Unisa community has heart of gold - University of South Africa

Conference stimulates discussion
The annual Black Forum Africa Week
Conference got off to a rousing start in
Senate Hall on 14 May 2008. With the
inspiring theme: Towards transforming
higher learning for liberation and
development, the conference showcased
high-profile speakers and delegates at the
opening session, with issues such as elusive
equity, knowledge apartheid, racism
as a mutating virus, and the inferiority
complex of poverty stimulating discussion
and debate.
In his opening address, Professor Moroka
Mogashoa, Black Forum President, noted
that Unisa had gone through a great deal
in the past five years to create a transformed
institution, but made the point
that sometimes reconstruction is confused
with transformation. “We need to take
stock critically and say what it is that we
have achieved,” he added.
Professor Chika Sehoole, Chief Director:
Higher Education Policy, Department of
Education, who delivered the keynote address
on behalf of Mr Duncan Hindle, the
Director-General of Education, emphasised
the role that black people in South
Africa in the knowledge industry can play
in transforming higher education. “As the
Black Forum, you should not only think
about what can be done for you, but also
what it is that you can do for yourself,
and what contribution you can claim in
terms of taking this institution forward.”
He added that, from his own experience,
the best way of silencing one’s critics is to
produce, not only in terms of scholarship
but also of research. “The more we produce
and the more our names are reflected
in publications the more we are going to
earn the respect of our peers,” he said.
Dr Fanie du Toit, Executive Director: Institute
for Justice and Reconciliation, took
a critical look at public trust in democracy
in his presentation, drawing on the findings
of a transformation audit conducted
by the institute. He is of the opinion
that South Africa stands balanced on the
knife-edge of two scenarios: the leaky
tyre syndrome into slow and irreversible
decline, or the albatross syndrome, a comparison
between South Africa and a bird
that struggles for about a kilometre to get
airborne, but then is strong and powerful
in flight. He believes that the difference
between the two scenarios will come
down to the human factor and to leadership.
He pointed out that the economy is
not doing badly, but that equality and education
are deteriorating, and the country
needs to invest in human beings. “Among
other things, our research shows that what
South Africans want,” he concluded, “is
to be treated with respect.”
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, delivering
a paper entitled Why African descendants
are still facing poverty in Haiti, and
spoke of the need to nurture the spirit of
ubuntu. “Africans and African descendants
must be empowered by drawing
from African values,” he emphasised.
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide receives a token of appreciation from Professor
Annalet van Schalkwyk, Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology
From left, Professor Moroka Mogashoa, Black Forum President; Dr Fanie du Toit, Executive
Director: Institute for Justice and Reconciliation; Professor Olga Makhubela-
Nkondo, Department of Nursing; and Professor Shadrack Gutto, Director: Centre for
African Renaissance Studies
The Black Forum is an academic staff
association concerned with matters of
transformation and affirmative action
in terms of the democratic constitution,
higher education legislation, Labour Relations
Act and Employment Equity Act of
the Republic of South Africa.
Preamble of the Constitution of
the Black Forum
We the Black academic, professional,
administrative and support staff of the
University of South Africa (Hereafter
Unisa); cognisant of the history of the
University, the extent to which Black
Other speakers during the three days of
the conference included Dr Danny Titus,
Executive Director: Afrikaanse Taal en
Kultuurvereniging (ATKV); and
Dr Cheryl de la Rey, CEO: Council on
Higher Education (CHE), Dr Peter Kagwanja,
a Director at the Human Sciences
Research Council (HSRC), Dr Anniekie
Ravhudzulo, Educational Consultant:
ICLD; and Ms Tshepo Khumbane, a
development activist and founder of the
Water for Food Movement.
people have been treated unequally as
they were oppressed, excluded and marginalised,
hereby organise ourselves by
forming the Black Forum with the principal
aim of participating in the transformation
of Unisa in order to create a national
academic institution where all academic,
administrative and support staff are equal
parties and represented equitably in the
life of the University.
We therefore adopt this constitution as a
future guide in correcting centuries old
imbalances of various kinds between
Black and White created by the past colonial
and apartheid regime
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