I am the chair of the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) council, elected to the post by the university’s convocation. It is a special honour to serve at the pleasure of WSU’s former students — all 600,000 of them.
This year has been a special one for the university. We are beginning to reap the fruits of the hard work our academics have done — beginning five years ago — to restore the academic integrity of the university, which continues to offer so much hope for so many marginalised and disadvantaged students.
Earlier this week, the university achieved the impressive ranking of number 5 in South Africa, measured against the UN’s sustainable development goals. The rankings are independently verified by the publication Times Higher Education. At WSU, we have aimed to be a university that seeks to positively and sustainably affect the lives of those with whom it interacts.
We are proud of this achievement. At a time when universities across the world are facing existential threats, to be ranked among the leading local universities on social impact was a signal moment for us.
On Thursday this week, I took part in an Ubumbano session, a spiritual cleansing of our university. The council decided to do this to help our students heal after a challenging year, as they prepare for the midyear exams. Methodist Bishop Andile Mbete presided over the event. Never before have I witnessed someone weave the word of God, politics, academics and African spirituality with so much intellectual clarity.
In my own speech, I proposed that while for some the university is a place of intellectual awakening, for others it is a place where they discover the limits of human rationality; where they discover the limits of scientific rationality. About 500 students attended the event. They filled up the Great Hall. They sang. They spoke. They cried. They commiserated. They remembered. We were all together, singing together. Building together. Thinking about how to make this place special for us and the future.
I spoke to several students afterwards. They said they appreciated the day. Especially after the traumatic killing of a student, Sisonke Mbolekwa, earlier this year. That killing had been physically and mentally draining for them. They were still searching for answers. But they needed a moment of spiritual revival and uplifting.
That evening, however, something truly shocking happened — our deputy vice-chancellor for institutional support & development, Sinethemba Mpambane, was shot dead at his home in Nkululekweni, a few kilometres from the university. There were seven bullet holes in his car.
Earlier, Mpambane had been with me in the front row at the Ubumbano event. We had left the venue together. He was shot minutes after it ended. There were just so many what-ifs. It was traumatic. We informed the family and all next of kin. For context, I had chaired the council that had hired Mpambane a few months earlier. He was a rising star — one of the few who, despite impressive qualifications, was prepared to work in the higher education sector.
I started this piece writing about the academic restoration of the university. Now, despite the trauma, despite the setback, the university must move forward. It is, however, constrained by externalities, including a crippling decline in funding by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas), which has left a gaping hole in our ability to provide access to university education for all academically deserving students. We are an 85% Nsfas-reliant university. Recent changes in policy — with the Nsfas seeking to bypass universities and engage directly with either students or accommodation providers — means we have no control over where the money finally goes.
Recently, I received an e-mail from our student representative council, informing me of 1,500 students who have been “defunded” by the Nsfas. Our CFO has informed the Nsfas about the many challenges we face with regard to “unfunded” and “defunded” students. Our council has decided that we are not turning away any student who qualifies academically. So we register them. We create “special cases”. We sign acknowledgements of debt with some students, with the hope that they will pay at some future date. We give them their academic transcripts when they finish their studies in the hope that they will pay.
Crime is affecting our ability to teach as a university. Its impact is immense. Qualified academics and managers simply don’t want any association with a town known to be infested with criminal gangs.
Our experience is that we do not often recover the money — at least, not on time. This is why we are owed R1.4bn by current and former students. I have often referred to the special cases we create every year as the “free education zone”.
However, as soon as we register unfunded students, new challenges emerge: they need food and they need a place to stay. We don’t have these. We need more accommodation. Requests for approvals have been sent to the government, but none have been granted.
This month we had to raise R2m so students could eat. Companies such as Shoprite and Checkers have chipped in. But the money and the food parcels are not enough. Our students face hunger and food insecurity. We do what we can, allowing students to register with or without money. But others must also play their part. I have raised this concern with Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane, himself a former student leader.
Yet there is a further new and urgent challenge — crime. Mthatha is riddled with crime. As an example, the university’s executive managers are reporting extensive extortion throughout our entire procurement system. Unfortunately, some will fall prey to this.
Mpambane’s killing shows how brazen the criminals have become. They obviously must have calculated that they wouldn’t be caught if they executed him. It is this that I can’t get my head around. How is it possible that criminals can shoot a person seven times and then disappear without trace?
Crime is affecting our ability to teach as a university. Its impact is immense. Qualified academics and managers simply don’t want any association with a town known to be infested with criminal gangs. We are trying to build a university of the future. But we are debilitated by crime. Crime threatens to destroy everything we are building.
Our students are also not safe. Many times, female students have reported sexual assault and rape. Many times, students have been assaulted and stabbed. This has gone on for too long. A university should not be saddled with the duty to combat crime. It is a place to teach. A place to learn. It is a place of discovery. But without addressing the problem of crime, we leave no stories of discovery. Only stories of horror and trauma.
If we let crime destroy our universities, we risk our future. It is time to take black universities and black education seriously. That must start with finding the killers of Mpambane to establish why they killed him.
• Ngcukaitobi is the council chair of Walter Sisulu University. He writes in his personal capacity
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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