“We were taught that our history begins with colonisation, whereas our ancestors have contributed greatly to humanity,” said South African novelist, poet and playwright Professor Zakes Mda at a virtual book launch dialogue hosted by the University of Pretoria (UP).

Professor Mda recently published two books, Arola: A Journey into 10 Ancient African Civilisations and Wayfarers’ Hymns.

“Arola is difficult to categorise because it is so complicated,” Professor Mda said.

 “The main aim of the book is to teach others about African history. The research process was not difficult or intense because the materials I am writing about are all accessible; some of them are even accessible online.

“We are taught to believe that African history begins only with the coming of the white man, and we call it ‘African history’, when in fact it is the history of the white man in Africa rather than African history,” he added.

“So I was keen to delve back centuries ago to look at the empires that existed then. History of these empires exist in museums all over the world, but scholarship has ignored material that was right in front of their eyes.”

Professor Tawana Kupe, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UP, added to the conversation by placing emphasis on the University’s intention to educate individuals about their history. “We were not just people who were discovered – we existed before,” he said. “Our intention at UP is to teach people origins and histories of knowledge because, as Prof Mda said, when you are taught something only begins here, you are only being taught one history’s form of knowledge. You are also taught that you are not creators of knowledge. Another thing we would like to do at UP is situate Africans as knowledge creators.”

Moving from Arola to Wayfarers’ Hymns, Dr Nokuthula Mazibuko Msimang of UP’s Faculty of Humanities, who moderated the dialogue, described the novel as a “dramatic book about musical gangsters”.

“This book is centred on famo music, a popular genre of music in Lesotho,” Professor Mda said.

“The predominate instrument used in Lesotho is the accordion. Basothos [a collective term for native Sotho people] have turned the accordion and the concertina into Basotho traditional instruments, and have been creating famo music. This is a kind of music that is full of poetry, which is known as hymns, but these are circular hymns not religious hymns.”

Professor Mda went on to explain why he finds famo music and the culture surrounding it so interesting, and how this contributed to the conceptualisation of Wayfarers’ Hymns.

“I grew up in Lesotho, so I grew up listening to famo music. But I recently learned new things about this music. I learned that musicians also led gangs, so these musicians have evolved into gang leaders. Every weekend in Mafeteng, a city in Lesotho, there are funerals of musicians who have died in wars where they were fighting for territory and followers, but also fighting for [control of] illegal mining sites. The illegal mining that happens in Gauteng and Welkom is actually led by the musicians and leaders of these gangs. So I was fascinated to hear about this because I’ve never read about it, not even in newspapers.”

• Zakes Mda was born in Herschel in the Eastern Cape in 1948 and studied in South Africa, Lesotho and the United States. He wrote his first short story at the age of 15 and has since won major South African and British literary awards for his novels and plays. His writing has been translated into 20 languages. Mda is a professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University.

• * UP

SADTU has called on Eskom, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and all other relevant authorities to urgently find a reasonable mechanism to reduce the adverse impact of load-shedding on the current National Senior Certificate examinations.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Sadtu spokesperson Nomusa Cembi said the Department of Basic Education should urgently consult with Eskom and, based on such consultations, respond accordingly to minimise the disruptions which cause collective trauma to both learners and teachers.

Cembi added that the current load-shedding by Eskom is having an adverse impact on leaners and students at this critical time of the academic year.

“The current situation, regardless of the reasons or circumstances under which it happens, adversely affect the right of learners to education and has a direct adverse impact on their emotional and psychological being,” said Cembi.

“In many other instances learners will be exposed to safety and security risks particularly in those instances where alternative arrangements are made to enable them to study and prepare away from their homes.”

Sadtu has also called on the Department of Basic Education to put in place measures to ensure that learners and students who arrive late for their examinations and who require electricity supply to conduct examination are not prejudiced.

“We also call on the Department of Basic Education to afford all learners who have missed their examination as a result of load shedding to be afforded an opportunity to write those examinations during this examination session,” said Cembi.

“We further call on the government to investigate the allegations that the technician ignored the red light warning of low oil that led to the tripping three days before the elections. It is our considered view that this was a sabotage to support the call for the firing of the ESKOM board and those who are dealing with the rot that was characterising ESKOM.”

On Thursday, Eskom announced that Stage 2 would be implemented from midday and that power cuts would end on Friday at 5am.

Earlier this week, Eskom implemented Stage 4 and later Stage 3 load shedding to allow the utility to fully replenish its emergency generation reserves.

“While Eskom regrets the escalation in load shedding, it is necessary to ration the remaining emergency generation reserves, which have been utilised extensively this morning as we are not getting the reduction in demand as expected from the implementation of Stage 2 load shedding,“ it said at the time.

“It was anticipated that an additional seven units would have returned to service by Monday, and this has not materialised. Further, a generating unit at Arnot power station tripped, contributing to the shortages.”

• * Inside Education

UMALUSI believes rolling blackouts across South Africa due to load shedding may have a negative impact on the 2021 matric results.

Grade 12 pupils are in the process of writing National Senior Certificate exams and currently have to contend with stage 2 load shedding throughout this week, until 5am on Saturday.

This after Eskom implemented Stage 4 load shedding expected to last until Friday morning while Stage 2 blackouts will be implemented until five o’clock on Saturday morning.

Speaking to NewzroomAfrika, Umalusi CEO Mafu Rakometsi said load shedding would affect the quality of the exams as well as the results.

“Load shedding will negatively impact on the results. If students are not able to study adequately, then that is a problem,” said Rakometsi.

“I want to say that people are not equally sighted in terms of how they can see and immediately you have to write in a dark room. That situation is going to affect the students differently. [They] might struggle to go through the question papers and struggle to write because they are writing in a room that [isn’t] well lit.”

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said 15% of matric exam centres in the province have been affected by blackouts.

Lesufi said while the department was prepared for the blackouts, if it continued, matric results could be badly affected.

“I can say 15% of our examination centres have been affected because it comes and goes at different times, we’ve got papers in the morning, we also have papers in the afternoon,” said Lesufi.

“So it has affected us but as I said we’ve incorporated it, but the sooner we get past this stage of load shedding the better because it will generally affect the outcome of the results.”

Public Servants Association (PSA) in KwaZulu-Natal has called on government to deal with the load shedding crisis.

The Department of Basic Education said on Monday it had contingency plans in place to ensure the latest bout of rolling blackouts won’t impact the matric exams.  

The department’s spokesperson Hope Mokgatlhe told Jacaranda FM news that there’s a plan B should load shedding disrupt exams.

“What we have said as the department and we always say so that the nation and the parents can be at ease, is that if it happens that learners cannot write because of a power outage, we have backup papers. We are talking about grade 12 here, in fact, all grades that are writing exams now- we have backup papers all the time,” said Mokgatle.

“So we want the nation and parents to know that as the department, our plan B is that if it happens that learners cannot write because of something we cannot control like a power outage, they will write at another time. We will have a backup paper so they will not be disadvantaged because as the department and as the government we work together knowing that there are things that we cannot really foresee.”

• * Inside Education

THE South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says that a significant number of primary schools around the country remain on rotational timetables, with many schools also applying to keep a rotational timetable in place in 2022.

The reason for the rotation is a directive from Minister of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma providing that social distancing measures in primary schools should be maintained at one meter, the commission said.

The SAHRC said it has also been made aware that most schools in the Western Cape (86%) have applied for rotational timetables for the 2022 academic year.

“The commission holds that rotational learning has a long-lasting negative impact on learning outcomes for children and, as the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 (MAC) advice states, that the harms of learners attending school on a rotational basis – specifically the severe cognitive, nutritional, and psychosocial costs – exceed the benefits of reduced Covid-19 infections from smaller class sizes.

“The Cogta directive compromises the ability of primary schools – where the very foundation of learning takes place – to return to normal teaching and learning, notwithstanding reduced transmission and virus acquisition rates among teachers and learners in these schools as the majority of educators have been vaccinated and due to the low acquisition risk profile of primary school learners.”

The SAHRC said that it agrees with the MAC that all primary schools should open at full capacity.

The commission said it has now written to the basic education minister, the health minister, and the Cogta minister to call for an urgent meeting to discuss the termination of rotation in primary schools.

“This would essentially mean that the Cogta minister needs to amend her directive by deleting the 1-meter social distancing requirement in respect of primary schools.

“We will also discuss the return to normal schools for high schools, in view of the fact that the Department of Health has commenced with the Covid-19 vaccine rollout for 12-year-olds,” the commission said.

• * Business Tech

A 53-year-old principal from Mooifontein Primary School in Zastron, in the Free State, has succumbed to gunshot wounds.

Andile Ketso was shot by unknown suspects in Zastron.

Free State Department of Education said Ketso started the teaching profession in 1992 and was a Physical Science teacher at Lere-La-Thuto Secondary School before he was promoted as a principal.

The Free State Education Department has shared its condolences with the family members, learners and colleagues of a school principal who was gunned down at Zastron in the Free State.

Spokesperson, Howard Ndaba says the Department has lost a dedicated teacher who always strived for quality results.

Ndaba also condemned violence at schools, and called on all management teams, school governing bodies, and learners to strengthen school safety and build relationships with police.

“We want to take this opportunity to convey our sincere condolences to the family of Andile Ketso who’s a principal at Mooifontein Farm school in Zastron. Mr Ketso was gunned down and the suspects and motive for his killing are still unknown. He was a very dedicated educator who’s teaching physical science, he joined the department in 1992,” says Ndaba.

He further added that Ketso was a very dedicated principal and educator who joined the Education Department in 1992 as a junior teacher.

Last month, Dr Granville Whittle, deputy director-general at the basic education department, told parliament the national school safety framework remained their primary strategic response to school violence.

“It is based on a social ecological systems model, which locates the school within its broader community. It relies on collaboration and partnership. South Africa joined the Safe to Learn global campaign to end violence in schools, in partnership with Unesco and Unicef,” he said.

The education department said its partnership with the departments of justice and social development ensured improved vetting of teachers and other staff, and the establishment of a national school safety steering committee with related government departments and social partners to better coordinate safety interventions.

Whittle further said that in collaboration the department has also embarked on interventions aimed at addressing hotspots for most at risk schools.

Some of the measures include improving the built environment, such as considering learner safety when planning school infrastructure, as well as closure of taverns and liquor outlets in close proximity to schools, in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry, SAPS and South African Local Government Association (SALGA).

The measures also include search and seizures in partnership with SA Police Service (SAPS) and the provision of security guards to schools at risk.

The SAPS said school based crime prevention would be intensified and that the collaborative agreement with DBE would be revised in order to make it more effective. 

PROFESSOR Bonang Francis Mohale was officially inaugurated as the eighth Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS) on Friday.

He took up his five-year term in June 2020 and has served in the role for the past 17 months. Prof Mohale takes over from Dr Khotso Mokhele, who served as Chancellor of the UFS from June 2010 until June 2020.

Prof Mohale is the President of Business Unity South Africa (Busa), Professor of Practice in the Johannesburg Business School’s College of Business and Economics, Chairman of both the Bidvest Group Limited and SBV Services.

According to the UFS he is a highly respected South African businessman, known as much for his patriotism as his active role in seeking to advance the country’s interests. He is the author of the best-selling book, Lift As You Rise, launched in November 2018. The book is a compilation of some of the spoken and written words in which Prof Mohale reveals the issues that he is passionate about – among them leadership, transformation, people development, constructive collaboration, and integrity.

Prof Mohale emphasised that the challenges facing higher education were linked to the broader challenges facing South Africa, namely, poor economic growth, high youth unemployment, and the paralysing effect of the “nine wasted years” of state capture.

“The student protests and service delivery protests are a symptom of many societal ills and failures. While government may have had the resources – financially and technically – to map a way forward for the higher education sector, its ability to implement is severely constrained by insufficient capacity,” said Prof Mohale.

“The fundamentals of future higher education institutions should be values such as respect, empathy, equality, and solidarity that support and prepare learners for life, to be better citizens, to be more aware of their societal and civic responsibilities and role in the environment and not only for livelihood.”

David Noko, Chairperson of the UFS Council, said that the council appointed the right person for the job, the right person for this university, in this country, at this particular time. “The values that Prof Mohale embodies, which he is known to advocate from various platforms – in written media and virtual spaces – and which he actively lives out, are the values that the UFS cherish and embrace. Values such as respect, empathy, equality, solidarity, diversity, and caring.”

In congratulating Prof Mohale, Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, acknowledged the contributions he made.

• Compiled by Sazly Hartzenberg