STAFF REPORTER|

THE Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has identified the man shot and killed by the police on Wednesday during Wits University students protest as Edwin Mthokozi Ntumba.

Ntumba, 35, was an employee of the Department of Housing and a recent Master’s graduate.  

Ntumba, the father of two, was coming from a doctor’s consultation in Braamfontein where he had just been treated when he was shot several times by the police.

Political parties, trade unions and various students’ organizations have strongly condemned the killing of Ntumba during the violent clashes between the police and students.  

The Minister of Police Bheki Cele is currently visiting the family of Ntumba in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni.

“This is something it has no grain of explanation of defence on it. Somebody went crazy. We need to leave it to IPID to find the facts on what happened,” said Cele.

“Action must be taken. The action is normally taken by the police against members. The IPID gives me a long list of SAPS members that have been taken on criminal charges and disciplinary processes.”

• Inside Politics

NYAKALLO TEFU| Education reporter

POLITICAL parties have strongly condemned the police shooting and killing of an innocent person during the Wits University protest over financial exclusion on Wednesday.

This comes after police fired rubber bullets to disperse a group of protesters outside the Wits university campus in Johannesburg.

The students are demanding that those who owe the university up to R150 000 in fees still be allowed to register for the new academic year.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) strongly condemns the killing of a member of the public at the Wits university campus.

The SACP also called for an urgent investigation by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).

“We convey our heartfelt message of condolences to the family of the deceased,” the party’s spokesperson, Dr Alex Mashilo, said in a statement.

Mashilo lambasted Finance Minister Tito Mboweni for introducing austerity measures during his budget speech last month.

“Austerity is the key public finance management problem depriving students from poor and working-class families that cannot afford student fees of access,” said Mashilo.

“For instance, the budget delivered last month to Parliament by the Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni cut allocations to higher education institutions by 1.712 billion rand in 2021/2022, 2.250 billion rand in 2022/2023, and approximately 4.1 billion rand in 2023/2024. In total, the cuts (‘fiscal consolidation’) to funding support affecting higher education institutions amount to 8.043 billion rand in the medium-term expenditure framework (2021/2022 to 2023/2024).”

Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen also condemned police brutality during the student protest.

“The loss of innocent lives at the hands of law enforcement officials must not become our new normal. We are not a military state, agencies like the SAPS must be professionalised to avoid the unnecessary loss of lives. The IPID must act swiftly on the #WitsProtest incident,” said Steenhuisen.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema also condemned the police killing of the bystander, saying South African Police Service were presided over by the ANC government, which has left the apartheid Policing system intact and never tempered with.

“The police we have today are blood thirsty, the same way apartheid police were,” said Malema.

“The EFF is sending condolences to the family of the deceased civilian reportedly killed by the SAPS at Wits protest.”

He said the EFF will get justice for the family, adding that the police officer responsible must be held accountable.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said it condemned the use of brute force by the SAPS members against protesting students from the University of Wits.

“As NEHAWU, we find it abhorrent that in this day of our democracy we still have police that treat peaceful marchers like it is still the dark days of apartheid,” said Nehawu in a statement.  

“The use of brutal force more especially against unarmed and harmless children should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

The education and health workers union said it will write to the Minister of Police Bheki Cele to demand answers.

“Many sectors of our society have been calling for the training of police officers to receive intensive training on crowd control,’ said Nehawu.

“We will demand to know from the Minister if such training did indeed take place and what is the impact thereof. We call on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to move with speed in finding the police responsible for the loss of life and he must face punitive measures.”

• Inside Politics

ONE person was killed on Wednesday after police fired rubber bullets to disperse a group of protesters at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, a student leader said.

The students are demanding that those who owe the university up to 150,000 rand ($9,850) in fees still be allowed to register for the new academic year.

The cost of university education, prohibitive for many Black students, has become a symbol of the inequalities that endure in South Africa more than two decades after the end of apartheid.

Wits student representative council president Mpendulo Mfeka said the person shot was not believed to be a student. Reuters could not immediately confirm the details of the deceased.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) said it was looking into the incident.

“The Directorate has dispatched four investigation officers to probe the allegations, the team will also cordon the crime scene and conduct the investigation including locating the person with the video footage, identify eye witnesses etc,” it said in a statement.

“IPID will ensure the body is protected and carried safe to the mortuary.”

Most students in South Africa are caught up in a group widely called the “missing middle”, those who are not poor enough to qualify for government financial aid but not wealthy enough to pay.

Protesting students took to the streets of Braamfontein district, where the university is located.

“They (police) threw stun grenades to try and disperse the protest but we didn’t run away, so they started firing rubber bullets,” said Mfeka. “The person who was shot was shot directly in the head.”

A Wits spokeswoman said the university would issue a statement later.

In 2016, widespread student protests for free higher education forced temporary closures at a number of South African universities.

• Reuters

NYAKALLO TEFU

THE National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has been unable to finalise funding for new university students after the scheme faced a funding shortfall for 2021.

This is according to the higher education minister Blade Nzimande, speaking on Monday during a media briefing in Pretoria.

Nzimande said that budget cuts and the COVID-19 pandemic were to blame for the shortfall in NSFAS funding.

Nzimande said that due to COVID-19, NSFAS had to continue paying allowances to students, even at the time when universities were closed, to give students access to multimodal learning and teaching.

“This means we had an extended academic year, for which we did not allocate additional money,” Nzimande.

Another reason for the shortfall, Nzimande said, was due to budget cuts across government departments, as well as the deteriorating economic situation.

NSFAS had a budget of nearly R35bn in 2020, up from R32bn in the previous year. It funded 700,000 students in 2020. Nzimande was unable to confirm if it would fund more or fewer students this year.

Nzimande said many applicants, who previously did not meet the funding requirements for NSFAS, now do, as the majority of their parents lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

“Of cause not all these shortfalls are due to COVID-19 alone. The deteriorating situation associated with budget cuts started a long time ago before COVID-19. In terms of the laws and policies regulating public finances for departments and entities, including the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), NSFAS is not able to commit to funding students without the requisite budget available to support this commitment,” Nzimande said.

Nzimande said the department has made an agreement with all public universities to extend the registration period for first time entering students for two weeks, so that students are not disadvantaged by the delay in the finalisation of NSFAS funding.

The minister said NSFAS is going to fund all returning NSFAS beneficiaries who meet the academic and other relevant criteria for continuing their studies.

In this regard, he said, the usual processes will apply, whereby institutions share the relevant registration data and information with NSFAS, which is then able to confirm the funded lists of students with institutions.

During the Budget Vote Speech on 24 February 2021, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said government remains committed to ensuring that deserving students are supported.

In line with this commitment, Mboweni directed the Department of Higher Education and Training to work with National Treasury to identify policy and funding options to be detailed in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).

Nzimande confirmed that this work is underway, and options will be presented to Cabinet on Wednesday for consideration.

“The student funding policy is the responsibility of government as a whole, and as the Minister responsible for higher education and training, I have to get concurrence and approval by Cabinet. We are doing everything possible to resolve this issue as a matter of extreme urgency,” Nzimande said.

Nzimande said the funding guidelines for universities for 2021 will be finalised as soon as Cabinet makes a determination in this regard.

(SOURCE: INSIDE EDUCATION & Agencies)

THE new Principal and Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Unisa, Professor Puleng LenkaBula, is hitting the ground running. She sat down with a Unisa journalist for an exclusive one-on-one interview about being the first black woman to steer Unisa in the institution’s 148 years of existence.

HERstorical moment

Sharing her sentiments about this moment in the history of the institution, LenkaBula says: “I’m appreciative of being appointed as the third Vice-Chancellor of Unisa post-1994 and the dawn of democracy of South Africa. I think it is an important HERstorical moment, not a HIStorical moment.” She chuckles as she makes the emphasis. She adds that this is particularly so because universities in South Africa have not had many women academics leading them. “The normative practice has often been finding leadership from male leaders,” she explains. “There is nothing wrong with men leading institutions, but there’s something wrong if the leadership is fully and wholly masculine. The diversities of leadership are always important as they enable institutions to focus on various issues and to attend to both curriculum and co-curricular issues.”

LenkaBula emphasises that she appreciates being the first black woman appointed as VC at such an august institution as Unisa. “The global knowledge arena does not have many women,” she says, “let alone black women in leading positions. For me, this appointment validates the sentiments of black girls and black boys who might not have had the confidence that they could be able to assume leadership positions in different sectors. They might be inspired to know that it is possible to become the leader of a university of our size and impact.”

Training and career highlights

LenkaBula brings with her the competencies of an ethicist who is trained in a multidisciplinary discipline that engages the multiplicities of knowledge systems as well as the multiplicities of professions. While she demonstrates leadership in the knowledge of ethics as a discipline, she has full recognition of how disciplines, faculties, colleges and knowledge systems intersect in the local, continental and global arena.

Her extensive managerial experience includes, among other positions, serving as Vice-Rector of Institutional Change, Student Affairs, and Community Engagement at the University of the Free State (UFS). Prior to joining UFS, she was the Executive Dean of Student Affairs at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The VC has also been invited to multiple international academic platforms to deliver presentations. Key among these are the World Council of Churches Central Committee, the European Commission Diaspora, and the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Our humanity is what brings us together

Explaining her vision as VC, LenkaBula says she intends to ensure that Unisa does not only become a centre of excellence, success and opportunities for the marginalised, but also a lever of optimum participation in the global knowledge arena with impact. “This impact,” she says, “should spread to the local context and the continent, allowing the country and Africa to, without hesitation, become competitive in the global landscape. But this is just the first of my commitments. The second is that I want to lead a university that honours and humanises people, and prioritises human dignity as an imperative. It should be a university that recognises that although we are human and we have varied phenotypes, heights, bodies, textures of abilities and disabilities and more, our humanity is what brings us together.”

The VC says that questions of social cohesion, social capital and social justice should be based on these values. “This means, for example, that students, staff, or stakeholders who live with disabilities must find presence, resonance, and support so that they can optimise their talent and succeed.”

She adds: “It also means that we have to be sensitive to the fact that there are people who don’t conform to traditional genders. These non-conforming individuals, like gays, lesbians, and bisexual and asexual people, live sexualities that may not be in the mainstream. This means that even our language must be inclusive and honour their humanity because we have learned from our birthdate that to debase each other’s humanity is to undermine the integrity of life, and that is something I am not apologetic about.”

Unisa reimagined

LenkaBula comes in at a time when Unisa is going through a review instituted by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande. Mindful of the task ahead, she is confident that Unisa and its staff have the capacity to reclaim the institution as an innovative leader in distance and open education. “However,” she says, “if we are going to succeed, students, staff and stakeholders must become partners in the reimagination of Unisa as a leader in ODeL.”

“My vision of Unisa is a very unique set that contributes to the development of South Africa by aligning ourselves with some of the aspirations of the National Development Plan (NDP), but not only the NDP,” she says. “When you live in a country where youth and young adults might fall through the cracks because of their economic condition, we must invest in solutions to these critical or grand challenges of our times.”

The VC underscores the urgent need to become student-centric. “We must be attentive to the kind of students we should be producing,” she says, “particularly in the aftermath of Covid-19, as well as the changes that the fourth industrial revolution is imposing on systems, organisations and higher education. My vision is to ensure that we have a socially just university that considers issues of profitability and also of responsibility, issues of ethics, and moral agency and initiative. We should therefore be a university that is at the centre of solutions to problems, whatever solutions it may be, whether it is of the pandemic, whether it’s of economic systems or whether those of climatic changes or ecological degradation.”

At a time of unprecedented transition in academia, just as in any industry because of the pandemic, institutions of higher education have been faced with a number of challenges that call for a shift in the manner in which they conduct their business. Asked how she plans to address some of these systematic challenges, LenkaBula stresses that universities must be centres of solutions because they have society’s best minds. “But if the best minds are not for a cause, then they are rendered marginal,” she says.

Reinvent, reshape, regenerate

The pandemic has caused a shift that will soon see Unisa having to reclaim space in academia, and the ODeL space specifically. Traditional universities have begun introducing online degrees, and this calls for an urgent shift in the manner that Unisa staff perform their duties. “It can no longer be business as usual,” LenkaBula says. “My priority is for Unisa to recognise that it’s no longer the only player in this arena. The first thing I said when I met the vice-principals and deans was that we should not be complacent because complacency has led to multiplicities of businesses folding. We as Unisa have to reinvent, reshape and regenerate ourselves.”

LenkaBula explains further that the threats were already evident, but that Covid-19 accelerated competition. “Therefore,” she says, “Unisa needs to identify its areas of excellence and project them more. It is going to be important that staff take their work seriously and respond to their obligations. If they don’t, opportunities to look elsewhere are available for them to release themselves from their responsibilities.”

The work begins

LenkaBula says that Unisa is the cradle of the higher education system in South Africa. “Therefore, the idea of being an innovative institution is something that we have to embrace,” she concludes. “We need to reignite our commitment to ensure that Unisa reclaims its place at the top tier of tertiary education institutions in South Africa – and on the continent

(SOURCE: Unisa)

THE Northern Cape government requires at least R600 million for social relief and infrastructure repairs after recent heavy rains and flooding wreaked havoc in parts of the province, according to local authorities.

Weeks of persistent rain and flooding have left nearly 500 homes ruined, 27 schools either inaccessible or damaged.

Infrastructure was also damaged.

Service delivery has also been affected in parts of the province.

Provincial Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs MEC, Bentley Vass, said as a result – the entire province has been declared a state of disaster.

“Key areas that have been severely affected in the province are education, human settlements, and agriculture which impacts directly on the citizens in these areas. We requested the national government to give the province the necessary support. If the national government comes in, it will put us in a better space as a provincial government to respond more speedily to the issues and to the challenges facing the province. We are calling on the private sector to come on board and assist with the relief of the affected communities,” said Vass.

Vass added that the flooding has caused more than half a billion rand in damage to roads.

“The department of roads and public works is currently in a process of assessing the extent of damages to the roads in the province. In some instances, they are waiting for the water to subside for proper evaluation. Currently, the rough estimate cost for the flood damage to roads in the province amounts to R682-million,” Vaas explained.

(SOURCE: AGENCIES)

THE COVID-19 pandemic has plunged South Africa’s schools further into crisis, exposing how the country’s education system continues to be shaped by the legacy of apartheid, Amnesty International said today.

A child’s experience of education in South Africa is still dependent on where they are born, how wealthy they are, and the colour of their skin

Shenilla Mohamed, Executive Director of Amnesty International South Africa

In a new report, Failing to learn lessons: The impact of COVID-19 on a broken and unequal education system, the organization highlights how students from poorer communities have been cut off from education during extended school closures, in a country where just 10 percent of households have an internet connection.

Meanwhile historic underinvestment and the government’s failure to address existing inequalities has resulted in many schools not having running water or proper toilets whilst struggling with overcrowded classrooms, meaning they cannot provide a safe learning environment amid the pandemic.

“A child’s experience of education in South Africa is still dependent on where they are born, how wealthy they are, and the colour of their skin. The COVID-19 pandemic has made a broken and unequal system even worse, putting students from poorer communities at a huge disadvantage. Remote learning is not an option for the vast majority,” said Shenilla Mohamed, Executive Director of Amnesty International South Africa.

“South Africa’s schooling system is so under-equipped that the pandemic has all but ended education for many students, especially those from already disadvantaged communities. Unless urgent access is taken, the future livelihoods of an entire generation will be at risk.”

Disturbing picture

Amnesty International’s report is based on extensive desk research, including analysis of statistical data and institutional studies and surveys, between March 2020 and February 2021.

The education system in South Africa continues to be shaped by the legacy of apartheid. Previous research by Amnesty International showed how many communities continue to live with the consequences of political and economic decisions made during the apartheid era where people were segregated according to their skin colour, with schools serving white communities much better resourced.

When schools first closed in March, for almost three months, the widespread lack of internet access needed for remote study was laid bare. Nationally, only 22% of households have a computer and 10% an internet connection.

In North West and Limpopo provinces, only 3.6% and 1.6% respectively have access to the internet at home.

By contrast, students from wealthier communities with computer access have been able to continue their education particularly through remote learning provided by better resourced schools.

Further school shutdowns came in July 2020 and January 2021. The closures not only interrupted learning, but also severely affected access to food for around nine million students who depend on school meals for their daily nutrition. The situation became so bad that NGOs were forced to go to court to compel the government to resume the National School Nutrition Programme.

Hazardous and unhygienic

When schools have been open, hazardous and unhygienic conditions have prevented them from meeting basic COVID-safe requirements. Thousands of schools in South Africa have no running water – more than half of schools in some regions.

Social distancing is also impossible in many schools.

One study by Stellenbosch University found that at least half of South African learners would not be able to comply with distancing rules due to overcrowded classrooms.

The government has failed to ensure that schools in poorer communities have the additional resources they need to provide a secure learning environment. As a result, many have had to shut down repeatedly due to high COIVD-19 infection rates.

The toll on staff needs also to be recognised. By the beginning of 2021 it was estimated that up to 1,700 teachers have lost their lives to COVID-19, more than 300 alone during the recent school holidays.

Drastic budget cuts are not the solution

Despite the clear evidence that school infrastructure and equipment can play a key role in ensuring safer learning environments, in June the government announced that it was planning to divert over R2 billion (US$ 0.13 billion) from the provincial education infrastructure grant. The recent medium-term budget statement revealed that, adjusted for inflation, the education budget will be reduced over the next three years with a cut of over 4% for this financial year.

Amnesty International is calling on the South African authorities to reverse that decision, and commit sufficient funds to address longstanding and ongoing infrastructure failings. These have not just been documented by Amnesty and other organisations but are also confirmed by the government’s own statistics. In March 2020, just before COVID-19 struck, it was reported that only 266 out of 3,988 schools that needed it had benefitted from the President’s own 2018 Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) campaign to address inadequate sanitation.

56% of South African head teachers reported in a survey conducted by the OECD in 2018 that a shortage of physical infrastructure is hindering their school’s capacity to provide quality instruction.

Many of the deficiencies are in breach of the government’s own Minimum Norms and Standards for educational facilities.

Amnesty International acknowledges that guaranteeing access to education during a pandemic is not easy.

It also acknowledges that the government has both put various procedures in place and taken action to seek to ensure both some limited access to remote learning during lockdown and to protect the safety of learners and teachers when schools have reopened.

However, the government needs to do more from exploring further innovative ways to provide access to education for as many students as possible where schools are partially or totally closed due to the pandemic, to  ensuring that all schools have sufficient supplies of personal protective equipment such as masks and hand sanitizer, as well as clean water facilities.

Above all it must commit sufficient resources to address the infrastructure crisis in schools which is continuing to undermine the goal of safe learning spaces for all young people.

In certain key areas, the government has failed to meet its obligation to provide equal and accessible education to ALL learners.

The Constitutional and international human right to quality education includes access to safe, clean and adequate school facilities.

“The Constitutional and international human right to quality education includes access to safe, clean and adequate school facilities,” said Shenilla Mohammed.

“However, this right is clearly being denied to too many learners across the country. Schooling in South Africa has operated on a two-tier system for far too long. Now is the time to take concrete action to ensure that every child in South Africa has equal access to education, during and after the pandemic.”

(SOURCE: Amnesty.org)