seek solutions Haematology and Oncology, Poole has achieved
at Wits Business School an exceptional success rate in the treatment of
The Wits Business School through its Centre young patients with cancer/malignancy and
for Entrepreneurship has won the bid to host blood disorders.
the 12th MIT Global Start-Up Workshop in Linzer is a seismologist who undertakes applied
March 2009. This is the first time that this research for the mining industry in order to
conference will be held in Africa. The Centre improve safety underground. She is only the
for Entrepreneurship will work closely with second woman to have won the Rocha Medal
students from the Massachusetts Institute of from the International Society for Rock
Technology (MIT) to host the event which is Mechanics (ISRM) for the best doctoral thesis
geared towards finding solutions to global in the field.
entrepreneurship challenges.

Disability Unit
Ramping up
access to education
By Kate Thompson

Disability Unit
S
urprise Khoza has limited movement in We like to think that we are creating a user-
his arms, and his hands twist at the wrist, friendly environment,” says Lawton-Misra.
reducing his fine motor control. Some
The issue of access to education encompasses
may see this as an obstacle to an art career, but
more than the obvious needs for access to
those hands are also the instruments he uses to
buildings and interpreters for deaf students, for
create his striking sculptures; work that is quickly
example. The Disability Unit takes an holistic
gaining him recognition as an artist.
view, preferring not to define ‘disability’ rigidly,
The arts and business postgraduate student first but allowing individuals to guide its
joined the Wits University Disability Unit in interventions.
2003. The Unit has helped him with his request
“We try to support students with all types of
for extra time in exams and supplied him with
disabilities, whereas initially the focus was more
his first motorised wheelchair.
on the visible disabilities - hearing, sight and
“I can walk, but with only 15 minutes between physical. Now there is a great deal of focus on
lectures, the lecturers other disabilities, such as
would have already started learning disabilities and
when I got there. The psychological disabilities,”
"Essentially we are here
wheelchair made my life explains Lawton-Misra.
much easier. It was a huge to support any student who “Essentially we are here
achievement,” says Khoza. has a special need, to support any student
who has a special need,
The Unit, previously the making sure that they have
making sure that they
Disabled Students' access to education." have access to education.”
Programme, has evolved
since its student-led Staff and students with
inception in the mid-1980s. Now the focus has disabilities are encouraged to register with the
shifted to addressing all areas of accessibility for Unit. Registration and assistance is provided at
students, staff and visitors to Wits University. no extra cost, but some of the gains are felt by
Disability Unit Director Nita Lawton-Misra, a a far wider group than the 120 registered users.
Wits graduate herself, joined the Unit in 1999. The addition of chair lifts, ramps, and a beeping
The staff complement has grown to 11 full-time traffic light crossing in Yale Road to assist blind
members, and a number of casual workers as staff and students are just a few of the
needed. adjustments already made.
“We don't see only wheelchair users needing a “We have tried to address the issue of access. It
ramp to get into a building. It may be a person can't be fixed in just a week, a month or a year.
with a delivery trolley or an elderly person who The University is so huge and we are dealing
struggles to climb stairs. Any user of the with old buildings, some that cannot be made
University, whether it is a guest, a staff member user-friendly because their design makes those
or a student, may need a modification. adjustments impossible,” Lawton-Misra explains.

Disability Unit
The Disability Unit has also overseen the

opening of three special computer centres for
disabled members of the university community,
which are always open and equipped with special
hardware and software. The Unit has a full-time
information technology (IT) specialist, Andrew
Sam, who provides computer training to staff
and students and conducts research on IT
accessibility. Sam also maintains the high-tech
assets of the labs, of which, thanks to support
from companies such as IBM and Microsoft,
there are many.
Yusuf Talia
Some computers are connected to Braille-output
devices that automatically convert lines of visible
text to a touch pad near the keyboard. Others
have magnifying software installed, allowing
users who have limited sight greater control of
the monitors' visual output.
“Screen-reader software and speakers are also

configured for use in these labs, as well as a
Braille printer,” says Sam, pointing out the
notice board with both printed and Braille
notices.
Cuthbert Ramatlo, who is partially sighted, is

Papi Nkoli
a user of the magnifying software. A former
student and current employee of the Unit, he
demonstrated the capabilities of the computer
programme, which can zoom in on text up to
36 times.
Graduates of the programme are employed far

and wide, and are still breaking through
perceived barriers. Elash Mistry, who is soon to
qualify, will be South Africa's first blind actuary,
for example. Lawton-Misra says governmental
organisations are the biggest employers of
graduates who were registered with the Unit.
Thandile Kondilathi

Disability Unit
Nyeleti Nkwinika, a second-year student, is deaf

and uses the services of a sign language
interpreter to assist her in classes. Accompanied
by Pearl Mbolekwa, the Unit's permanent
interpreter, she took the opportunity to appeal
to Lawton-Misra for additional time with
interpreters, asking for them to attend tutorials
with her three times a week. Interpreters are a
scarce and expensive resource in the Disability
Unit.
“We do have a full-time sign language interpreter,

but of course she can only assist one student at
Awareness Day
a time. We have two more whom we employ on
an hourly basis, which means that only three
deaf students can be accommodated.
Unfortunately when it comes to deaf students
we have to cap the number of students we
accept,” explains Lawton-Misra.
For the past three years the Unit has organised

a Disability Awareness Week as part of its
contribution to spreading awareness of and
sensitivity to disability at the University.
“They make sure they get the senior executives

involved for the week, such as getting the Vice-
Surprise Khoza (Photo by Kate Thompson)
Chancellor in a wheelchair, or blindfolding the
Deputy VC and asking him to conduct a
meeting. It has been so successful in that it Martienssen Prize for art (jointly with Gabrielle
changes perceptions immediately through Goliath).
experience,” says Lawton-Misra.
The Disability Unit's programme has been so
Khoza has seen his share of media attention successful that for Khoza his biggest challenge
recently, because of the dramatic sculpture he at Wits is the art of sculpture, rather than his
has been creating and in particular, his collection disability.
of ‘clothing’: shoes and trousers that are
elongated, distorted even, and decorated with “I like sculpture,” he says, “because it really
bright paint or disturbingly dark. In 2007 he challenges my ability.”
was awarded Wits University's prestigious

Heritage PARTONE
The West Campus

at Wits
By Professor Katherine Munro

Heritage
I have worked on the Wits West Campus

for some 15 years and the pleasure I feel
each day when I take that right-hand turn
from Yale Road through the tunnel is rooted
in the feeling of excitement generated by
one the greatest childhood treats
Johannesburg could offer: a visit to the old
Rand Easter Show.
T
oday, the charm of the West Campus
lies in its mix of a sports stadium,
a modernist tower, academic buildings
at the top of the hill, water features, spreading
lawns, the Cape Dutch-style cluster of buildings
(home of the Wits Club and Alumni Relations),
sports fields and residences towards the lower
reaches of the slope. Old exhibition buildings
have been gutted and redesigned to serve new
purposes but unusual architectural features have
been retained, and the old trees, bricked
walkways, landscaped gardens and outdoor
sculptures turn the West Campus into a
Proudly Wits -
harmonious whole. Cars and delivery vehicles from Tower of Light
have been kept out of the core. Love it or hate to symbol of diversity
it, the ‘Union Castle’ grey paint adds to the
artificial unity of the composition. The West
Campus, with its 29 buildings, is worth
exploring, including a few heritage features that
ought to be preserved to add to the experience.
As with the East Campus, the West Campus

has a north-south orientation on the steeply
sloping ridge. Its layout reflects that it was a
prestigious, vast exhibition site extending over
38 hectares. The buildings are an eclectic mix
of adapted permanent exhibition halls and
buildings constructed during the exhibition era

Heritage
(1907 to 1984) and the more modern buildings at the lower end of the site were always
adaptations and additions of purpose-built a drawcard with their incongruous faux Cape
university residences and academic office and Dutch houses and barns, where one could
teaching spaces. Wits acquired the land and its marvel at the enthusiasm of real housewives in
infrastructure in the early 1980s, when the producing the ultimate sponge cake, bottled
Witwatersrand Agricultural Kakamas peaches or delicate
Society (WAS) relocated to ...I daily recapture that embroidery.
the showground site at Nasrec, childish anticipated thrill
If it rained (and it often did
south of Johannesburg.
of a ride on the cable car at Easter), the Rand Show was
Still, I daily recapture that a bedraggled and miserable
that ran down the hill
childish anticipated thrill of place. The crowds evaporated
a ride on the cable car that along with the glamour and
ran down the hill from the it suddenly became a place
Tower of Light to Empire where desperate salespeople
Road and the garish pleasure urged you to buy tawdry
of funfair roundabouts. An gadgets. The Star reported on
indulgent spinster aunt had record attendance figures or
given me an entire day of when it rained anxiously
frivolous purchases, from worried about break-even
candy floss and toffee apples visitor numbers. It did not
on sticks to a yo-yo that occur to me as a child to
glittered in the dark. We reflect on the strongly colonial
wandered through acres of and then apartheid feel of the
thrilling displays, from the place, for this was a segregated
Flower Hall, with that heady show in its attendance, or that
aroma of exotic orchids, prize I was a privileged white child.
roses and colourful dahlias, I simply loved it through rain
to checking out the best and shine and through good
from the Tower of Light
leghorn hens, to conducting times and bad. Later, I did
our own inspection of the to Empire Road... begin to question why
quality Afrikander cattle, to segregation was necessary and
the displays of intricate 1936 modernism - architect’s vision why the showground was also
industrial machinery, the the place where the South
newest in swimming pool design and all that African Defence Force gathered its annual intake
one could import from faraway countries. We of white conscripts. The showground was the
gathered pamphlets and dinky samples of starting point for ‘the boys’ (all white teenagers
household products and took a rest to swallow in those days) to begin their military training
an indigestible pie and gravy in one of the and then later to be sent to ‘the border’ as part
cavernous canteens. The Home Industries of their national military service.

Heritage
The Sharpeville massacre took place on The Rand Show's official title was the
21 March 1960 and less than a month later, on Witwatersrand Agricultural Society Annual
9 April, Hendrik Verwoerd was shot in the face Exhibition. With the support of the City of
by David Pratt, a member of the WAS, when Johannesburg, the WAS held its first show on
the Prime Minister opened the Rand Easter the Milner Park site in 1907. The history is
Show. The scene of the crime recorded in Thelma Gutsche's
was the President's box and You can still walk or A Very Smart Medal, published
the occasion was Verwoerd's sprint around the in 1970. The book is worth
speech to mark the launch of reading to capture the
the Union Exposition and the
athletics track and nostalgia of a bygone era. The
49th Rand Easter Show, visualise the day WAS had been established in
celebrating the 50th jubilee 1894 and held its first (mainly
of the Union of South Africa. agricultural) show in that year,
You can still walk or sprint but the location was closer to
around the athletics track and the old Fort. That first show
visualise the day. Verwoerd was opened by President Paul
miraculously survived that first Kruger. The 1896 Plan of
attempt on his life, but not Johannesburg positions the
the Tsafendas knife attack in “Agricultural Show Ground
Parliament in 1966. between Braamfontein and
Parktown, to the north and
By the 1960s, in post-
outside the Sanitary Board's
Sharpeville times, we could
Jurisdiction Boundary”. The
see the might and muscle of
WAS survived many financial
the apartheid state in military
and political vicissitudes and
displays in the State Pavilion.
never had enough money to
In 1976, after the Soweto
cover its expansionary plans,
children's revolution, a group
the weather playing havoc
of us as concerned academics
under the leadership of Irene
Verwoerd miraculously with attendance numbers at
its shows.
Menell ran classes in some of survived that first
the exhibition halls for angry attempt on his life... Shows did not take place
and now school-abandoned during the Second World
children from Soweto. In the Old Grandstand War, between 1941 and 1945
August chill the showground while the showgrounds at
did not look so inviting but we attempted to Milner Park were taken over by the Union
engage with the group of students who became Defence Force. The WAS finally folded in 2001
the "lost generation", in an effort to prepare when its assets were liquidated by West Trust
them for university. and the third exhibition area, the Nasrec Expo

Heritage
Centre, passed into the ownership of Kagiso

Exhibitions.
The Milner Park site has an interesting history.

Sir John Maud, in City Government: The
Johannesburg Experiment (1938), comments that
Johannesburg owned hardly any public land
during its first 17 years as it was thought that
the town had the impermanence of a mining
Home of PIMD - new uses for an camp. In 1903 the Transvaal government gifted
industrial exhibition building the large open space to the north-west of the
town centre to Johannesburg, as a result of the
initiative of Lord Alfred Milner, who at this
date was the Governor of the Transvaal and
Orange River Colony. He instigated the
reconstruction of the then Transvaal Colony
after the Anglo-Boer War. The area donated
had been an old town brickfield and the first
investment had to be in clearing the land of
trees and bushes and levelling large excavation
holes. Thirty-two acres were ready for the 1907
show. The site was subsequently named Milner
Park.
The popularity and coverage of the annual show

of the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society
Cape Dutch fantasy, now home to
the Office of Alumni Relations expanded and the focus shifted from agricultural
to industrial and consumer products reflecting
the development of the South African economy,
Ernest Ullman’s family group with Johannesburg as its mining and commercial
outside the FNB building
hub. It was at the Rand Show that soccer was
first played by floodlight in the main arena. In
1937 Sir Malcolm Campbell's famous landspeed
racing car Bluebird could be viewed in the Hall
of Transport. By the 1950s the WAS was the
host of a number of prestige international
pavilions in addition to the extant arena being
used for cattle judging and equestrian events.
It was an odd situation, for the show was a two-

week event and during those two weeks the

Heritage
Show was an impossible neighbour for the Sources:

Anna H Smith: Johannesburg Street Names 1971. Henry Paine,
University on the other side of Yale Road. Both Barry Gould and Johan Bruwer: The Rembrandt Gallery, Wits
institutions had grown through the years and University Report on the Condition of the Building April 2008.
Thelma Gutsche: A Very Smart Medal: The Story of the Witwatersrand
both served thousands of clients. Numbers Agricultural Society 1970. John Maud: City Government: The
Johannesburg Experiment Oxford. John Lang: Bullion Johannesburg:
swelled and increasing wealth led to more people Men, Mines and the Challenge of Conflict 1986. Ernest Ullmann:
arriving in more private vehicles. ‘Park and Ride’ Designs on Life Howard Timmins 1970. Bruce K Murray: Wits:
The Early Years 1982. Clive M Chipkin: Johannesburg Style,
services did not solve the problem. The Architecture and Society 1880s - 1960s. The Exhibition Visitors'
Agricultural Society had the right of possession Social and Business Guide to Johannesburg and the Reef -
Golden Jubilee Souvenir 1936. Felix Stark (editor & publisher):
and by 1967, when the University offered its Seventy Golden Years 1886 - 1956. William Martinson: Tower of
Frankenwald Estate of 1 000 acres in exchange Light, University of the Witwatersrand, West Campus Architectural
Description. City of Johannesburg, Arts Culture and Heritage
for the Society's 97 acres, 44 years of lease were Services, Immovable Heritage Inventory Form, Tower of Light;
still to run and the Society dug in. Even as the recorded by Flo Bird. The University of the Witwatersrand The
Reporter CUP Extra 25 July 1983
motorway sliced through the eastern edge of
the showground in the late 1960s, the future
physical co-existence of both institutions had
to be questioned.
If ever there was a story of muddled thinking,

lack of foresight and poor town planning, the
unsatisfactory relationship of Wits University
and the WAS, national road-building authorities
and the City of Johannesburg said it all. The
tunnel route and the small overhead foot bridge Ernest Ullmann’s The Cross Bearers -
the original Diaz Cross is housed in the Cullen Library
were the only two points of direct north and
south access from the University campus, across
Yale Road, over the motorway and onto the
Milner Park show grounds. Parking was always
at a premium and there were many years when
the University almanac had to schedule the
Easter break between teaching blocks to close
for teaching and enable the reopening of the
campus as a giant extra parking lot.
To be continued...
A chapter in the planned book on Wits buildings will

be on the West Campus and its history. Should any
Wits alumni have any early photographs of the Rand
Easter Show or its reincarnation as the Wits West
Campus, please contact the author on
katherine.munro@wits.ac.za.

Stress Management
staring down

Stress Management
In his first assembly address in January of

every year, my high school principal used
to say: 'Unyaka uphelile bantu benkosi' - 'the
year has ended, good people'. What he
meant was that on the first day of the year
you don't realise that a day wasted is gone
forever - that knowledge comes only at the
end of the year.
By Miliswa Sitshwele
Cartoonist: Ernie Joseph
A
few years later, when I was at university, form study groups and so on, and this enables
I finally understood that as a student, them to cope with stress,” she says.
to avoid stress you must finish things
Laher describes stress management as learning
on time. And this applies throughout life.
to cope. “Coping means you learn to master,
For new students, everything happens very fast. reduce or tolerate the demand created by stress.
The new environment, the freedom, living alone, Coping with stress can be positive or negative.
the non-stop parties … studies tend to come last The positive way to manage stress is doing it
in the list of priorities. As a result, some find it constructively,” she says.
difficult to cope and succumb to stress. Perhaps “This strategy is very common among African
they fail a major subject, perhaps peer pressure people: they seek social help from family and
leads them down the wrong path, or they just friends. With white people it's different: most
can't adapt. These pressures are one of the of them become self-reliant - they tend to find
biggest learning opportunities at university. rational ways of dealing with stress. Some people
Dr Sumaya Laher, a lecturer in the Department turn to religion to help them cope. They believe
of Psychology at Wits, says students have two that there is a greater power like God, so they
ways of dealing with stress: the avoidance strategy rely on God to help them rationalise things,”
says Laher.
and the positive strategy. “The avoidance strategy
is when students find ways of avoiding studying Describing the avoidance strategy, she says:
for exams. As the exams approach they party “Here people give up immediately and are in
more or try to find a job so that they don't think denial. Some over-indulge in things like partying
about exams. Other students use a positive and food; they lash out at people and fight with
approach - they start developing a time others for no apparent reason. It's what gets
management strategy, draw up study timetables, them through.”

Stress Management
Laher has these suggestions for When I am stressed, I take a break and try to
managing stress: figure out the next step. There has to be another
option. It is also useful to sleep and have
• Identify your stress: know what's bothering moments of doing nothing. You can't always
you so that you can understand the problem. be busy or stressing, you'll eventually lose your
• Ask yourself how you normally deal with mind.”
stress, and see if your coping methods are
good or bad. Here are 10 tips to help you deal with stress:
• Accept the problem and try to do things 1. Don't leave whatever has to be done until
differently. the last minute: there's a Xhosa saying that
Industrial Psychology Professor Karen Milner goes: “Ayifidwa xa izoxhelwa ngoba ayizotyeba
says people experience stress when they cannot izohlutha” - if you feed it when you are about
meet demands imposed on them. “There are to slaughter it, it won't be fat, it will be full.
two primary ways of dealing with stress: to Prioritise, have a plan of action and get
increase the capacity to meet the demand or to things done on time.
decrease the demand.” 2. Strike a balance: there's a time and place
for everything. Know when it's time to work
According to Milner, people get stressed when and when it's time to relax.
they see the demand imposed on them as having 3. Treat yourself: when you are feeling down,
great consequences and when they are afraid of don't wait for other people to take you out,
not meeting this demand. “We need to realise do something nice for yourself.
that we are capable of meeting those demands 4. Get some exercise and fresh air.
and also reduce the negative self-talk and look 5. Get in touch with nature.
at things more realistically,” she says. 6. Eat well: avoid junk food, get enough fruit
Milner has these suggestions: and vegetables, drink water.
7. Let go: what's the point of fretting over
• Manage time effectively. something you can't change?
• Reduce the roles that you play. 8. Be true to yourself: know what you are there
• Get clarity on what's expected from you. to do and don't bow to peer pressure.
• Feel a sense of control over your 9. Laugh it off: it takes 43 muscles to frown
environment and circumstances. and 17 to smile. So if someone works on
• Exercise - walk or do relaxation techniques, your nerves, smile and walk away - it doesn't
or join a gym. cost a thing.
• Eat a healthy diet. 10. See a mentor: if you feel that you are unable
to cope with the load, get help.
Itumeleng Makgobathe, who studies part-time
after a full day at work, says she has learnt to
So, don't waste time - just get it done and then
rely on a diary and having a plan. “This helps
enjoy that feeling of accomplishment.
you to avoid running around like a headless
chicken, because everything is set out for you.

Photo Essay
Pubs &
Clubs @Wits
Wits is renowned for its demanding academic programme and
so most of our students have their heads in their books 24/7.
It’s probably fair to say however that some might occasionally
find a stolen moment to wet their lips at a local establishment.
We’re certainly not implying that alcohol can be found at all
these locations…but the members of the “Snowski” Club didn’t
look like they were in a position to do slalom racing anytime
soon when I paid a visit...
Photos: Peter Maher
Knockando Residence fundraising event at the “Duck and Bull”.

Photo Essay
Knockando residents take a study break at the “Duck and Bull”.
Mining engineering students celebrate ‘Skiffyskofbaas’ Day at “Ore House” on West Campus.

Photo Essay
TOP & BOTTOM: The members-only Blind PiG (postgraduate doesn’t have an eye) Club.

Photo Essay
TOP & BOTTOM: ‘Snowski Club’ members ‘chill’ in between Joburg snowstorms.

Photo Essay
‘Yacht Club’ members high and dry.
Waterpolo Club members actually do get to wet more than their lips!

Kudos
Alumni
Achievers

AlumniAchievers
rofessor Pamela Jane 'PJ' Schwikkard
P (BA, 1982), who earned her
undergraduate degree at Wits, is the
Pamela Schwikkard
first woman to have been appointed Dean in

the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape
Town (UCT). Currently Deputy Dean and Head
of the Department of Public Law, Schwikkard
will take up her new position in January 2009.
As an undergraduate, Schwikkard found law

boring. She switched to a BCom, which she
found even more boring, and finally settled on
a humanities degree. She graduated from Wits
with a BA in Psychology in 1982 and then went
travelling in Europe and North America.
Seeking a professional qualification on her in both academia and the legal profession. She
return, she obtained her LLB and LLM at the wrote the book Presumption of Innocence (1999),
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in the co-authored Principles of Evidence and co-edited
mid-1980s and then lectured at UKZN for several Women and the Law (1994). She was an editor
years before being admitted as an attorney of of the South African Journal of Criminal Justice
the Supreme Court of South Africa in 1990. until 2008 and she sits on the Editorial Board
Appointed Professor of Law at Rhodes University of the International Journal of Evidence and Proof.
in 1998, she obtained her LLD from the She is a member of the South African Law
University of Stellenbosch the following year. Reform Commission.
In 2001 Schwikkard joined UCT's Faculty of
Some 20 years on from her undergraduate days,
Law as Professor in the Department of Criminal
Schwikkard loves the law. She has taught courses
Justice. She was appointed head of this
in gender law, criminal law, criminal procedure,
department in 2006, with the dual role of
evidence, youth justice, conflict resolution, civil
Deputy Dean of the Law Faculty in 2007.
procedure, legal interpretation, legal skills and
Despite being a self-confessed 'absent-minded special contracts. She has commented that she
rebel' who is 'not very good at protocol' and enjoys academia and universities because they
sometimes 'overlooks the rules of social etiquette', are full of intelligent and quirky people with
Schwikkard is a widely published and whom to interact on a daily basis.
accomplished scholar with extensive experience

Kudos
more cyclical stocks like steel, mining and

Greg Kuhnert
construction which were driven by China, which
is in turn driving growth around the world.
More recently the approach has changed and
we have been buying a lot of companies with
stable visible growth. This is because the
slowdown in the UK has obviously made things
more difficult.”
After graduating from Wits, Kuhnert joined

Ernst & Young in South Africa, where he
audited and consulted to mining and financial
companies and achieved his chartered
accountant status in 1997. He joined Investec
Asset Management in 1999 and moved to the
London office the following year to work as an
reg Kuhnert (BAcc, 1995) has been
G named Citywire's 2007 European
Fund Manager of the Year. The
analyst on Asian and global equities.
Commenting on Kuhnert's achievement, the

portfolio manager of the Investec Asia ex Japan CEO of Investec Asset Management, Hendrik
Fund achieved this honour by gaining the best du Toit, said: “Greg embodies the ideals we
risk/return ratio of any fund manager across have for Investec Asset Management as a
the continent. This means he made more money business; to build a world-class international
for every 1% of risk taken than any other fund investment firm, proud of its South African
manager in Europe. roots. We are about giving talented people the
freedom to create their own success.”
Citywire, a leading specialist publishing house
and database provider, searches across Europe Kuhnert has been the portfolio manager on the
for every fund manager with a three-year track Investec Asia ex Japan portfolios since 2003.
record. Over the three years to the end of 2007 He is an AAA-rated financial sector specialist
- the period over which the top 100 list was with 13 years' experience on the Global Equity
calculated - Kuhnert achieved a return of 170% team, and earned the right to use the Chartered
in dollar terms before charges, while the average Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2004.
manager in his sector delivered 109%.
Kuhnert told Citywire: “We invested in the

Kudos
eading South African media and

L entertainment company, Avusa
Limited (formerly Johnnic
Lazarus Serobe
Communications) appointed Wits alumnus

Lazarus Serobe (BA, 1998, LLB, 1991) Managing
Director and CEO of the Gallo Music Group
in June 2008.
Serobe's legal background and his experience

in executive positions in the music and
entertainment industry, notably as former MD
of Sony Music and CEO of Heita! Records,
secured his appointment. Serobe also worked
for Vodacom as executive head of mobile
entertainment and Lion King South Africa.
In a way, Serobe's career actually began at Gallo.

While he was practising entertainment law,
Gallo's legal services division offered him a
position after a meeting at which he was
representing an artist. He never looked back.
One of the key challenges Serobe faces in his

new post is the increasing prevalence of piracy,
facilitated by invasive technology and the globally
shrinking music industry.
Serobe claims to be tone deaf and doesn't play

a musical instrument (his mentor while growing
up in Soweto, Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse, reportedly
‘fired’ him after a disastrous attempt at
drumming). However, he listens to music
constantly to de-stress and cites Sir Richard
Branson, a consummate communicator, as his
inspiration.

Kudos
The award is made on the basis of the

Lucien van der Walt
significance, originality and quality of research,
the sophistication of methodology, the clarity
of presentation, the cogency of arguments and
the contribution to the field of labour studies.
Van der Walt's thesis looked at the influence

of anarchism and syndicalism on left, labour
and nationalist movements in southern Africa
from the 1890s through the 1920s.
Internationally, this was a period of widespread
anarchist and syndicalist influence. Van der
Walt showed that, contrary to conventional
wisdom and partisan accounts, these currents
had a pervasive influence locally as well. This
radical tradition worked across the colour line
and across borders. It pioneered socialism and
labour unionism amongst people of colour who
were sceptical of both African and Afrikaner
nationalism and it aimed at a universal human
community based on internationalism, self-
management and libertarian socialism.
he Labor History Journal has awarded
T Wits sociology alumnus Lucien van
der Walt (PhD, 2007) its prestigious
Van der Walt was supervised by Wits Institute
for Social and Economic Research (WISER)
international prize for the best PhD dissertation Professor Jonathan Hyslop (PhD, 1991), who
of 2007. comments: “Van der Walt's thesis is a remarkable
feat of scholarship which effectively challenges
Van der Walt's thesis, Anarchism and Syndicalism
much of the received wisdom in South African
in South Africa, 1904-1921: Rethinking the History
labour history. The award of this prize is richly
of Labour and the Left won the prize for the best
deserved international recognition for truly
PhD on a labour topic - historical or
original work.”
contemporary - regardless of discipline. The
journal is widely considered the pre-eminent
publication for historical scholarship in its field
in the world.

Kudos
n art exhibition focusing on the

A highlights of Nelson Mandela's life
was curated at the Constitutional
Natalie Knight and Beverly Price
Court in July 2008 by alumna Natalie Knight

(BA, 1975, LDip, 1958). The art of two Witsies
was included in the exhibition, which used
different media to represent the life of the former
president.
The art/jewellery of Beverley Price (BA Sp&H

Therapy, 1975, AdDipFa, 2002), entitled
Contemporary Replica of the Xhosa Neckpiece that
Nelson Mandela Wore to his Sentencing on June 12,
1964 is made of concentric circles of tiny foiled
images of Mandela's life, chain-mailed into the
form of a neck/shoulder adornment piece. In
her art, Price aims to promote jewellery
expression that carries a distinctly South African
The ‘witnesses’ cast shadows which collectively
feel and to convey value without using precious
read ‘ubuntu’ throughout the year, every day,
minerals. She developed the idea of using tinfoil
at a specific time, in a profound and living
to frame images from, for example, Drum
example of the true meaning of ‘ubuntu’ that
magazine and local product labels, combining
Mandela embodies.
the foiled unit to make jewellery. The intention
with the Mandela neckpiece was “to make a Knight is an attorney, art consultant and curator,
story around the neck - like a silent movie whose playwright, lecturer and researcher specialising
movement is governed by the body”. in Ndebele and Shangaan-Tsonga beadwork.
She founded the Natalie Knight Galleries in
A combined anthropology and art PhD student,
the 1980s and has curated numerous local and
Susan Woolf, exhibited two resin artworks
international exhibitions in a career spanning
entitled Towards Mandela. The artworks were
some 40 years. A founding member of the
motivated by the civic unrest and violence that
National Association of Women Business
made headlines in 1989. Woolf's carved wooden
Owners (NAWBO), Knight was nominated for
macquette entitled Witness: Shadow of Ubuntu
the Woman of the Year Award (cultural category)
is a composite model of 11 outdoor sculptures
in 2007.
which will span more than 30x30 metres high
and across when fully erected.

Kudos
Woolf's PhD, Taxi Hand Signs in

Susan Woolf
Social Spaces, will explore the
theoretical anthropology of the
hand signs. The thesis assumes that
the signs are communicated within
- and not across - communities. The
gestures as a means of communication and the
interaction between various audiences will be
analysed, and the thesis will question how each
audience understands, associates and locates
the signs socially. Woolf's thesis and project will
culminate in an art exhibition in 2010.
Although she doesn't fit into the traditional

taxi-commuter demographic - she is a white
woman in her 50s from affluent Sandton, with
rtist Susan Woolf, who commences
A her cross-disciplinary PhD in art and
anthropology at Wits in 2009, has
limited experience of travelling in taxis - she
spent two years researching and documenting
the signs and routes. She met taxi associations
compiled South Africa's first taxi hand-sign
and travelled to taxi ranks to speak at length
book, 26 Taxi Hand Signs for Sighted and Blind
with drivers about the routes and signals used.
People (2007).
Woolf reports that “the taxi drivers were all very
Woolf personally painted the friendly and welcoming”.
quirky depictions of the hand
The artistic application of Woolf's PhD is
signals used daily by millions of
reflected in her use of cartoons in the hand
taxi commuters to indicate their
signs she painted. She was intent on “fashioning
destination. Her hand-signs art
something entertaining for something
will appear on the national stamp that the South
functional” and on injecting optimism and
African Post Office is producing for the 2010
enthusiasm into the complicated and
World Cup.
controversial taxi industry.
“As I was driving around Johannesburg I began
Woolf's 67-page directory has been catalogued
to notice this complex alphabet, so I decided
for use in metropolitan libraries, along with the
to put it in bookform as part of my PhD at
unique set of symbols in raised dots (Braille)
Wits,” explains Woolf. “I see the taxi hand signs,
she created for the visually impaired. The taxi
which were invented by taxi drivers and
hand-signs project will be expanded to include
commuters, as part of a South African commuter
street sculptures depicting the gestures which
culture practised by millions of people every
may become a permanent fixture around and
day. It is truly unique - by the people and for
after 2010.
the people.”

Social
witssocial
Rachel Tambo was a poised and elegant MC
A quarter century of drama while Alan Glass and Ed Jordan had everyone
at the Wits Theatre in stitches as they recalled the past; lampooning
both students and lecturers of yesteryear. Lesedi
Job brought the house down with her voice,
causing Dali Tambo to invite her to sing at his
forthcoming birthday.
The duet of Ilse Fourie and Fortunato Mazzone

provided double the pleasure and Gina
Shmukler's rendition of Maybe this Time
reminded the audience why she's always in
demand for casting in musicals. The Wits Choir
gave a perfect performance and Ed Jordan was
a consummate auctioneer of theatre
memorabilia. The Theatre was awarded a cheque
for R25 000 from alumnus and Director-General
of the Department of Arts and Culture, Themba
The Wits Theatre celebrated its 25th birthday Wakashe, before the cake was cut and some
with an event for alumni, staff and friends of serious partying ensued!
Wits and the Theatre on 31 August.
Alumni networking breakfasts

Empowerdex Executive Chairman, Mr Vuyo
Jack (BComHons, 1998) and Director and chief
economist at Econometrix, Dr Azar Jammine
(BScHons 1973, BA 1974) were recent guest
He warned that there could be no political
speakers at Alumni Networking Breakfasts held
stability in the absence of economic
at the Wits Club.
transformation.
Speaking on Broad-based Black Economic
Jammine captivated an audience of 85 alumni
Empowerment on 7 August, Jack said BBBEE
on 13 June with a riveting presentation on
comprised a variety of elements that were aimed
South Africa's economic prospects within the
at lifting the disenfranchised from “the well of
context of global financial turmoil, the boom
economic oblivion”. Although all BBBEE targets
in commodity prices, the electricity crisis and
are unlikely to be reached by 2014, he reminded
domestic political developments.
guests that BBBEE was a process, not an event.

Social
Lesotho alumni chapter launched Perth get-together

The Perth alumni chapter held a function at
the Kalamunda Club on 6 July where they
unveiled a giant Wits logo they developed to
clearly identify themselves as Proud Witsies.
Their next get-together is planned for early
November at a wine estate.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Loyiso Nongxa

hosted an alumni reunion at the Maseru Sun
Standing (L/R): Nick Lindsay, Andre Stasikowski, Helen Kalivitis,
Hotel in Lesotho on 22 August. The reunion George Kalivitis, Michelle Sonnendecker, Harry Backes, Marita
dinner, which was attended by about 100 guests, Backes, Roger and Joyce Sutherland, Ula Hagerman, Libby McGill,
was also used as an opportunity to launch a Frank Hagerman, William McGill, Michael Haynes and
Sean McCoy Seated(L/R): Silvana Lindsay, Hein Sonnendecker,
Lesotho alumni chapter. The Deputy Vice-
Dominique McCoy, Helen Dodge, Patsy Stasikowski,
Chancellor: Advancement and Partnerships, Paula Conway and Zvi Yom-Tov and children of alumni.
Professor Rob Moore and the Director of
Alumni Relations, Peter Maher also addressed
the gathering.
Alumni return to their roots

Seventy alumni attended a talk and tour of the
Origins Centre on 28 June. Archaeology lecturer,
Dr Amanda Esterhuysen (BA Hons 1992, MA
1996, PhD 2006) delivered an informative and
entertaining presentation entitled, From the
Cradle of Humankind to the Origins Centre. Three
guides took guests on a tour of the Centre,
followed by refreshments and an opportunity
to socialise.

Social
Frank Kienhofer (BSc Eng, 1996, MSc Eng,

Kudus athletes tackle 2002) followed in a time of 07:42:59. Varsity
Comrades 2008 Kudus members Tracy Malakou, Hendrick
Wageng and Grant Bernsden also completed
The largest number to date of
the 89km (56 miles) ultra-marathon. Lawrence
athletes from Varsity Kudus, the
Mallen, a long-standing member of the club,
running club for Wits alumni and
completed his 25th Comrades the day before
staff, successfully crossed the finish line at the
his 61st birthday and is the third of only two
2008 Comrades Marathon from Durban to
other Kudus - John Shillington (BSc Eng, 1967)
P i et e r m a r i t z b u r g .
and Rob Steer - to have achieved this.
Of the thirty Kudus
competing, the first
alumnus home was Wits Business School engages
G r e g Wo o d w a r d alumni in New York
(BDS, 1991) who won his fourteenth Comrades Director of the Wits Business School (WBS),
silver medal in a time of 07:29:16. Alumnus Professor Mthuli Ncube, addressed WBS alumni
at a breakfast meeting in New York in August.
Ncube told guests that although the recent high
A pregnant
oil price had benefited oil-producing countries
pause for such as Nigeria and Angola, current global
Jerusalem economic conditions had negatively affected
alumni Africa, particularly the poor who were vulnerable
Wits alumni who are to food price inflation. He said the WBS had
also members of the Jerusalem South African to respond to challenges created by this global
Alumni Association convened for their annual economic environment, especially with regard
meeting at the International Christian Embassy to the shortage of managerial skills. To address
in Jerusalem in July. Alumnus Professor Irving this shortage, the capacity of WBS had been
M. Spitz (MBBCH, 1963, PhD, 1971, DSc Med, expanded dramatically to offer a wide range of
1999) addressed the 40 alumni on the topic executive education programmes, he said.
Images of Pregnancy in Western Art: An Odyssey
over 30 000 Years. Illustrating his talk with
striking audiovisual images, Spitz revealed that
the first depiction of a pregnant woman in
recorded history was found in Israel, circa 4500
BCE. The talk explored depictions of pregnancy
in art through the ages, culminating in a 1990s
photograph of a pregnant, nude film star, Demi
Moore, on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.

Book Reviews
Book Reviews
My Brother’s Book as it does of contending perspectives that she
By Jo-Anne Richards must manipulate into shape.
Jo-Anne Richards, Wits Journalism lecturer and The novel's first part works excellently. It recalls
author of three previous novels, among them a childhood in Eastern Cape towns such as
The Innocence of Roast Chicken, has come up with Bedford and Cathcart with a peripatetic,
an intricately patterned novel about love, race unreliable father. The mother has mysteriously
and betrayal called My Brother's Book. disappeared. Richards aptly captures the language
of a ‘white’ childhood with words like broeks,
From a writer's point of view, the novel is smaaked (as in ‘preferred’ or ‘liked’), ‘doing a
elegantly framed. The opening line reads: leg-shiverer’ (sex), ‘blimming’, and so on.
“I was born on page 23 of my
brother's book. On page 52, The childhood evocations of
before the whole world, I betrayed yearning, intensity and betrayal
him.” are superbly rendered, making
the novel read flawlessly and
As I said to a group of writing engagingly.
students recently, with that kind
of angle established, the novel The second part is more complex
almost writes itself. Almost. But and difficult to handle, and
the author still has the burden of although it is delicately carried
making good on such an alluring off, the structure of narration,
opening gambit. She has to fill interleaved with correspondence,
in the interplay between what her shows some strain at times.
protagonist thinks she knows
There is a deft twist in the tale,
about herself and her life, and
better left to the reader to
what the fictional brother's (fictional) book
discover, making this novel a worthy
supposedly says about her and their life together.
contribution to serious South African writing
The brother also has his own section of the about identity, becoming, and the complex (not
novel, in which he narrates from a first-person to mention unexpected) processes of self-
point of view, and his business is also to debunk discovery.
his sibling's 'wrong' view of things.
Leon de Kock, Professor and Head of the School of
Behind all of this is Jo-Anne Richards, the
Literature and Language Studies at Wits. My Brother's
ultimate author, whose difficult task it is to Book is published by Picador Africa, 2008.
make her primary fiction convincing, consisting

Book Reviews
We Write What We Like Seleoane's somewhat funny and somewhat

Edited by Chris van Wyk personal story sharply drives this point home.
(Wits University Press)
Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi
Having heard and read so much about Stephen Mangena relates fascinating experiences with
Bantu Biko, one approaches anything written Biko and why we need a heavy dose of BCM
about him with a bit of reluctance. I approached today. The role of black people in defining and
the book, We Write What We Like, with a heavy directing their struggles is a continuing struggle.
dose of scepticism. However, the book is The context may be different, but the challenges
refreshing for a number of reasons. of mental liberation remain.
First, commemorating Biko's The third aspect relates to
death and celebrating his life is restoring Biko the person. Biko
a direct critique of those who had was a towering figure. Bokwe
sought to deny Biko and the Black Mafuna describes him as follows.
Consciousness Movement (BCM) “Steve shone in any gathering
their place in history. The because of his interest in people,
revisionist cannot fathom a his sharp intellect and his
movement that has not been eloquence. He was a gifted
influenced by the ANC. President speaker and could spellbound any
Mbeki's contribution in this book audience - black or white,
dispenses with such attempts. intellectuals, working class or rural
Mbeki's contribution and folk, young and old…he could
reference to Rolihlahla Mandela talk about economics, literature,
and Oliver Tambo are probably jazz or Marabi music. He was
the most authoritative commentaries that give knowledgeable about African traditions and the
Biko and BCM its place in history. history of our people. I was amazed at the range
of his abilities. But like many of us, he was not
The second refreshing aspect of the book is that
bereft of weaknesses. He drank and liked to
contributors have sought to reflect on how Biko
party. He was successful with the ladies.”
and BCM have had an impact in their lives. For
the likes of Mandla Seleoane, Biko and BCM
Professor Sipho Seepe, Independent Political Analyst,
provided an explanatory lens through which he
Business Day Columnist and President of the South
could understand black people's seeming
African Institute of Race Relations.
collusion in their own oppression.

Obituaries
In Memoriam
Wits University fondly remembers those who have passed away.
WESSEL BARNARD (1921 - 2008)

Wessel 'Barney' Barnard (BSc Eng, 1948, PGDA, 1980) passed away on 13 May 2008. He was
87 years old. Born in Villiersdorp, Barnard received the first scholarship for apprentice electricians
awarded by the Johannesburg City Council. He studied further in England after receiving his
undergraduate degree - and later, a diploma in township development - from Wits. Barnard
went on to become City Electrical Engineer of Johannesburg, retiring from the City Council
in 1986 after more than 41 years of service. He chaired the Association of Municipal Electrical
Undertakings from 1983 to 1985 and was the first electrical engineer to serve on the Electrical
Control Board, from 1986 to 1994. Barnard travelled the world as part of his service on national
and international electricity advisory boards. His other accomplishments include scoring two
holes-in-one in golf and qualifying as a bowls umpire in 1990.
SIMON BEHR (1933 - 2008) CHARLES LOCKWOOD (1970 - 2008)

Simon Hyman Behr (BSc Eng, 1955) died at Dr Charles Abram Lockwood (PhD, 1997),
his home in Johannesburg on 12 July 2008, appointed first director of the Wits Institute for
aged 75. Behr commenced his studies at Wits Human Evolution (IHE), died tragically in a
in 1952 and was elected cheerleader by popular motorcycle accident in London in July 2008.
acclaim in 1954. He graduated from Wits with He was 38 years old. Due to take up his
a BSc Eng (Mining Geology) degree and worked appointment at IHE in September, Lockwood
briefly with the Geographical Survey, after which was working for University College, London at
he went into private practice. Behr was a the time of his death. Lockwood will be
respected consultant involved in exploration remembered as a young academic with a brilliant
work throughout South Africa, Botswana and record, a deep understanding of the South
Namibia until the time of his death. He also African research landscape and an ability to
held an MSc (Applied Mineral Exploration) inspire young people.
degree from McGill University, Montreal.
Erratum: In the July 2008
JOOSUB EBRAHIM (1919 - 2008) obituaries of WITSReview, it
Dr Joosub Hajee Suliman Ebrahim - Wits benefactor, funder of was incorrectly stated that
numerous academic prizes and awards in the Faculties of Health the late Radford Jordan lived
from 1918 to 2007. Jordan
Sciences and Humanities, and recipient of the University Gold was in fact born in 1917.
Medal - passed away in January 2008 while on a cruise with his wife.
WITSReview relies on the Wits community to keep us informed of alumni deaths.

To notify us about the recent death of a Wits alumnus, please e-mail alumni@wits.ac.za

Obituaries
MICHAEL BRAUDO (1928 - 2008) endowed him Emeritus Associate Professor of

Dr Michael Braudo (MBBCh, 1950) passed Paediatrics. He was also an Honorary Chief
away on 7 April 2008 at the age of 79 after a Paediatrician at Wellesley Hospital. Braudo then
long illness. Born and raised in Johannesburg practised privately, specialising in paediatrics
and, briefly, in Palestine, Braudo matriculated and clinical paediatric cardiology in 1960 and
from King Edward VII High School for Boys continuing in this field for some 40 years. An
and then graduated from Wits with a medical art connoisseur, Braudo acquired an extensive
degree and the David Lurie Prize in surgery, collection of modern paintings comprising South
having scored top marks in internal medicine African, American and Canadian works and
and overall in the final Wits Medical School one of the largest collections of indigenous
exams. After working at the Johannesburg Eskimo art. He travelled extensively, visiting
General Hospital, the Fever Hospital and the remote places such as Antarctica, eastern Turkey,
Transvaal Memorial Hospital for Children, Ethiopia and Libya, and frequently visited his
Braudo went to Scotland in 1953 to pursue native South Africa. Acutely aware of the
postgraduate studies. He trained for five years importance of his initial training and education
at the Sick Children's Hospital in Scotland, at Wits, Braudo was a generous benefactor to
after which he moved to the USA to take up the Faculty of Medicine. His legacy both at Wits
the post of Chief Resident in Medicine at the and in Toronto is entrenched and he inspired
Children's Medical Centre in Boston. He also many in their careers as doctors, healers and
taught at Harvard Medical School during this caregivers. Braudo never married but left a
time. Braudo subsequently moved to Toronto, multinational network of colleagues, friends
beginning a long association with the Hospital and family members who remember him with
for Sick Children. The University of Toronto great fondness as a remarkable individual.
WALLY GRANT (1922 - 2008)

Dr Walter Lawrence Grant (BSc Eng Mech, 1948, DSc Eng, 1957) passed away in April 2008
after a short illness, aged 85. After Grant completed Standard 8, he joined the South African
Air Force as a fitter and turner, simultaneously pursuing further study and obtaining his matric,
a technikon qualification and Wits engineering and applied mathematics degrees by 1951.
One of the oldest members of the South African Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Grant
led the research in 1966 at the Atomic Energy Corporation (AEC) that made it possible for
South Africa to create its own nuclear industry. Grant was the founder member and subsequently
an honorary member of the engineering section of the Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns
(Academy for Science and Arts) and was involved in the establishment of the South African
Council for Professional Engineers, serving as a member on the first Council. He was awarded
the State President's Southern Cross (Gold) in 1989, the highest order that could be bestowed
upon a South African citizen at that time. Grant retired to his farm in Mpumalanga in the
early 1990s but re-emerged in 2001 to work on the vortex separation theory, which he developed
over five years to suit the separation of silicon isotopes for the electronics industry.

Obituaries
ROBERT HARRISON (1967 - 2008)

Dr Robert Sidney Harrison (MBBCh, 1990, DTM&G, 1993, DOH, 1995, DHSM, 1998,
DPH, 1999) and his younger son, Michael, were tragically killed in a car accident on 7 April
2008. Harrison, 41, completed his internship at Tygerberg Hospital in 1991, after which he
worked as a mine medical officer for JCI for five years, followed by five years as a GP in
Letsitele. Professionally, Harrison was an astute clinician, always up to date with the latest
literature and extremely well read. He was a lifelong student, having obtained in the 1990s
no fewer than four Wits diplomas in tropical medicine and hygiene, occupational health,
health service management and public health respectively. Following his passion, Harrison
re-entered the field of occupational medicine in 2003, working first as an occupational health
consultant for Anglo Platinum and then for Lonmin. He also held a diploma in infectious
diseases from the University of London. At the time of his death Harrison was pursuing his
Masters degree in occupational health through the University of Manchester.
PIPPA STEIN (1955 - 2008)

Prof. Phillipa 'Pippa' Harriet Stein (PDE, 1977, BA Hons, 1987) passed away on 7 August, aged
53, after losing the battle against cancer. Pippa Stein Purkey was born in Johannesburg, the first
of Phillip and Shirley Stein's five children. Educated at Roedean School for Girls, where she was
Head Day Girl, Stein graduated from Wits with a BA in Languages (English, French and Ancient
Greek) followed by an Honours degree in Applied Linguistics. While studying at Wits in the 1970s,
Stein was a member of the radical Junction Avenue Theatre Company along with her future
husband, Malcolm Purkey. Always drawn to pedagogy, Stein taught at Waverley Girls' High School
after graduating and moved to Wits in the 1980s to lecture in the Department of Applied English
Language Studies. Her passion for social change led to her initiating the Soweto English Language
Project, out of which grew her highly regarded series of textbooks for the teaching of English. In
2003, she completed her PhD at the University of London and was promoted to Associate Professor
at Wits in 2005. She won the prestigious Wits Academic Citizenship Award in 2007. Stein was
responsible for the annual Nadine Gordimer lecture series, which provided an opportunity to bring
Wits University closer to a wider audience. Stein's many publications spanned the fields of
educational and semiotic theory and practice, as well as art and culture generally. She wrote
Sophiatown Speaks, which accompanied the Junction Avenue Theatre Production of Sophiatown in
the 1980s and, more recently, a book on the artist Deborah Bell. Stein's doctorate on multi-modal
pedagogies was the basis for her critically acclaimed book, Multimodal Pedagogies in Diverse Classrooms:
Rights, Representations and Resources (Routledge, 2008). One reviewer commented that "the book
breathed life into theory". Stein was a great collaborator - her recent 2006 guest editorship with
Denise Newfield of English Studies in Africa is testimony to this. She was joint leader of the Wits
Multi-literacies Research Project and an organiser of the highly successful 14th International
Conference of Learning, held at the Wits School of Education in June 2007. A brilliant teacher,
Stein was admired and loved by students and colleagues alike.

Obituaries
JOHN LOWNIE (1943 - 2008) Facial and Oral Surgeons for two terms and was
Prof. John Forsyth Lownie (BDS, 1967, MSc President of the College of Maxillo-Facial
Dent, 1978, PhD, 1994) died on 2 June 2008 Surgeons of South Africa for three terms.
at the age of 65 after a courageous two-year He served as a Senator of the College of
battle against cancer. A Wits alumnus and Medicine of South Africa for more than 15
member of staff since his graduation, Lownie years and as its Honorary Registrar for three
also obtained a Higher Diploma in Dentistry years. He chaired the College's Examinations
and a Diploma in Maxillo-Facial and Oral and Credentials Committee at the time of his
Surgery in 1975. In 1994 he was the first graduate death. A pioneer in the field of osseointegrated
with a PhD in Maxillo-Facial and Oral Surgery implants, Prof. Lownie contributed significantly
and in 1997 was the first Head of the School to the profession. He trained a generation of
of Oral Health Sciences. He held the post of maxillo-facial and oral surgeons, initiating
Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences transformation through training black students
from 1997 to 1999 and then served as Dean in this field before it became an official
before being appointed to the Chair of the new requirement. He was an ideal academic,
Maxillo-Facial and Oral Surgery Division in the combining clinical practice with research to
Department of General Surgery in January produce evidence on which to base patient care
1982. He retired from this post in January 2008. - an activity that produced a steady output of
Trained in Advanced Trauma Life Support publications, including one in 2008 when he
(ATLS) at the American College of Surgeons was very ill. He was a longstanding Honorary
in South Africa, Lownie became an instructor Research Fellow in the now-defunct Dental
in 1996 and then served as Regional Director Research Institute, jointly supervising 16 Masters
of the Witwatersrand ATLS in 1999 and as its degrees and publishing 12 scientific papers with
National Chairman from 2003 to 2006. He colleagues. His booming voice and infectious
served as President of the SA Society of Maxillo- laugh will be missed.
CECIL LUCK (1917 - 2008)

Prof. Cecil Percy Luck (BSc, 1943, BSc Hons, 1944, MBBCh, 1946) passed away on 18 July 2008,
aged 91. Born in Sweden, Luck relocated with his family to Kenya in 1921. He returned to Sweden
at the age of 12 to be an apprentice to a blacksmith and carpenter, received a Swedish matriculation
and then came to Wits to study medicine, thereafter specialising in physiology. Luck married in
1945 and took up the Chair in Physiology in the new pre-medical course for students at Fort Hare
University. In 1953 Luck gained a scholarship to the Department of Physiology at University College
London. Three years later he took up the chair of physiology at Makerere University Medical School
in Uganda. Here he became increasingly involved in animal physiology as big game parks in western
Uganda were being established and the efficient tranquillising of game was required.
Luck established a research team that undertook drug-darting experiments that culminated in the
use of M99 and its antidote, a breakthrough in large animal tranquillisation. In the 1950s, Luck
developed his vision for a mobile field laboratory, the first of its kind in East Africa,

Obituaries
drawing researchers from the USA, Scandinavia, Germany and Britain. In the late 1960s, Luck
took up the chair of physiology at Wits Medical School. He moved later to the Wits Dental School,
where there was more scope for the animal research he sorely missed. Here he pursued studies of
fruit bats, keeping a roomful of them in his department! So enthusiastic was he that five PhDs on
the unique metabolism of these creatures were produced by his department. Luck maintained his
interest in carpentry and wrought-iron work throughout his life. He retired at 60 and set up a forge
and carpentry shed from which he produced doors, balustrades and gates. He established a carpentry
school and took on apprentices in wrought-iron work. Active in his forge until the age of 80, he
was still working in copper at the age of 85.
SHALDEEN MCLAREN (1973 - 2008)

Alumna and former teacher at the Wits Aletta Sutton EduCentre, Shaldeen McLaren (BEd,
1996) passed away in East London, South Africa, on 20 June 2008 after a courageous year-
long battle against cancer. She was 35 years old. Born in Klerksdorp, she was the second of
three children and the only daughter of Sally and Michael McLaren. She grew up in gold
mining communities in Deelkraal and Aggenys and was educated at Potchefstroom High School
for Girls, where she was a gifted academic and an Honours Roll student. After matriculating
in 1991, McLaren pursued a degree in her first love, junior primary teaching, at Wits in 1993.
Her teaching career took her to council estate schools in England as well as to corporate crèches
and private educentres in South Africa. She retired temporarily from teaching to focus on
parenting after the birth of her son in 2003. During this time she established African Mother,
a charity organisation that aimed to raise funds to secure the future of children born to HIV-
positive women. During her treatment, she fulfilled the dream of a fellow young terminal
patient by arranging for him to meet his heroes, several Springbok rugby players. McLaren
returned to teaching in 2008, just months prior to her untimely death, and wrote a teacher's
guide to developing children's self-confidence. A natural and brilliant teacher, a devoted mother
and a spirited, intelligent, creative and compassionate individual, she was loved and respected
by children and colleagues and made a significant impact on the lives of those she knew.
LYALL WATSON (1939 - 2008)

Dr Malcolm Lyall-Watson (BSc, 1959) died on 25 June 2008 of a stroke. He was 69 years old and
lived in Ireland. Watson was a botanist, zoologist, biologist, anthropologist, ethologist and author
of many new-age books. He was intent on making sense of natural and supernatural phenomena
in biological terms. Born in South Africa as Malcolm Lyall-Watson, he had an early fascination for
nature in the surrounding bush. After attending Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town,
he enrolled at the age of 15 at Wits, where he earned his undergraduate degree. Watson also held
an MSc (1959) from the University of Natal and a PhD (1963) from the University of London. An
apparent polymath, Watson was director of the Johannesburg Zoo at 23 and subsequently became
a producer of documentaries on sumo wrestling and paranormal phenomena at the BBC (the

Obituaries
period during which he adopted Lyall as his first name), an expedition leader and researcher in
Antarctica, the Amazon River, Seychelles and Indonesia, the Seychelles commissioner for the
International Whaling Commission, and founder of the life science consultancy, Biologic of
London. Describing himself as a 'scientific nomad', Watson considered conventional science simply
inadequate to explain much of human experience. In the 1970s he wrote books on a wide variety
of topics, of which Supernature (1973), a worldwide bestseller exploring phenomena such as ESP,
psychokinesis and telepathy in nature, Gifts of Unknown Things (1976) and Lifetide (1979) are among
the best known. Watson was married three times. His first two marriages ended in divorce and his
third wife died in 2003. His niece, Katherine Lyall-Watson, recalled a quote that summed up his
attitude to work and life: "I live and work alone and travel light, relying largely on my memory and
making a point of letting intuition guide my way."
LINDO WEBB (1913 - 2008) how they would stand guard with knobkerries as
Vosdick Lindo Webb (BSc, 1941), former lecturer there were no spare rifles available! With the
in the School of Electrical and Information cessation of hostilities Webb married a Canadian
Engineering from 1945 to 1978 and assistant nurse in 1947 and then joined Wits as a lecturer
in the laboratories until 1992, passed away on in heavy current engineering and machines.
23 June 2008, aged 95. Born in Witbank, Webb Webb was responsible for establishing the
matriculated with distinction and then made Electrical Engineering Department's laboratory
his way to ‘the Big City’ in search of a job during facilities to meet the demand for training created
the Depression years. He was initially by returning ex-servicemen. These laboratories
apprenticed as a plumber and tinsmith, but were his ‘baby’ and he remained a central figure
Webb's employer arranged a laboratory assistant in their development and operation until his
position in the Wits Electrical Engineering first nominal retirement in 1978. After a short
Department after noticing his passion for all sabbatical, the University recalled Webb to assist
things electrical. His interest in electrical with laboratory supervision and external
machines together with his exemplary academic examiner duties. He continued until his failing
record won him a Chamber of Mines scholarship eyesight finally forced him, after 50 years, to
for electrical engineering in 1935. Working part- bid farewell to his beloved machines in 1992.
time as a power station attendant and studying His empathetic style, dry humour and passion
in the evenings, Webb graduated as an electrical for his subject left lasting impressions on most
engineer in 1941. Having been unsuccessful in of his students, together with the memory of
joining active service in the war owing to poor his hallmark phrase, “Now then gentlemen, let's
eyesight, he entered the war supplies structure gather round and talk about this...” when
until he was recalled by the University to join something had gone haywire. Webb was an
Prof. Goldsmith's ‘secret war projects’ team. accomplished yet humble man devoted to
Although Webb never revealed what ‘they’ were teaching and the service of others and has left
busy with, he regaled his family with tales of an enduring legacy.

At Wits End
Naked and running:

don't knock tradition
Ask any university student around the world what By Nikolai Viedge
makes his or her university special and many of
them will point to time-honoured student traditions.
R
egarded by many as the 'ties that bind', This (in)famously flagrant display traditionally
there are a number of traditions specific occurs on the evening that the Knockando
to tertiary institutions around the world Residence's house committee chairman is
- and Wits University is no exception. elected. Stark naked, Knockando residents tear
across the bridge to the Education Campus and
From picnics to pillow fights, Wits' traditions
back.
cover the spectrum from gastronomic
celebrations to bludgeoning technique. In contrast, the worship of Penelope the Duck,
the house mascot, mostly requires some form
In addition to the stress-relieving pillow fight,
of apparel.
held every year just before exams, there is the
all-res picnic, the Engineering Spring Breakfast Scoff as you might about chatting to a duck
on the AMIC deck, the Mining Engineers called Penelope about your innermost fears, you
dressing up in their underground mining kit might be tempted once the jacarandas bloom.
for ‘Skiffyskofbaas’ Day, the rites of Wits' various Wits tradition and superstition has it that if
clubs and of course the Knockando Streak. you haven't started studying by the time the
jacarandas flower, you will fail.

Traditions
But do these traditions serve any beneficial “The more time that people spend around one
purpose? another, the greater the affect-based trust: trust
that is felt rather than rationalised,” says Sissons.
Not according to sociology lecturer Professor
“As soon as that relationship is set up, that
Jan Coetzee from Rhodes University.
person will be more willing to share experiences,
“Traditions are normally connected with or his or her perception of his or her experience.
historical heritage,” says Coetzee. “In our This starts to build more concrete relationships,
modern times people don't often think of creating trust relationships.”
traditions in their historical context. It's very
And traditions play a vital role in building
often a day-to-day experience, an attitude of
positive impressions of an institution.
‘what can I get out it?’ As a result, quite a number
of university ‘traditions’ are connected to risk- According to Sissons, when a favourable
taking behaviour: drinking, sex-related practices impression is created at the outset, people
and so on.” perceive that the organisation will continue to
treat them in a favourable manner in the future,
But while the sillier escapades may not have the
thereby drawing the individuals and the
weight of history behind them, Jerry Smith, a
institution closer together.
religion professor and unofficial college historian
at the University of the South in Tennessee, “Effectively a relationship between any
argues that these traditions and superstitions organisation and its employees or students is
are often the very things that create a common much like a romantic relationship,” says Sissons.
identity among university students. “The first thing that needs to happen, in order
to build a flourishing relationship, is to create
Quoted in marketing coach Larry R Humes'
a good first impression. A good Orientation
article, The More Things Change... (Currents
Week experience can act as some sort of
September 2007), Smith says: “In one way or
predictor of the perceived organisational support
another, they serve to initiate people into an
- a feeling that the university will be there for
appreciation for values of civility, of community,
the person in the future.
and of common discourse - a shared life.”
“Moreover, the traditions serve the same
This unifying influence is evident in the
function as anniversaries or dates: they reaffirm
engineering students' spring celebrations at
the link between the individual and the
Wits. On September 5 every year the engineering
institution.”
students gather on the AMIC Deck wearing
pyjamas to celebrate the onset of spring. On top of creating and reaffirming a feeling of
unity, traditions also serve to set the boundaries
According to Wits alumnus Grant Sissons, an
of the group, according to Sissons. Traditions
organisational psychologist, the more time
give the participants an idea of what can be
people spend together the better the chances
expected from the institution and in turn show
are of a positive relationship-forming experience.
the students what's expected of them.

At Wits End
Engineering Spring Breakfast Ready to do battle in the Pillow Fight. Skiffyskofbaas Day
Pillow Fight Study before the Jacarandas flower! Knockando mascot, Penelope
Engineering Spring Breakfast on the AMIC deck.

Wits Review Oct 08

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Volume 6 October 2008

Volume 6 October 2008

Interview with Nobel laureate

Investing in alumni relations

Providing opportunities for alumni to socialise

October 2008 WITSReview 1

6 Nadine Gordimer: 36 Stress management

22 Diversity: It takes all kinds 54 Book reviews

30 Heritage: West Campus

2 WITSReview October 2008

Design and layout

Published by the Office of Alumni Relations,

62 Tel : +27 (0)11 717 1090

For assistance with any payment or delivery

October 2008 WITSReview 3

Acknowledge role of support staff

Emannuel N Prinsloo, Director: Property and Infrastructure Management Division

4 WITSReview October 2008

October 2008 WITSReview 5

© Images 24/Beeld/Johann Hattingh

October 2008 WITSReview 7

8 WITSReview October 2008

change, a scientific background would be a great

So if I look back on my life, it was silly - the

TT: There are a lot of South African universities now

NG: You cannot teach people to write. To my

TT: Because it's a state of being?

NG: Of course. I happen for certain reasons to

I always use the same comparison: if you're going

October 2008 WITSReview 9

10 WITSReview October 2008

October 2008 WITSReview 11

12 WITSReview October 2008

better paid. And now of course it's even more

TT: But it's a global phenomenon, it's not only South

NG: I know, but every country has to deal

TT: What would you like people to learn from your

NG: I'm not teaching anybody anything. The

TT: You've achieved so many things in your life,

NG: If you're talking about the prizes, the Nobel

October 2008 WITSReview 13

14 WITSReview October 2008

“The company has become integral to society.

October 2008 WITSReview 15

16 WITSReview October 2008

October 2008 WITSReview 17

Street traders graduate with A meeting of minds at COMET 2008

18 WITSReview October 2008

Carnegie gives Wits

Photo by Dimitri Selibas

“Only in popular education can man erect

October 2008 WITSReview 19

Representatives of Carnegie's board of directors

20 WITSReview October 2008

publications; research exhibitions; and general

He described libraries as Beneficiaries of the Carnegie-funded South

October 2008 WITSReview 21

at Wits and dripping blood; a burning

- we collecting rags from the paper

diversity. By Professor Yunus Ballim,

22 WITSReview October 2008

J ust as they did under apartheid, labels allow