Volume 37 Number 02

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TUDENTTHIS YEAR'S Free People's Concert left a sourtaste in the mouths of many people. The reason forthis had nothing to do with the music, the venue,or the organization of the concert. It had to dowith some people. Never before has a Frec PeoplesConcert seen so much aggression and violence.And never before have the crowd left the groundin such a mess.Both of these factors are completely contrary tothe idea and spirit of the Free People's Concert.The concert is symbolic. It seryes as a reminder ofthe freedom absent from South African societyand as a symbol of the society we hope to build.After this year's concert, the future of the concertmust be rethought. And, like the concertitself, it's cancellation will also be symbolic.The government, in an attempt to regain lost credibility,announced that forced removals willcease in 1985. Only two months later, the squattercamp of Crossroads, outside Cape Town, has beentransferred into a war zone, where people whowould rather die than move to Khayelitsha arebattling it out daily with the SADF and the SAP.What the South African public don't realize isthat bulldozing shacks and forcing communitiesinto the back of trucks is not the onlv method ofremoval. Moving people to new can takemuch more subtle forms. These include """Lr cutting offwater and food supplies in dn attempt to persuladepeople to move voluntarily.As PW Botha put it in a slip of the tongue to MaggieThatcher: "lVe don't force people to rnove, wecoerce them".In 1984 some drama students tried to set up avideo news and magazine programme which wasto be shown in the canteen during lunch times.Plans were well underway when they were toldthat all items shown on the programme wouldhave to have their content checked by Admin.first.Now in 1985, censorship has once again becomeand issue on Wits campus, with Admin preventingWits Student from publishing pictures of the SMAtaken during Orientation week.We live in a society where freedom of the press isa myth. The government has created a barrage oflaws to protect its institutions, including thepolice, the army, the hospitals and the prisons,from any sort of media attack.We do not need any censorship beyond thealready strict laws of the state. Certainly as a campusnewspaper, we should never be restricted inour coverage of campus events.The recent move by Mr Standenmacher is thereforedeplorable. We should be working against thedrat onian laws of the government, not with them.Worthwhileconversation?Dear Ed.As a senior student of this university,I feel it both my honourand privilege to welcome boththe new and old students backto this institute of higher learningand into the realm ofacademic pursuit.What beautiful legs they have,such ftne tans, and a dress sensesecond to none, yes, you guysincluded! Welcome you sociallyminded people to the realworld? Here our social consciencesstretch further thanwhose 21st it is on SaturdavNight!I feel breathless to be in yourcompany, those of you thathave thought long and hard onthe choice of which directionyour lives should take, so thatyou might better help this countryand help strive for the goalsof its people! How many of youare going to fail B. Comm thisy€ar, or is it B.A. Please youmedics, don't look so smug,you're included as is 80% of thisuniversity.How many of you will be backthis year, as yourselves or in theshape and form of others. Nowiser, brighter or betterinformed than before. Ask yourself,ask your friend on your leftand right what you are.doinghere, perhaps you're heremarking time until that "greencard" comes through, of frivolouslydoing something tooccupy your time until the nextvac. - "Cape Town here wecome!"Come on. let me overhear aworthwhile conversation for achange, all you academics and"socially concerned" people, letme know that you are aware ofthe situation of your reality, ordo I have to share the apparentfantasy of your brief stay in thiswhite haven!You the fortunate few whohave both the opportunity andapparent intellect (by virtue ofthe fact that you're at university,or is our school educationso bad, that some of you managedto slip through!) to helpguide your country into the mid'80's,a period of upheaval,potential change and excitementthat its history has neverseen.Use this opportunity tobecome aware and get involvedbecause you're more responsiblefor the future of this countrythan anyone else. Your silenceand non-activity is form of condonanceand consent to what ishappening around you.If you cannot see it, let me beyour eyes, otherwise leave us inpeace, go back to school, backto Sun City, back to your 2lst'sand stop parking in my place!Anonymous!On differenteducationComment on WS article.Education: weapon or tool?People are brought updifferently. I remember myparents teaching me not tothrow stones. I remember otherchildren who were never taughtthe same lesson.
Now they throw words of hateat others as if they'd learnt itnowher€. I recoil. "How canthey?" and secretly believethey're not human.Still I've been waiting for yearsfor this society to change andpeople talk, and a few get shotand yet it remains the same.The lessons I've been learningare, that I'm anti-social butwhen once I was isolated Ivalued conversation.Now I know I'd be nowherewithout the society I live in (andpeople talk and a few get shotand we read it in thenewspapers.)And I believe we've all beentaught wrong along the way butno-one knows who knows whatwe should know except that weshould all be taught the same.MMTee Pol Studc IIILet's get itout intothe openWhen professor Du Plessis wasthe VC. we noticed trendstowards what I can only call the'de-greenong' of the universitygrounds'Then came Karl Tober. Thingschanged. A university buildingon Jorissen Street was knockeddown, and replaced by a neatlittle garden. SO! One V.C. wasinto buildings (lots of them) theother heavily into gardens. Wewaited, with bated breath forCentral Block to be knockeddown and replaced with arockery. We all started thinkingabout the difficulties of takingnotes in an open-air lecture.Lecturers began to takevoiceJessons, realising thatoutside, especially in a rockery,it is difficult to make yourselfheard. Much was our dismaywhen we saw a truck drive ontothe library lawns, loaded withbricks. So, we now have, notlibrary lawns but the librarycourt yard - bring your owncushions.One wonders if spending allday every day on the eleventhfloor makes vice chancellorsunable to deal with the sight ofanlrthing green or anything thatgrows. The way things aregoing, students at Wits will beableto spend all day on campuswithout ever putting their feeton the ground.Helen MacnamaraBSc llStart again,Start!I am writing in response to thesatire column which appearedin the most recent edition ofSTART, thc SAUJSpublication.Although this article wasintended as humour. it waswritten from an ignorantperspective. As a result, it fallsfar wide of what feminism isabout. It presents being uglyand not sharing as prerequisitesto becoming a feminist. Ratherfemininsm works towardrelationships for which goodlooks are not the mostimportant criterion. This is notto say that we should all beugly, but rather that valuesshould change.The article also states thatZelda became popular whenshe became militant and wasalways seen at mass meetings.By implication, she wasaccepted because she did whatshe had to do td be accepted.Once again, feminism does notprovide a series of alternativecodes ofacceptance. Itencourages questioning andexploring of issues, rather thanlimiting people to living up toexpected roles.That the writer chose suchcliched stereotypes is indicativeof his lack of understanding.Accurate satire is humourous,but uninformed satire verges onthe absurd.Susan SmutsBA IIIBlatantsexismI am outraged at the 6latantand shameless sexism that wasused by certain studentsocie{ies during orientation thisyear to entice new members totheir 6rganisations.Apart from the sick - excusethe pun - joke about AIDSwhich appeared in "Torque",the Engineering Students'so-called "publication", threestudents' organisation, namelythe Student Moderate Alliance,the South African Union ofJewish Students, and theProgressive Students'Association, urgently need toreasses their roles as activeorganisations which purport tosupport the notion of sexualequality.Firstly, it is no secret that theSMA dislike me intensely -because their big-boy tacticsare yet to see me running - anddecided to include "gay rights'activists" alongside "wom€n'sliberation campaigners" and"student union politico('s)" ontheir current little hate-list.According to "Standard", theso-called "newsletter" of theSMA, it makes no "apologies"to the above categories,students whom the SMAconsider not "ordinary" andwho have "a chip on theirshoulder". The joke's on them,however: the drag queen on thefront page of "Standard" looksironically, you may notic€,quite like old Lance himself.Furthermore. "Start". theofftcial mouthpiece of SAUJS,carried an article - apparentlya "satire" - entitled "Abe andZelda" which was nothingmore but an hysterical appealto all Jewish girls to beware theevils that lie in unshavenarmpits.The author, one "SaulSackstein" mapped a directpath to hell: a) you are ugly; b)you do not shave your legs; c)you join the Womens'Movement; d) you go gay; e)you get banned; f) youeventually lead the "GayWomen for freedom inOccupied Palestine".Dear Mr Sackstein, apartfrom feeling terriblythreatened, should check thedefinition of "satire" in theOxford dictionary.. And, finally, I gathered Prog.Soc must be desperate formembership. As andassociation which claims alarge mandate, I wasunderstandibly surprised todiscover that this year theypromised all new recruits ahusband - or maybe even awife. Their poster "And hekissed her.... etc." was aheterosexist exercise. whichhopefully will in the futureremind them what Wits andNusas is not about.James BurtCo-ordinator, Wits GayMovementThe fightrs overta-- r, - raftfl, ffiffiffiffiI write to offer my srncerecondolences to Wits AestheticsCommittee. They finally seernto have admitted defeat in thestruggle to keep the librarylawns green. I'm not sure Ientirely agree with their "if youcan't beat it, pave it" approach,but I suppose it's understandable.I mean, lets face it, there's alimit to the amount of time youcan dig up and replant onepiece of lawn.As for the comfort of thestudents, well you can't winthem all. And I'm sure studentswill get used to sitting on coldbricks in winter.After all, in the good old dayswe didn't have the luxury ofgrass, did we?And any way, students whowere used to sitting outside theWilliam Cullen Library in thesun should have been insideworking anyway.So it's actually for their owngood in the long run.Aah, but life works in strangeways.Alan Wilson BSC IISelf defencemay benecessaryThe recent assault on areporter from the StellenboschUniversitlr Newspaper "dieMatie" made me startwondering whether WITSSTUDENT reporters hadconsidered taking up theKarate Club's offer ofreasonable rates forself-defence classes.Consider the violent reactionof certain elements onStellenbosch compus to anarticle concerning initiationatrocities. Given thecorresponding (thoughobviously smaller) groupingson our campus, who do notalways come out looking toogood after Wits Stud€nt hasexposed the less savoury andnoticeably expensive activitiesand publications, of thesepeople.Maybe in the interests ofsurvival, Wits Student reportersshould seriously considerlearning a few simple selfdefencetricks. Just in case.Susan Howell B. Ed IIChristian StudentsIf you are interested inwriting, photographydesign or any otheraspect of newspaperproduction, SALTneeds you. Contact us inour office on the 2ndfloor of the StudentsUnion building.Page l5
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Volume 37 Number 02

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