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WITSReviewApril 2016 Volume 34

The magazine for ALUMNI and friends of the University of the Witwatersrand

April 2016 Volum

e 34

Carl & Emily Fuchs Foundation Top Achiever Award 2015 (MACE)Best External Magazine 2015 (MACE)

WITSMATTERS

www.wits.ac.za/annualfund

Enquiries: Purvi Purohit, Senior Liaison Of�cer, [email protected] +27 (11) 717 1093 or [email protected]

ANNUALWITS

FUND

Wits improves in World Rankings

QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2016

Wits University has been ranked

Performance indicators forQS subject rankings

Academic reputation 40%

Student-to-faculty ratio 20%

Citations per faculty 20%

Employer reputation 10%

International faculty ratio 5%

International student ratio 5%

The QS World University Rankings by Subject for 2015/16 were announced on 22 March 2016. Wits has improved in 10 subjects that the QS World University Rankings measure according to a university’s six performance indicators: Academic reputation; student-to-faculty ratio; citations per faculty; employer reputation; international faculty ratio; and international student ratio.

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Wits ranks internationally

Geography

EngineeringMinerals & Mining Anthropology

TOP 100

TOP 150English Language & Literature

Earth & Marine Sciences

TOP 200

Communication & Media Studies

History

Medicine

Pharmacy & Pharmacology

Politics & International Studies

TOP300 Physics & Astronomy

TOP

5014thDevelopment Studies

26thArchaeology

Archaeology

Engineering(Mineral & Mining)

Dentistry

Materials Science

Anthropology

number onein South Africa

in Alumni Outcomes** QS considered the educational background of over 20 000 highly influential employers, sector leaders, and award-winning professionals, as well as individual professionals to rank which universities are proving themselves as sources of successful employees and employers, and can claim to have positively influenced their alumni’s development.

33rd in the world

April 2016 | WITSReview | 1

EDITORIAL

There was great concern therefore when a new round

of increasingly violent protest action erupted on many

university campuses early in the new year. Wits was

spared from any disruption, but some universities

experienced such violent and destructive behaviour

that some campuses had to close for a period of time.

In an opinion piece published in the Sunday Times on

21 February 2016, Vice-Chancellors Professor Adam

Habib and Rhodes University’s Dr Sizwe Mabizela

observed: “The current student protests on campuses

across our country are distinctly different from those

that we saw last year. The protesting communities no

longer represent the non-racial, multi-class alliance

that united the entire student community and

mobilised the support of multiple stakeholders in our

society. Instead, the protest movements have been

hijacked by small groups that are using increasingly

violent methods of protest … The modus operandi

of these groups has clearly changed from the broad

and diverse movement that united across race,

class, culture and gender lines, to one that is highly

politicised, downright violent and even racist.”

While it appears that extremist offshoots from

#FeesMustFall have since been isolated and that

safety and security measures have now stabilised the

university sector, there remain many unresolved issues

that need to be addressed. Foremost among these is

the issue of affordability of a university education.

Fundraising initiatives such as the Wits SRC’s #Access

campaign and generous support from corporates

and individual alumni have helped ameliorate the

immediate plight of especially those students who

do not qualify for financial aid based on the means

test, but who nonetheless cannot afford a university

education.

An exciting new fundraising campaign aimed at

providing sustainable financial support for students

has also been initiated by the Forum of former

Wits SRC and Black Student Society Presidents. The

Forum recently launched the South African Student

Solidarity Foundation for Education, a public benefit

organisation that will raise funds for the holistic

support of students in need.

Perhaps one outcome of the #FeesMustFall campaign

is that South Africa will learn from the example of

many of the most successful universities in the world

by increasingly relying on philanthropy rather than

state funds to ensure both access and quality. One

example is Harvard University, which has grown

significant endowment funds over many decades

and has now been able to announce that families

with annual incomes of $65 000 or less will not pay

anything towards the cost of a Harvard education.

Peter Maher

Director: Alumni Relations

In our last issue we reported on the #FeesMustFall campaign and the various agreements that were reached with students as a result of their protest action. While there was an awareness that not all the demands had been met and that not all students were satisfied, there was general agreement in society that students at a national level had secured a victory for greater and more affordable access to university.

Investing in our universities

2 | WITSReview | April 2016

18

CONTENTS1 EDITORIAL

4 LETTERS

6 SOCIAL

10 KOOS BEKKER: A FUTURE FOR A VERY

DIFFERENT WORLD

18 SYLVIA GLASSER: MOVING BODIES,

CHANGING LIVES

24 PHILANTHROPY: THINKING ABOUT

GIFTING IN AFRICA

26 DR EVAN STEIN: ROGUE GENES

& HEART ATTACKS

30 NIC KOHLER: CLIMBING MOUNTAINS,

CHANGING CAPITALISM

36 Q&A WITH WITH GIDEON KHOBANE

38 DR CYRIL MAZANSKY :

THE PHOTOGRAPHER RADIOLOGIST

45 PLACES TO VISIT AT WITS

Sylvia Glasser’s Threads, Fana Tshabalala, 2008


46 SIR JACK ZUNZ: ENGINEERING AN OPERA HOUSE

48 MANY HAPPY RETURNS: PART ONE

51 WITSIES WITH THE WRITING EDGE

54 BOOK REVIEWS

58 OBITUARIES

63 WITS END

38

30

Carl & Emily Fuchs Foundation Top Achiever Award 2015 (MACE)

Best External Magazine 2015, 2012 & 2010 (MACE)

Best External Magazine 2014, 2013, 2012 & 2011 (SA Publication Forum)

Cover: Three in Green, Venice Carnival Photo by Dr Cyril Mazansky

Editor:

Peter Maher [email protected]

Contributors:

Heather Dugmore [email protected]

Deborah Minors [email protected]

Kathy Munro [email protected]

Keyan G Tomaselli [email protected]

Gail Gordon, Lana Jacobson & Lynda Murray

Design & Layout:

Nicole Sterling [email protected]

Printing: Remata

Published by the Office of Alumni Relations, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Address: Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050, South Africa. Tel: +27 (0)11 717 1090 | Fax: 0864 064 146. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.wits.ac.za/alumni Update contact details: www.wits.ac.za/alumni/updateyourdetails

SUBSCRIPTIONS: International subscribers: R180 per annum Local subscribers: R100 per annum

PAYMENT OPTIONS: Online payment using a Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Diners Club credit card at: www.wits.ac.za/alumni/payment or by electronic transfer or bank deposit to: First National Bank, Account No. 62077141580, Branch Code 255-005, Ref.No.1142 (+ your name) or by cash or credit card payment at the Alumni Office.

WITSReview is published three times a year. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor, the Office of Alumni Relations or of the University of the Witwatersrand. © Copyright of all material in this publication is vested in the authors thereof. Requests to reproduce any of the material should be directed to the editor.

Saint Martin Swamps, Louisiana


LETTERS

Universities’ role in Animal Farm society

Dear Editor,

Congratulations on another

outstanding issue of WITSReview

(December 2015). Although I did not

find the new digital layout particularly

user-friendly, I thoroughly enjoyed

reading it.

I’ve been thinking back to what

the University gave me, 60 years

ago; although I was a sports-mad,

immature and an appalling student.

Thinking of characters from literature

that I most resemble, I settle on

Winnie the Pooh, an amiable bear of

little brain, and Boxer from Animal

Farm, whose answer to any challenge

was, “I must work harder”. I now

realise that, without being aware of

it, I was greatly enriched by Wits.

I most enjoyed your editorial. A

widely published photograph of the

Vice-Chancellor kneeling at the feet

of protesting students disturbed me;

not only because it was Professor

Habib, but because of the disrespect

shown for his position. For many

years there has been a strong

anti-intellectual spirit among many. I

thought your approach was balanced

and thoughtful. The proper role

of universities in society is not well

understood.

Mark Henning (BEd 1963, BA Hons 1956), Bryanston, Johannesburg

Graduates against violence on campuses

Dear Editor,

Thank you for the last WITSReview (December 2015). I would like through this forum to raise my voice as a graduate and long time staff member of Wits, against the violent nature of the protests at Wits and on other campuses. Violence begets further violence.

Wits stands for non-racialism, peaceful protest, the right of expression of a diversity of views, the preservation of the academic freedoms that were fought for with intensity in the past, university autonomy and a quality education for all who enrol. The issues of high fee increases, free higher education, and insourcing of outsourced services have become explosive and protest last year closed Wits for two weeks. This was regrettable.

Protest action has returned this year and has escalated with more violent incidents. Physical violence against people who do not share specific views is shocking and the protection of life is top priority. People on campus must feel safe and in the right environment to study, teach and undertake research. There have been a couple of arson instances at Wits. The destruction of so-called colonial art works at UCT was for me terribly worrying as art is a creative unique expression, it can’t be replaced.

Burning it is one step away from book burning and recalls horrible parallels with what happened in Hitler’s Germany, but there are many other instances in history of conflagrations that set humanity back.

I applaud the Vice-Chancellor in his many statements and his insistence on no violence or arson at Wits. I urge graduates to speak out against violence, arson and racism on campuses. I appeal to our community to continue to support Wits with funds to transform the lives and prospects of students, and back Wits’ many fabulous endeavours.

Kathy Munro (BA 1967) Observatory, Johannesburg

Cool heads must prevail

The Editor,

I share with many South Africans concerns over the current conflicts at all the universities, and my Alma Mater in particular, and hope and pray, in spite of the significant challenges facing all the tertiary institutions, that cool heads will prevail and inspiration will enable academics, management, government and the thousands of students to negotiate and chart a constructive way forward, as all try to make sense out of the turbulence and seek to find a way meaningful way forward to build opportunities and skills for the generations ahead.

Erratum: The March 2015 WITSReview identifies Dr Hilton Selvey (MBBCh 1951) as a national swimming/water polo champion. Dr Selvey in fact never represented South Africa in any sport. WITSReview regrets the inaccuracy.

LETTERS#FeesMustFall


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME AND CAN BE SENT C/O THE ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE OR E-MAIL [email protected].

There are many bright minds around the table to help navigate the turbulence and political influences and if some degree of trust can be established and patience exercised on all sides the eventual outcome will be to the benefit of all. Does anybody fully understand what is expected by way of “transformation” demanded of the tertiary institutions, what is possible to actually achieve, in what time frame, at what cost and with what resources?

I suspect the depth of anger and hurt will take many years to understand and for students to come to terms with, on all sides and across all racial and cultural groups. How do students negotiate different cultural differences and find the means to engage and open a discourse to understand and accept differences? The wilful destruction of University property and resources, that are sorely needed to open opportunities for the generations to come, will not solve these challenges.

I wish all Wits staff and students strength, courage, patience and creative inspiration in seeking solutions to the challenges that must seem almost overwhelming at present. The University has faced, and overcome, many difficult challenges in its history and I am confident you will come to some constructive resolution sooner rather than later.

Sandy Van Esch (CTA 1972) Bedfordview, Johannesburg

Stamp of approval for late architect Pancho Guedes

Dear Editor,

Pancho Guedes has been one of the seminal forces in my life. I consider it a privilege to have learnt from, and later taught with him at Wits. We shared a mischievous sense of humour which bordered on the satirical, and our research report-back sessions often degenerated into uproarious and quite unrepeatable parodies about some of our more pompous colleagues.

Eventually it was Pancho who forced me out of the cosy nest I was making for myself at Wits, something I resented at the time but which soon proved to be a correct decision.

We lost touch then, meeting only a few times every year, but he always maintained an interest in my work, and I know that all my latest publications I was giving him were being passed on to the Wits architectural library.

At one stage, during my five-year stint as Head of Philately at the South African Post Office, the Mozambican Post Office and I began negotiations to feature Pancho’s work on a joint issue of stamps. Unfortunately the political climate proved unreceptive, and the project had to be abandoned. Pancho is, in my personal opinion, still the foremost architect of the 20th century to have been native to Southern Africa, and is the only one to date to have enjoyed an international reputation. Perhaps, now that he is gone, such a project could be resuscitated.

Franco Frescura (BArch 1977, MArch 1981, PhD 1986) Westville, KwaZulu-Natal

Ed’s note: An obituary for Pancho Guedes appears on page 59.

Tom and Arthur and Diabetes Mellitus

Dear Editor,

The fascinating but all too short interview with Professor Arthur Rubenstein in the March 2015 WITSReview calls forth additional encomiums. Not only, with his usual distinction, did he in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania occupy footwear with which William Osler was once shod, but other highly prestigious medical institutions in the United States had enjoyed Rubenstein’s multifarious talents. One relates here an accolade, privately expressed some decades ago: My encounter, either in the old Hillbrow Medical School or in the old “Gen”, with Professor Thomas H. Bothwell, prince of clinicians, then already a decades-long world authority on the metabolism of iron, saw Bothwell hurrying to hear the newly minted Rubenstein, on diabetes mellitus – an accolade expressing the humility of greatness.

Mark N. Lowenthal (MBBCh 1957), Nordiya, Israel

#FeesMustFall cont.


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MAGICAL JOURNEYS AT FOUNDERS’ TEAKate Turkington (MA 1976) was the guest speaker at the annual Founders’

Tea held on the Gavin Relly Green, West Campus on 19 November 2015.

Kate is a travel writer, broadcaster and author. She regaled the 400 alumni

present with tales of her magical journeys and hilarious recollections of

her student days at Wits. A memorial booklet of RAG photographs that

alumni submitted was on each table supplementing the RAG theme of the

Tea. Alumni were invited to write down their Wits memories, a selection

of which appears alongside. Following nationwide student protests in

October 2015, Vice-Chancellor Adam Habib reassured alumni at the Tea of

the University’s commitment to balancing the right to learn with the right

to protest – as is the University’s historical legacy. Founders are alumni

who graduated 40 or more years ago.

Top: Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Tawana Kupe and guest speaker Kate Turkington Bottom left: Round-table reminiscing at Founders’ Tea Bottom right: Graham Richardson (HDip Tax Laws 1981) and his wife, Gaile


PAGE NAME

“The most enduring memory of Wits is how proud I was to be a Witsie and part of a great class learning engineering. That spirit has remained ever since.” Ivor Bailey (BSc Eng Civil 1962)

“I loved my time at Wits in Women’s Res, where I met some lovely friends. We had wonderful lecturers and BA taught me to think and appreciate life. I also met my future husband here!” Pam Bailey (née Steele) (BA 1962)

“RAG 1959. Engineering students blew up the bridge on the river Kwai at His Majesty’s in Commissioner Street – big trouble – traffic stopped – up before the VC on Monday morning. Let’s have a Kwai RAG.” Paul Taylor (BSc Eng Civil 1962)

“Anti-apartheid protests, Wits vs. Tuks rugby game. Wonderful lectures; stimulation after a sheltered childhood. Great friendships, taught me to think! Married a Witsie.” Berna Foden (BSc 1967, BSc

Hons 1970, MSc 1974)

“I remember with sadness the day we arrived at our Zulu lecture to learn that Mr Robert Sobukwe – our very charismatic, much-loved lecturer – had been detained. There was total disbelief followed by anger amongst the group.” Prue Nicolson (née Kingsley-Jones)

“I was a member of the South African Voluntary Services. We built schools and clinics in rural areas during holidays. It shaped my life and my friendships.” Barry Dwolatzky (BSc Eng Elec 1975)

“I remember doing war cry practice at the swimming pool for Inter-Varsity Wits-Tuks.” Barbara Wentworth (BSc 1970)

ReminisceFOUNDERS’ TEA 2015


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HIGHLAND FLING FOR ALUMNI IN EDINBURGHWits and the University of Edinburgh have

formalised a research partnership. Edinburgh’s

Centre of African Studies and Wits’ African

Centre for Migration and Society launched

the Security at the Margins (SeaM) project at

the Edinburgh College of Art on 5 February

2016. The SeaM project explores the

strategies individuals use to negotiate forms

of marginality in urban South Africa. Wits

alumna Dr Jo Vearey (PhD 2010) curated an

exhibition entitled Queer Crossings as part of

the launch. Dr Barbara Bompani, who spent

time at Wits during her PhD, and Professor

James Smith (MSc 1998, PhD 2001) invited

Witsies in Scotland to attend. There are

approximately 80 Witsies in Scotland. Those

who attended proved a lively addition and

socialised late into the night. Prof. Smith is

Vice-Principal International at Edinburgh and

the Wits alumni convener there.

WITSIES ACTIVE IN ISRAELHerzliya Pituach – Nine Wits Medical School graduates of the

class of 1955 reunited for the first time in Israel at the Tavola

Restaurant on 31 October 2015. Convener Dr Neil Schwartz

(MBBCh 1955) welcomed alumni to their 60th anniversary

and noted that Dr David Gruebel Lee (MBBCh 1955) had

travelled all the way from England. Wits’ convener in Israel, Dr

Les Glassman (BSc 1979, BDS 1984), encouraged alumni to

reminisce and recorded the proceedings.

Herzlia – “Mandela and the Jewish community” was the

theme of an event held at Beth Protea on 11 August 2015.

Wits Alumni in Israel, Truth be Told, and Telfed co-organised

the event, which His Excellency, the South African Ambassador

Sisa Ngombane attended. Wits’ convener in Israel, Les

Glassman (BSc 1979, BDS 1984), and Lyn Lochoff (BA 1973),

Director of Beth Protea, addressed guests and Marlene

Bethlehem, former Chairman of the South African Jewish

Board of Deputies shared recollections of her relationship with

the late Nelson Mandela (honorary LLD 1991).

Jerusalem – Wits’ convener in Israel, Dr Les Glassman (BSc

1979, BDS 1984), Telfed and the Jewish National Fund hosted

an event at the Jewish Agency Building on 12 May 2015.

Colonel Richard Kemp, CBE, former commander of British

forces in Afghanistan, and Isla Feldman, Director of the South

African Zionist Federation, were guest speakers. In his address,

Dr Glassman acknowledged the statements of Vice-Chancellor

Adam Habib and Convocation President Professor Mamokgethi

Phakeng to the former SRC President’s pro-Hitler comments.

Glassman said, “Equality is the hallmark that makes us Witsies

proud!”

EDINBURGH, FEBRUARY 2016. LYNDA MURRAY

GETTY IMAGES


SOCIAL

CLASS OF ’66 BOLSTER PV TOBIAS FUND The Wits Medical School class of 1966 reunited in Johannesburg for their 50th anniversary.

The reunion, from February 1–3, combined a fundraising dinner, talks and tours. The class

raised R530 000 ($34 682) for the PV Tobias Fund. Dr Mary Hodkinson (MBBCh 1966, MSc

Med 1990, PhD 1999) and Professor Michael Eliastam (MBBCh 1966) convened the three-day

itinerary. Alumni enjoyed a tour of the archaeological site Drimolen, led by Dr Colin Menter

(PhD 2003), son of Dr Alan Menter (MBBCh 1966), and alumni then enjoyed two nights in

a game reserve. Back on campus, Dr Martin Smith (MBBCh 1982) delivered a talk on health

politics in South Africa. A memorial for deceased alumni preceded cocktails and dinner at the

Adler Museum of Medicine, culminating in an after-dinner address by Dean of the Faculty of

Health Sciences, Professor Martin Veller (MBBCh 1979, MMed 1990).

Back L-R: Errol Hackner, Alan Richards, Otto Thaning, Des Fernandes, John Hodkinson, Keith Marks, David Lipschitz, Alan Menter. Middle L-R: Heather Crewe-Brown, Eric Cohen, John Hyde, Ian Gross, Michael Eliastam, Basil Porter, John Hyde, Rob Jacobson, Ruth Safier (Nathanson), Norman Silverman, Eric Faerber, Alan Reichman. Front L-R: Arthur Bass, Patti Suzman, Roger Rosenberg, Mike Belman, Roy First, Justin Silver, Ryan Kramer, Mary Edginton.


BRAVE NEW WORLD

Markets ebb and flow, but one constant that Naspers Chair Koos Bekker understands is that people need to connect with one another and the world.

A future for a very different worldHEATHER DUGMORE SPEAKS TO WITS ALUMNUS KOOS BEKKER ABOUT COMMUNICATION, CHINA AND TRANSITION.

“Communication technology has transformed the globe in two short decades,” he says.

“For example: of the businesses that Naspers currently operates in 130 countries, about

98% by value did not exist when I graduated with an LLB from Wits in 1978. In the 1980s

came pay TV, in the 1990s cell phones. The internet was invented when I was in my forties,

and today it’s our main business. These days one has to learn on the hoof and the pace of

innovation is quickening, not slowing.”


PAGE NAME

PHOTO CREDITS: COURTESY OF KOOS BEKKER


BRAVE NEW WORLD

Uncanny ability to anticipate the future

With an uncanny ability to anticipate the future

and adapt, he headed for China in 1997 to

invest in communication technology long before

China became a business destination.

Four years later, Naspers hit the jackpot when

it invested US$32-million in a Chinese internet

company called Tencent. Its stake has soared

to US$66-billion today, the most valuable

investment Naspers ever made.

Despite this, Bekker is not especially concerned

about China’s current economic slowdown.

“This year China is growing at a slower pace

than its own average for the past three decades,

but that’s still faster than the United States or

Europe,” he explains.

Chinese slowdown

“The slowdown does not really affect us

because it hit construction and manufacturing

hardest, while Tencent provides consumer

services, focusing on instant messaging, online

games (such as League of Legends), video and

entertainment portals, which continue to grow.”

Tencent now generates the fourth largest

revenue stream of internet companies

worldwide.

“A growing field for us is e-commerce, where

Tencent invested in services like JD (which

resembles Amazon), taxi-hailing apps (like Uber),

and offline-to-online commerce services.”

What people outside China often miss, he

adds, is that it is no come-lately. China was the

biggest economy for most of the past 2 000

years. Only from the 18th century to the end

of the 20th century did it lose that position.

Recognising that China was likely to resume its

pre-eminence, Bekker took the decision to invest

in ICT businesses there 17 years ago.

Sitting in the bath

“It’s a long-term commitment. When markets

struggle, it’s worth reminding oneself while

sitting in the bath that it does not matter at all

what the share price is doing tomorrow, but

it does matter a great deal what it’s doing five

years hence.”

At the age of 62 Bekker has plenty of bathtubs

from which to gain perspective. He has homes

in a number of countries and is constantly

travelling the world, mobile office in hand.

His physical office at Naspers’ headquarters in

Cape Town is on the 17th floor of a landmark

overlooking the harbour, but the internet and

e-commerce world has no fixed geographical

space; the office is everywhere.

Not afraid of risk or failure

He is constantly on the lookout for new

opportunities and he is not afraid of risk or

failure. “Failure is often useful. After all, when

you succeed all you learn is how smart you are,”

he explains.

“FAILURE IS OFTEN USEFUL. AFTER ALL, WHEN YOU SUCCEED ALL YOU LEARN IS HOW SMART YOU ARE”


PAGE NAME

“When you fail, you might possibly learn

to improve yourself. Before Tencent,

for example, our first three investments

in China were flops, then the internet

bubble burst in 2000 and the market

collapsed. We lost all our money, which

is remarkably easy in the fast-moving

internet space. After all, some 90% of

start-ups in this sector fail within 18

months. But then we fixed our defects

and the next round worked out.”

In Bekker’s world “a gun to the head

concentrates the mind admirably”.

Heavily invested in e-commerce

Naspers today is heavily invested in

e-commerce, especially in classifieds,

where it is one of three world leaders.

“But investing in this sector requires

patience,” he adds. “It’s no get-rich-

quick business.”

What certainly helps is that his wits

are attuned to punting futuristically, as

indicated by his Forbes listing amongst

Africa’s richest.

He has as a string of lucrative startup

communication technology investments

to his name, including M-Net,

MultiChoice and being a founder of

mobile technology giant MTN. Both

Naspers and Bekker made substantial

profits from this.

“I’ve been fortunate, but in business your

fortune can change in five minutes. Only

quick adapters will survive long-term,

which is why Naspers will continue to

invest in emerging markets, try new

technologies and seek out young

entrepreneurs with ambitions whom we

can back.”

MY LLB AT WITS“After a BA Law and an Honours in Literature at Stellenbosch University, I joined Wits in 1976 for an LLB. I sought a contrast to Stellenbosch, where I was editor of the student newspaper, which was then at odds with the National Party youth wing on the right.

“Wits offered a progressive metropolitan experience in a vibrant city during the politically turbulent 1970s. I loved the diversity of views.

“Wits had much less of a ‘res’ character than Stellenbosch. Unlike the latter or Cambridge or Yale, Wits does not dominate a town. It’s more like Columbia University in New York, where I studied later: a university at the heart of a metropolitan jungle, breathing and heaving with the city sounds all around.

“While at Wits, I studied by day and translated TV dramas at night. That was the start of a journey that later took me to the US and eventually to the launch of M-Net in 1986.

“Curiously, one often makes one’s lifelong friends at university. I guess you’re too immature still at school, too rigid or preoccupied with the rat race later. University seems to be the ideal moment to link to lifelong friends.”


KOOS BEKKER

GETTY IMAGES


AT A GLANCE

How do you keep balanced?

I’m quite poor at balance – I find work a lot

more entertaining than social chitchat.

What does money mean to you?

A little bit of money buys freedom. But not

that much is needed to live well.

In what way do you think you are useful to society?

Our group created tens of thousands of jobs

in the new South Africa. We also innovated

with technologies like the decoder, of which

R6-billion worth have been exported. We

helped create pay TV and and we helped

launch cellular telephony here. Now we’re

crafting a range of internet services, including

News24 and OLX.

What do you think about South Africa today?

Under Madiba the post-1994 South Africa

started building some sense of common

destiny. That seems to be unravelling. We

haven’t yet achieved a ‘we’ society – where

all feel valued and included. Clearly, we need

to evolve a society where people are not

classified by race. A good public school system

is the most efficient equaliser. But our worst

performance as a country is a dysfunctional

school system. So there’s work to do.

What do you think about South Africa’s economy?

South Africa has grown at a real average of

3.1% since 1994, which is better than the

Eurozone or the US. Looked at differently:

about half the wealth in South Africa today

(thus all the shares, property, cash) was

created since 1994, post-apartheid.

These are big achievements. However, most recently,

our economic trends turned sharply negative. We have

enterprising people and one of the most beautiful

countries in the world, so if we address this trend with

a sense of urgency and manage our economy well,

there is no reason why we cannot prosper.

Should Mandarin be taught at schools in South Africa?

Yes, without a doubt. Naspers helped establish

the first department of Mandarin at a South

African university, today the Confucius Institute at

Stellenbosch. Any local child who manages to master

Mandarin has acquired a useful skill. Learning the

language not only helps us communicate with people

in one of the top two economies globally, it also

teaches us quite a bit about Chinese culture, including

dinner etiquette, history and the way to do business:

it’s an exciting, fascinating culture.

How is business done in China?

By comparison, in the US one can easily conclude a

major long-term contract without ever eating with

your counterpart. Good luck if you try this in China:

there, you first have to establish trust. This is best

done by spending time together and sharing a meal

where famous Chinese dishes are served.

What’s your favourite Chinese dish?

Up North: Beijing kaoya (Peking duck). I’m also partial

to the clean steamed fish dishes of Guangdong in the

South and the spicy stuff from Sichuan in the West.

I must add that Chinese red wines have markedly

improved over the past decade.

What can South Africa learn from China?

One of the interesting features there is that civil

servants are often highly qualified and most efficient.

They make it clear that foreign investment in China is

welcome and they are very helpful to new investors.

At

a gl

ance

Q&

A w

ith

Koos

Bek

ker


PAGE NAME

“I love universities and being around young

people, which is why I lectured at a few

places from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia to

Maastricht to Nanjing.

“It’s remarkable how Asian students are more

ambitious than Western ones – in China students will

mob you after the lecture, each punting their business

concept. European students in general have a less

burning drive to succeed and some start talking about

the weekend on Wednesday.

The future is in transition

“As for the future of universities worldwide, it’s in

transition. In the past you went to university for three

to seven years, and loaded up on knowledge that you

then applied in the world outside for the rest of your

life. That model is now breaking down in a world

where fast innovation compels us to retrain ourselves

every few years.

“The present-day university emerged out of the

monasteries of the Middle Ages and retains many of

the old titles and habits. This conservative foundation is

not well suited to the new pace of innovation.

“Many universities seem perplexed how to respond.

Some, like MIT in the United States, go online in

hearty fashion, hoping to build out a global brand and

one day to figure out how to earn income from this

model. On the other hand institutes like Oxford do

the opposite: avoid online and emphasise the unique

benefits of their traditional face-to-face tutorial system.

Restructure to compete

“The jury is out, but I suspect lots of universities will go

under rather than make the transition, and restructure

the way they operate to compete with other higher

learning institutions. They need to offer more short

courses to meet the ongoing need for new skills, which

is also a wonderful opportunity for universities to retain

students over the long term.

“Universities also need to offer far more blended

learning and online study options to meet the

growing demand for higher education, and to be

able to offer access to students wherever they are

situated. Geography will no longer provide protection

to universities as higher education options become

increasingly available online.”

COMMUNICATION IS CHANGING THE FACE OF UNIVERSITIES


30 AUGUST – 4 SEPTEMBER 2016

2016 Health Sciences Reunion & Gala Dinner

Faculty of Health Sciences, Wits University

All Health Sciences graduates from around the globe are invited to reunite with classmates, lecturers and their alma mater to reminisce and renew friendships. The reunion will also celebrate and honour the following special anniversary classes: 2006, 1996, 1991, 1986, 1981, 1976, 1971, and 1966.

The preliminary programme includes visits to the Adler Museum of Medicine, the Anatomy Museum, Wits Art Museum, Origins Centre, Institute of Evolutionary Studies (formerly Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research), and the Phillip V Tobias Health Sciences Building, among others. There will be cocktails and dinner at the revamped Wits Club and talks that include the AJ Orenstein Memorial lecture and various research topics.

Email your interest in attending to HGA President, Dr Paul Davis, [email protected]

THURSDAY 23 JUNE 2016

Alumni Networking Event with guest speaker Arthur Goldstuck, MD WorldWideWorx

Technology Trends Shaping the Next Decade

Wits Club, West Campus, Wits Time: 09:00 | Cost: R100 per person

Details: [email protected] | 011 717 1093

5 – 8 AUGUST 2016

A Festschrift to honour Prof. Michael Kew | South African Gastroenterology Society (SAGES) Congress

Council for Scientific & Industrial Research

The Gastroenterology Foundation of South Africa will recognise eminent alumnus Professor Michael Kew by hosting a Festschrift symposium on liver cancer and viral hepatitis on Monday 8 August. Confirmed international speakers at the symposium include Dr Adrian Di Bisceglie (USA), Professor Geoff Dusheiko (UK), Dr Jay Hoofnagle (USA), and Dr Massimo Pinzani (UK). The symposium forms part of the SAGES congress from 5–8 August.

All interested alumni are welcome to attend. Details: Karin Fenton, [email protected]

18 – 20 OCTOBER 2016

Biennial Wits Medical School Alumni Reunion

Hotel Contessa, San Antonio, Texas, USA

The reunion, which will honour the Class of 1966’s 50th anniversary, is open to all Medical graduates but attendance is limited to 80 guests.

Details: Dr Martin Coleman, [email protected]

17 NOVEMBER 2016

Founders’ Tea

Guest speaker: The Public Protector, advocate Thuli Madonsela (LLB 1991) Gavin Relly Green, West Campus, Wits Details: [email protected] | 011 717 1093

WHAT’S ON


SYLVIA GLASSER

Back in 1977, one year after South Africa’s Soweto Riots, dancer and choreographer Sylvia Glasser and her husband Professor David Glasser were on sabbatical in Houston, Texas.

Moving bodies, changing lives

BY LANA JACOBSON


MOVING INTO DANCE

South Africans of all

races were fearful

about developments

in the country at

that time and many

families emigrated, mostly to

Canada, the UK and Australia.

David, a Professor of Chemical

Engineering at Wits, was

offered a job in Houston

but the couple felt strongly

that South Africa had given

them so much that they were

compelled to return and make

a worthwhile contribution to

their country of birth.

Sylvia was already a celebrated

teacher and choreographer,

having studied dance for

almost five years at the

London College of Dance and

Drama in the early 1960s and

completed a diploma course

there, as well as an MA in

Dance from the University of

Clear Lake City in Houston and

a BA degree at Wits.

On their return from the

USA Sylvia decided to start

a nonracial dance company,

teaching from her garage,

and in 1978 she founded

Moving into Dance (MID).

Funding was non-existent. The

whole family was involved:

David recorded music, made

the sets, photographed the

dances, took videos and

worked with sound during

performances. (He went on

to become chairman of MID

as a non-profit organisation.) 1983 MID company Great Hall. Photo Nan Melville


SYLVIA GLASSER

Their daughter Nadine danced with

the company for two years and their

son Benjamin worked backstage from

the age of 15, until they too joined the

family tradition of graduating from Wits,

with honours in Computer Science and

an MSc in Chemical Engineering, later

receiving PhDs respectively in Australia

and the USA.

It was risky at the time to teach racially

mixed classes. However, Sylvia openly

stated: “My work was, and is, implicitly

and explicitly political, and a total

contradiction to apartheid. I was using

African dance aesthetics, ritual and music

mixed with Western contemporary dance

forms, which I later called Afrofusion.”

Black dancers often slept at the Glassers’

Johannesburg home as it was dangerous

for them to travel at night, and this

compounded the risk of arrest for the

Glassers and the dancers.

In 1981 the first mixed dance

performance was held at Wits Great

Hall. There were three black dancers and

eight white dancers. In later years all the

dancers were black. During the 1980s

and early 1990s MID was a platform for

black and white people to come together

to break down barriers of apartheid.

Funding trickled in from mining

companies and some banks, and

with the support of the Students

Representative Council (SRC) MID

performed at Wits for 10 years. Sylvia

reminisces, “I loved my time at Wits. The

SRC enabled me to produce work which

I couldn’t do elsewhere. My audience

were students and lecturers.”

The performances garnered rave

reviews in some quarters, but were

scorned in others. Awards for Sylvia’s

work and her protégés’ choreography

and dance flowed

in. She empowered

and transformed the

lives of hundreds of

performers, teachers,

choreographers and

leaders in the dance

community.

Moving into Dance also

performed regularly

at the celebrated

Dance Umbrella, which

raised the standard of

contemporary dance in

South Africa. This too

was a nonracial and

free platform for the

company to present

its work. It promoted

young choreographers

from MID and

helped launch their

international careers.

Towards the end of the

1980s Sylvia enrolled

at Wits for a three-

year course in social

anthropology. “I wanted

to know more about

socio-cultural activities

and my lecturers and

mentors were the late

David Hammond-Tooke,

the late David Webster,

who was assassinated

while I was a student, and Professor

David Lewis-Williams.”

“I LOVED MY TIME AT WITS.

THE SRC ENABLED ME

TO PRODUCE WORK

WHICH I COULDN’T

DO ELSEWHERE”


MOVING INTO DANCE

Sylvia then established a full-time MID Community

Dance Teachers Training Course and an Edudance

Outreach programme in under-resourced schools.

She developed the methodology to teach academic

subjects and social issues

through dance. She has

written 10 academic

papers that have been

presented at international

conferences, and published

in international journals and

books.

“A landmark in my

development was a work

called Tranceformations,

inspired by San trance

dancing and rock art. I was

guided by Prof. Lewis-

Williams’ interpretation of

rock art.

“I felt one of the important

things I managed to achieve

was to mentor and develop

the talent of underprivileged

choreographers, performers

and teachers who became

internationally famous, such

as Gregory Maqoma and

Vincent Mantsoe,” says

Sylvia.

In 1998, when Moving into

Dance celebrated its 20th

anniversary, in a book titled

20 Years Moving Into Dance

Mophatong, Judge Albie

Sachs wrote: “We South

Africans are good at doing

the impossible. We are not

so good at doing the ordinary. Moving into Dance has

done the impossible and by their very triumph helped to

make the unreachable ordinary.

1983 PHOTO NAN MELVILLE


SYLVIA GLASSER

“They started with virtually no facilities. They were largely a raw

and untutored mix of people from totally divided backgrounds,

frightened by history from establishing physical and rhythmic

contact. They built up an audience unique in South Africa, one

which, unlike other audiences for the other performing arts,

cheers and stamps and expresses its enthusiasm with energy and

engagement.”

Under Sylvia’s guidance, a flow of formerly historically

disadvantaged, impoverished, untrained dancers flourished

and made their mark in the international arena, while MID as a

professional dance company also toured Africa, Europe, Canada,

the USA and Malaysia. “A highlight for me was being selected

as Artistic Director of the South African dance contingent of 35

performers for EXPO 2000 in Hanover Germany,” she says.

Sylvia’s more recent works, such as Blankets of Shame, deal with

urban violence, stigma and denial in relation to rape, paedophilia

and AIDS; in 2008 she collaborated with the acclaimed poet

Lebo Mashile in creating Threads, a multidisciplinary work which

garnered high praise. It dealt with Sylvia’s focus on gender,

socio-political issues and identity.

A review in the Sowetan called it “history in the making”.

Business Day described it as “powerful but deeply lyrical”. And

The Star said: “Threads, with its themes of Afro pessimism

and its stand on abuse against women and children, has

enormous potential to be just as ground-breaking as Glasser’s

Tranceformations and Blankets of Shame.”

In 2013, after nearly 36 years, Sylvia retired from her active role

in MID, but the company continues on the firm foundations

she laid. In 2014 she was awarded a knighthood in the Order

of Oranje-Nassau on behalf of the King of the Netherlands for

“her contribution to democracy (during and after apartheid),

cultural co-operation between South Africa and the Netherlands,

education and the arts, especially her commitment to the

training of young dancers of all races.”

She is now writing a book titled Tranceformations and going

with her husband on an extended trip to Sydney, Australia to

join Nadine and their granddaughters.

1998 MID, Passage of Rites. Photos John Hogg

2008 MID, Blankets of Shame, Luyanda Sidiya & Sonia Radebe


MOVING INTO DANCE

AWARDS AND HONOURS1995 FNB Vita Dance Umbrella Choreographer of the Year

1997 MID Mophatong FNB Vita Special Achievement Award for “developing a uniquely South African voice in contemporary choreography and dance acknowledged both here and abroad”

1998 & 2008 named as one of the Top 100 People in The Star newspaper

2000 FNB Special Award as “one of South Africa’s national cultural treasures, a remarkable social activist whose exceptional work in specifically African dance changes lives, perceptions and the face of South African dance”

2004 Lifetime Achievement award from the Arts and Culture Trust

2014 Knighthood in the Order of Oranje-Nassau

2014 Sylvia Glasser, Netherlands Knighthood Photo John Hogg


RESEARCHING PHILANTHROPY

“THE NOTION OF PHILANTHROPY REFERS TO THE LOVE OF HUMANITY, A MORAL PHILOSOPHY MANIFEST ACROSS AFRICA AS UBUNTU”

Thinking about

Gifting in AfricaBY DEBORAH MINORS

GETTY IMAGES


RESEARCHING PHILANTHROPY

The objective is to create a

research, academic and

teaching focus around the

production and publication

of knowledge on gifting and

its many roles within African

societies. The Southern

African Trust is the partner

organisation.

After living many years in

African countries, Professor

Alan Fowler is currently Emeritus Professor, Institute

of Social Studies, Erasmus University, The Hague. He is

British and speaks English, Dutch and Swahili. He has

been actively involved in both the theory and practice

of international development, concentrating on civil

society organisations. His expertise span politics and

political-economy; the design, organisation and

management of non-profit organisations involved

in development; rural extension; vocational training;

adult education; and electronic engineering.

Professor Fowler, a self-confessed “pracademic”, will

move away from practical consulting to concentrate

on research and writing as the incumbent Chair in

African Philanthropy.

“A critical research theme will start to explore

endogenous philanthropy, or gifting, across sub-

Saharan Africa,” he says.

Gifting is an age-old practice in Africa and plays a

central role within communities across the continent

and the Diaspora. The notion of philanthropy refers

to the love of humanity, a moral philosophy manifest

across Africa as ubuntu (“a person is a person through

other people”).

The Southern Africa Trust helps civil society

organisations participate in policy dialogue so as to

give impetus to the voices of

the poor. Executive Director

Dr Bhekinkosi Moyo regards

philanthropy as the new

paradigm in development, but

equally values investment in

education.

“We have learnt the importance

of practising philanthropy

and studying it,” he says.

“Integrating theory and practice

ensures there is a link between

resources, their utilisation, and

the needs of Africans – this is

why the Chair was established.”

The Chair links the private sector and personal giving

with educational programmes, and with critical areas

in the African economic and political landscape that

provide additional opportunities to achieve sustainable

development.

Professor Steve Bluen, Director of Wits Business

School, says, “Our mission is to create the academic,

research, leadership and character excellence

conditions that nurture graduates who achieve

beyond themselves as Africa’s leaders, in business and

in society. This Chair fits perfectly with who we are as

an institution and what we aim to achieve in Africa.”

The Wits Business School has launched an initiative bringing African philanthropy to the continent as a field of research and learning. A Chair in African Philanthropy, the first of its kind on the continent, will lead the process. The Ford Foundation funded the start-up of the Chair, which Visiting Professor Alan Fowler will initially occupy.

GETTY IMAGES

Prof. Alan Fowler Chair in African

Philanthropy


PAGE NAME

Rogue genes & heart attacksWhen a 21-year-old woman died under his care from her fifth heart attack, Dr Evan Stein began researching and then described the frequency of inherited high cholesterol – familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). It affects one in 70 Afrikaners and is also prevalent among Jewish and Indian South Africans. In December 2015, Dr Stein funded the establishment of an FH facility at Wits.

BY DEBORAH MINORS

GETTY IMAGES


FAMILIAL PHILANTHROPY

Dr Evan Stein (pronounced “stine”, not “stain”) carries

a recognisable South African accent beneath an

occasional American twang that’s developed since

his emigration in 1974. He was born in Zimbabwe

and came to study medicine at Wits in 1965.

“I didn’t want to go where everyone else went,” he says. “UCT was

Rhodesia-by-the-sea!” This and Wits’ rugby tradition enticed him. He

played prop in Wits under-20A. “I was two inches taller then and about

the same weight, but it was differently distributed then…” he says.

Weighty matters – specifically lipids (fats) and cholesterol metabolism

– would define Stein’s career. He graduated MBBCh in 1970 and then

seminal incidents during his internship set the trajectory for his life’s work.

“A 21-year-old girl with a severe and rare form of inherited high

cholesterol died under my care a month into my internship,” says Stein.

“A month later, I was caring for a 28-year-old man with a heart attack,

who also had FH. These incidents provided a lifelong interest in

cholesterol metabolism.”

In 1972, Stein, then 25, established the first lipid clinic in South

Africa. His mentor, Professor John Hansen (honorary PhD

1997), facilitated the establishment of the Familial Lipid

Disorders Centre located in the Transvaal Memorial Hospital

for Children. Professor Dennis Mendelsohn (BSc 1949, BSc

Hon 1950, MBBCh 1954, DMed 1963) at the South African

Institute of Medical Research and Professor Issy Berson

provided laboratory space and research funding.

“They made it possible to turn this initial interest into a real

research career.”

Stein served as clinician-in-charge at the lipid clinic until 1974.

Then he went to McMaster University Medical Center in Canada

to specialise in Medical Biochemistry. In 1977, he moved to the

USA to take up the post of Director of the Chemical

Pathology Division at the University of Cincinnati

Medical Center. He was also appointed to

the Department of Internal Medicine

and had a patient practice in the

Lipid Research Center.

“I IDENTIFIED THE HIGH

FREQUENCY OF FH IN THE

AFRIKANER POPULATION”

GETTY IMAGES


DR EVAN STEIN

Over the last four decades he has investigated and

researched cholesterol-lowering treatments. He was

one of the initial investigators to study statins and

carried out the first human clinical trials for the latest

and most effective drugs, PCSK9 inhibitors.

In 1987 he left the University of the Cincinnati

as a tenured full professor and established three

companies: the Cholesterol Treatment Center; the

Christ Hospital Cardiovascular Research Center for

clinical trials; and Medical Research Laboratories,

a central lab for clinical trials conducted by the

pharmaceutical industry and the National Institutes

of Health. Stein sold it to Pharmaceutical Products

Development Inc in 2002.

“My wife, Lindsay Stein, PhD, [née Smith] (BA Honours

Speech & Hearing Therapy 1972), was closely involved

in the Cardiovascular Research Center,” says Stein.

In the 1990s, Stein started other companies serving

the pharmaceutical industry and mostly related to

cholesterol metabolism and diabetes. In 1992 he and

a colleague established Medpace, which provides

clinical trial management services. In 1995 he formed

the Metabolic & Atherosclerosis Research Center. In

2015, he and Dr August Troendle, the Chief Executive

of Medpace, established LIB Therapeutic, a biotech

pharmaceutical company that develops drugs for

cholesterol treatment.

A PhD about FH causing heart attacks

Throughout his entrepreneurial ventures, Stein

continued in academia. He was a voluntary professor

at the University of Cincinnati until 2015, and still

teaches and lectures extensively in the USA and

abroad as a visiting professor. He has published nearly

300 papers in peer-reviewed journals and carries a

Hirsch index of 77 with over 31 000 citations. While at

Wits his research on inherited high cholesterol earned

him a PhD in 1981.

“I identified the high frequency of FH in the Afrikaner

population, mostly by screening for high cholesterol

in cord blood from the placenta of newborn babies,”

he says. “The frequency I came up with was one in

66. It took two years of arguing with an external

examiner who said this was nonsense – the recognised

frequency for FH around the world was one in 500

at the time. Over the years further data came out

confirming one in 70 in the Afrikaner population.”

“If we didn’t have cholesterol, we wouldn’t survive,”

says Stein. “It’s a brick in the wall of every human

cell. Every cell has the enzymes required to make

cholesterol, but most is made in the liver and

transported through the blood stream to other cells.”

So what is the role of cholesterol in causing heart

disease? It all comes down to how cholesterol is

transported through the blood stream.

Oil tankers, faulty ports, and a misguided captain

“Think of cholesterol as oil and the liver as the Middle

East,” explains Stein. “Although the world can make

its own energy, we depend on production in the

Middle East. Cholesterol is oil and can’t be transported

on its own through the blood stream because blood

is water-based, meaning the oil will separate, float

because it’s lighter, and stick to solid surfaces.

“Just as oil tankers transport oil through the ocean,

we have ‘tankers’ called LDL [low density lipoprotein].

Our LDL tankers have a water soluble protein shell

and carry cholesterol inside. The LDL moves safely

through the blood stream after being loaded with

cholesterol and instructions to transport it to various

cholesterol-needing cells. These cells have special ports

or terminals, called LDL receptors. The protein coating

on the LDL tanker acts like the captain. It exchanges

signals with the LDL receptor and, if all is okay, ‘docks’

and safely offloads its cholesterol and other contents.


FAMILIAL PHILANTHROPY

“...IT CAN LEAD TO VERY EARLY HEART DISEASE AND DEATH AS YOUNG AS TWO OR THREE YEARS OLD”

“Just as oil serves no purpose during transport

through the ocean, cholesterol has no purpose while

being transported in the blood stream. However,

when LDL tankers accumulate and stay too long in the

blood stream, the cholesterol leaks out, then infiltrates

and damages the arteries – similar to when a rusty

oil tanker ruptures, releases its oil and damages the

environment. This is why LDL is sometimes called bad

cholesterol.

“In FH the most common defect is in the terminal,

the LDL receptor, which is under genetic control. FH

causes genetic defects that affect the construction

of the LDL receptor and impair its off-loading of

cholesterol. If the LDL tankers aren’t cleared (which

starts at birth in those with FH), they accumulate in

the blood stream and eventually release cholesterol,

which blocks the arteries and causes a heart attack.”

The rogue gene

FH is the commonest inherited disease in the world

associated with significant morbidity and mortality

(disease and death). It affects one in 250 or 30-million

people worldwide. In South Africa, in the Afrikaner,

Jewish and Indian populations, it’s even more

common: one in 70 to one in 100 – the highest in the

world. The reason? A rogue gene.

“It’s because of the gene founder effect,” explains

Stein. “A few of South Africa’s early immigrants in the

1600s stepped off a boat from Holland or France with

that gene, and because early settlers lived in isolated

communities for many years, the rogue genes spread

quite widely.”

There’s a 50/50 chance that first degree relatives –

brother, sister, father, mother or child – will have FH

as it is not gender specific.

“If you’re unfortunate enough to inherit two rogue

genes, one from each parent, you will have no

functioning ports or LDL receptors at all,” says Dr

Stein. “Soon after birth, LDL cholesterol is extremely

high and deposited everywhere – in skin, tendons and

eyes. It can lead to very early heart disease and death

as young as two or three years old.”

The Evan Stein Centre for FH at Wits

In 2013 Stein and Professor Frederick Raal (MBBCh

1981, MMed1991, PhD 2000) conceived a programme

to detect and treat FH. Raal is an endocrinologist and

runs the lipid clinic Stein established in Johannesburg

45 years ago.

In December 2015, the Wits Council approved the

establishment of the Evan Stein FH Centre, made

possible by a $460 000 donation from Stein and

a $750 000 endowment from the University of

Pennsylvania that Stein enabled, related to work they

had done together.

Stein concludes, “This is a way for me to contribute

here where funding for FH research is limited.”

your CHILDREN have a 50% chance

of inheriting FH

50%

If YOU have FH


NIC KOHLER

PHOTOS CREDITS: COURTESY OF NIC KOHLER AND HOLLARD


PROFILE

Nic Kohler, Wits alumnus (BSc 1993) and the CEO of the Hollard Insurance Group, talks to Heather Dugmore about alpine challenges and the need for business and capitalism to change.

Climbing Mountains, Changing Capitalism

BY HEATHER DUGMORE


NIC KOHLER

We all know that accident and

health insurance is only really

tested in complex, bizarre

situations – and who better to

attest to this than Nic Kohler.

Over tea in his office at Hollard Insurance’s head office

in Parktown, Joburg – a stately complex with Herbert

Baker buildings and giant old jacaranda trees lining

the driveway – he shares the following story:

“Halfway through Day 6, on a steep,

treacherous descent, I went too fast

and landed up flying off the edge of a

cliff. I fell only a short distance, but the

handlebars sliced open my stomach and

thigh muscles.”

Kohler is describing what happened in

2012 during the Italian leg of the Transalp

Mountain Bike Stage Race across the Alps.

This is one of the toughest mountain bike

races in the world.

He had to be airlifted to an Italian hospital

by helicopter. The handlebars missed his

femoral artery by less than a centimetre.

If it had been severed he would not be

here to tell the tale. If he hadn’t been

comprehensively covered for this extreme

kind of emergency … well, he was.

“The main trauma was not being able to

finish the race,” he smiles. “And when I

got back to work of course I had to put up

with endless ribbing from my colleagues

about whether I was competent to be

running an insurance business, for which

sound risk management is critical.”

These days he’s slightly more wary of vertical descents

but nothing will keep him off his mountain bike or

away from that monster of mountain bike races, the

Cape Epic. It’s also much closer to his home in Joburg

and excellent medical care.

“Accidents are an important part of learning and

building skills. Admittedly small accidents are better

than big ones but I believe in perseverance, and

in getting right back on that horse or bicycle and

climbing the next mountain,” he says.

Perseverance and hard work run in the blood of this

third generation Witsie, who was a resident of Ernest

Oppenheimer Hall in the late 1980s/early 1990s when

he studied statistics and actuarial science.

“In 1989 there was plenty of police action on campus.

They would frequently use teargas to disperse crowds

of students calling for Mandela’s release, which, as we

know, happened in February 1990,” explains Kohler,

who chaired the first non-racial house committee at

EOH in 1991.


PROFILE

Everyone on campus felt the gravitas of the era, but there was also plenty of

youthful folly, and Kohler admits that he “may have run through the streets

of Hillbrow with very little clothing on and frightened the life out of the fish in

the Wartenweiler Library fountain.”

As he speaks, the different tones of his personality joust for position. The side

of him that believes you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously sprinkles the

conversation with playful anecdotes, but his deeply respectful, responsible core

being moves to centre stage every time.

There is no doubt the fish in the

fountain can also attest that he put

in serious hours of study in order to

graduate. And to get where he is in his

profession he has continued working

extremely hard for 24 years, 19 of

which have been with Hollard.

“The knowledge, wisdom and belief

that we all have the power to change

things that seem unmovable, all of

which I gained during my time at Wits,

has enabled me to contribute, through

Hollard, to a more sustainable society,

and a work environment where people

can thrive,” says Kohler, who strongly

believes that capitalism and business

need to change.

“There is no doubt in my mind that

the extraction mindset of business as

we know it, and the capitalist system

within which we currently operate, are

unsustainable. This form of capitalism,

which seeks to maximise shareholder

wealth above all else, created the

global financial crisis of 2008 and the

subsequent increase in unemployment,

social unrest and austerity measures.

“If we don’t start to embrace the concept of a more conscious form of

capitalism, if we don’t accept the responsibility of helping to address inequality

and becoming more constructive contributory members of society, then I fear

we will all become the helpless observers of an unravelling.”

“I BELIEVE IN PERSEVERANCE, AND IN GETTING RIGHT BACK ON THAT HORSE OR BICYCLE AND CLIMBING THE NEXT MOUNTAIN”

Nic on the Transalp Mountain Bike Stage Race across the Alps


NIC KOHLER

He explains that in South Africa, where the

unemployment rate is between 25% and 37% and

where 53% of youth are unemployed, companies

need to rethink their role in society, both in terms of

the business they do and the way in which they do

business.

“While there is no doubt that the profit motive is a

critical part of business, it cannot be the sole measure

of a company’s success. Performance indicators

must also measure how a company is contributing

to building social capital, human capital and

environmental capital.”

Kohler adds that the wage gap between CEOs or

business owners and the majority of staff members is

far too large and that companies need to address this.

“At Hollard we are making sure that the greatest

percentage increases are being paid to the lowest paid

staff to ensure that they can lead dignified lives,” he

explains.

To achieve this, the company is researching basic

living costs and educational costs and has raised the

minimum wage to reflect this. “I also believe that we

have shown restraint in executive pay and I think it is

an issue we should be prepared to address further. I

would support capping of executive pay. There comes

a point when you are earning enough and more than

this is greedy. We live in a country with an enormous

inequality problem and we need to be sensitive to this

and to play our part in addressing it.

“I am confident that if all South African institutions think more holistically

about our impact on and contribution to broader society, then we will

collectively make an important difference.”

Hollard is a founding member of an initiative called the Harambee Youth

Employment Accelerator (harambee.co.za), which seeks to address market

employment failure by matching and placing disadvantaged but talented

young people in full-time employment through an outstanding bridging

programme.

“OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, WE HOPE TO BRING 500 000 YOUNG PEOPLE CLOSER TO WORK”


Harambee helps young people with a

matric or equivalent qualification who

have been looking for a full-time job,

but have not been able to find one. It

does the same for young people with

a university degree or other tertiary

qualification.

“I am proud to say that from 2011 to

2015 the initiative has placed over 20

000 young people in formal jobs,” says

Kohler. “Over the next five years, we

hope to bring 500 000 young people

closer to work, providing all of them

with market-relevant employability

services and assisting 100 000 young

people to find formal jobs.”

As the parents of four, he and his wife

Janet are committed to South Africa and

to helping improve the lives of fellow

South Africans.

“I hope to raise wonderful, hardworking, socially

conscious children. Three of our children are under 10

years of age and our fourth, a foster child, is 21 and

working in a call centre.”

They fostered their oldest daughter, Ivy Tshabalala,

when she was 13 years old. She is the child of Kohler’s

late housekeeper, Catherine Tshabalala. Shortly after

graduating from Wits he made a commitment to

Catherine that if anything happened to her, he would

help Ivy to get a decent education. Sadly, Catherine

passed away.

“I managed to find Ivy near Harare in Zimbabwe. I

went there with the intention of making sure that

she was in a good school but she was living in such

terrible conditions that I received permission from

her relatives to foster her. My wife was incredibly

supportive of Ivy becoming a member of our family.”

Education at all levels is a key focus for

Kohler, who regards it as South Africa’s

most pressing problem and one that

needs to be creatively solved.

“There is this fascinating book called

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than

You Think, by engineer and physician

Peter Diamandis, who is part of an

organisation called Singularity University.

“It’s all about using the power of

rapidly developing technology to

start overcoming humanity’s biggest

challenges, including education, poverty

and inequality,” Kohler explains. “If

used appropriately, technology can

increasingly enable citizens in developing

countries to take charge of improving

their own lives and prospects, rather

than being constrained by inefficient

governments.

“Technology can be used to clean water in deep rural

communities. It can be used to facilitate education and

generate energy efficiently, cheaply and renewably.

“When 800-million resourceful African people,

unconstrained by conventional wisdom, are able to

access better education and the World Wide Web,

there will be an explosion of global innovation and

progress. The world will move forward rapidly,

without waiting for governments that may or may not

follow through on their promises.”

He believes that South Africa and the world need

idealists, imaginers and revolutionary thinkers: “We

need the curious, the explorers and the lifetime

learners. We need people with a head for paradox and

hands for hard work. But most of all, we need people

with heart.”

PROFILE

“BUT MOST OF ALL, WE NEED PEOPLE WITH HEART”

GAME CHANGER

Q & Awith

Gideon KhobaneBY DEBORAH MINORS

Wits alumnus Gideon Khobane, 39, is the new Chief Executive of SuperSport. He joined the MultiChoice Group in 2008 and held posts as Head of Marketing and Publicity for M-Net Africa and Director for Research and Business Intelligence for M-Net South Africa. He is a chartered marketer and holds a Master’s in Strategic Management (2014) from WBS.

BY DEBORAH MINORS



Q&A

In 2008 your task was to grow the Africa Magic portfolio of channels. Are you satisfied with the growth and do you think these channels deliver the content Africa prefers?

Consumer preferences change over time. The

challenge in the video entertainment business is

to continually evolve and look for new ways to

entertain diverse audiences; to create an affinity

with the content by establishing new reality

formats, drama series, or comedy specials.

In 2012 we refocused the Africa Magic business

to meet the needs of consumers in West

Africa, and Nigeria in particular. This market has

a deep affinity with video entertainment – the

size and scale of the “Nollywood” film market

attests to that.

What’s your opinion of those who audition for reality shows like Big Brother Africa, which you launched?

It takes a certain type of individual to leave the

security of family and friends to participate in a

“social experiment” for three months! I deeply

respect the applicants as I think it requires

incredible confidence and self-esteem to open

yourself up like that to an entire continent. You

have to be willing to be judged and have your

life choices and lifestyle scrutinised.

You launched the Face of Africa, the Channel O Music Video Awards, Idols East & West Africa, and the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards. Does Africa have talent?

Africa is brimming with talent. Talent requires

opportunity and I’m happy to have played a

part in unearthing this talent for Africa and the

world. There is still more to be done to support

Africa’s creative industries so they thrive and

become commercially successful. We need to

do more to support our artists, actors, designers

and the broader creative fraternity.

What was your (part-time) campus experience at Wits and how did you balance work, life and study?

Attending lectures and group meetings on

weekday evenings and Saturdays was easy.

My challenge was working on the individual

assignments and final dissertation. My

supervisor’s support was critical. The campus

experience was phenomenal. I made lifelong

friends and Wits was very supportive. I really

enjoy learning so it wasn’t a massive sacrifice.

Fortunately MultiChoice corporate culture

supports individuals who are keen to study

further.

To what extent has your Master’s and your Wits experience prepared you for the role of CEO of SuperSport?

I’m not certain that any education can prepare

one fully for the challenges of running a

multinational business. Education is key but

experience and internal support are vital. I

believe my studies at WBS challenged me to

push my thinking beyond what I imagined I was

capable of achieving. It was an intellectually

challenging and rewarding experience.

What’s your opinion on university sports and are you a sportsman yourself?

I’m not qualified to give an opinion just yet!

University sports will thrive only if we build

secondary school sports across all of South

Africa’s economic sectors.

Sport is life! I run regularly and play football

and golf socially. I love Arsenal FC, Bafana

Bafana, the Proteas and the Springboks. I

think all human beings identify with sporting

achievement; that’s why we celebrate with our

sports stars when they win, or commiserate

when they don’t.


DR CYRIL MAZANSKY

The Photographer Radiologist

Over the years it has emerged that many of our alumni medical doctors and specialists have incredible artistic talent

and interests outside their medical careers. Dr Cyril Mazansky (BSc Wits 1966, MBBCh 1969) is one of them.

Sunrise on Moraine Lake, Canadian Rockies


LENS OF A MEDIC

BY HEATHER DUGMORE

Top: Leading into Upper Waterfowl Lake Middle: Marrakesch, Morocco Bottom: Turret Arch through North Window, Arches National Park, Utah


DR CYRIL MAZANSKY

“As much as medicine intellectually

stimulated me and I hope I was a good

doctor, it was not an all-consuming

passion. I firmly believe that to truly fulfil

oneself intellectually, one must develop

other interests besides one’s career,” says Dr Cyril Mazansky, who

has always pursued several interests, including photography.

He moved to Boston in 1972 after graduating with his medical

degree in order to pursue a speciality in radiology.

“When I qualified, South Africa offered training in many top

specialities, but I did not think that radiology was one of them. My

best option was to move to America, where I was accepted at the

Boston University School of Medicine training programme,” he

explains.

“In America, Wits Medical School has always been held in high

esteem, and its graduates have almost uniformly done well. I think

this made it easier for me to get my residency in Boston.”

Mazansky was 27 at the time, married to his Witsie wife Harriet,

who was 25, and they had a one-year-old daughter.

Assimilating into American society

“We effortlessly assimilated into American society. Compared to

South Africa at the time, it was such an open society. I loved the

culture, the interest in politics and the arts among my colleagues,

and the constant drive to break new boundaries,” Mazansky says.

“It is my belief that the American higher education system,

grounded first in an undergraduate degree that is rooted mostly in

the liberal arts, in general makes for more well-rounded individuals.

They may then choose to embark upon a specialised university

postgraduate degree in the professions, arts or sciences.”

Now 71 years of age, Mazansky retired from radiology at the end

of 2014. He counts himself fortunate to have had a great career in

Boston, and at the same time to know great love in his marriage

and for their two daughters, Janet and Ruth, who are married and

living in America.


LENS OF A MEDIC

“I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT TO TRULY FULFIL ONESELF INTELLECTUALLY,

ONE MUST DEVELOP OTHER INTERESTS BESIDES ONE’S CAREER”

Lake Louise, Canadian Rockies


DR CYRIL MAZANSKY

He now has more time

on his hands to focus on

his extraordinary range of

photographic, historical and

literary interests.

Ever since his high school days at

King David Linksfield, he has had

an interest in Anglo-European

history, as well as the scholarly

historical aspects of Judaic studies.

One of the books he has authored

covers the bibliography, history

and typology of the traditional

Jewish sages and scholars over

the centuries, titled: The Sages of

Our Tradition: Interpreters of the

Tanakh and Talmud.

A large collection of British military swords

As part of his Anglo-European

interest, he created a large

collection of British military

swords covering a 400-year

period. He and Harriet donated

this collection to Brown University,

which has the largest university-

based military research collection

and study centre in the United

States. He wrote a book on British basket-hilted

swords that was published by the Royal Armouries of

Great Britain, titled: British Basket-Hilted Swords: A

Typology of Basket-Type Sword Hilts.

He has also built up a comprehensive cigarette and

trade card collection that is thematically based on the

military and historical aspects of Great Britain and its

Empire. Coinciding with the centenary of the start

of the First World War, he published a card-based

book earlier this year, titled: The First World War

on Cigarette and Trade Cards: An Illustrated and

Descriptive History.

He is currently writing a book on the history of Great

Britain and the British Royalty. It will be extensively

illustrated with the cards from his collection.

Then there is his fascination with Winston Churchill,

whom Mazansky has always greatly admired. He has

been very active in the International Churchill Society

and the Churchill Centre, and has first editions of all

of Churchill’s writings.

Which brings us to his photography, which he

describes as “a lifelong passion”.


“In the 1960s, the Medical School was still in Hillbrow and all of us medical students wore our white coats as a badge of honour.”

White coats, Tobias and Tattersalls

Dr Cyril Mazansky did his clinical did my clinical work at the Johannesburg General Hospital under Professors Bothwell and Barlow, both of whom had an international reputation. Professor Bothwell was the Head of the Department of Medicine, specialising in haematology and oncology – he made a name for himself for the research he did on iron in the blood. Professor Barlow was a famous cardiologist.

A powerful, dynamic person

“I took time out of my medical degree to study microbiology under Professor Phillip Tobias. He had a tremendous influence my life,” Mazansky recounts. “He was such a powerful, dynamic person and he taught me the value of research. This was in the mid-1960s, when DNA and genetics were coming to the fore, and we explored this in his course. I clearly remember asking him: ‘what is the practical value to humanity of studying this material?’ and he replied that some of the greatest medical advances to humanity have come from basic research that was initially done just for research’s sake. I always remember that conversation, and have thought about it many times in Boston, where the biotechnology industry is an enormous asset to the state economy.”

There were no computers or calculators

“As a medical student, I had a huge amount of work to get through as I had to put myself through medical school. I tutored Maths, Science, Hebrew and Latin, and I worked for horseracing bookies in downtown Joburg at the Tattersalls. There were no computers or calculators then and I had to keep tally of how much the bookie stood to win or lose on each horse and on each race. So I had to add everything up in my head quickly and accurately because any inaccurate information would cost the bookie a lot of money. To this day, I can still calculate at speed.

The investigative and diagnostic aspects

“I chose to specialise in radiology because I always preferred the investigative and diagnostic aspects of medicine to the therapeutic side. It turned out to be an extremely exciting time to practise radiology because it was the beginning of the technological revolution. From the 1970s we had CAT scans and MRIs. From the mid-1980s mammography really took off. It had been non-existent in my early years of practice. It was highly rewarding to be able to offer this to women; in countless cases it has meant the difference between a death sentence and a fruitful life.”

Tunbridge Wells, Vermont


DR CYRIL MAZANSKY

“Since I was a kid I have always loved photography and never

travelled anywhere without a camera. I started taking it very

seriously, focusing on fine art photography after I joined the

Photographic Society of America in the mid-1980s.

“My eyes were opened to how important light and composition

are to create a fine art image, and I started going on dedicated

photographic trips around the world: from trips throughout

America to Europe to Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert.” He has won

prestigious awards for his works and exhibits globally, most recently

at the Jodhpur Photographic Society in India, which features

photographers from around the world.

“The rewards of

photography for me are

a combination of several

factors: it is an expression

of my artistic interests;

it allows me to explore,

in-depth, so many beautiful

parts of this world; and it

offers me the opportunity

to experience a deep

spiritual and emotional

connection with the glory

and wonder of nature.”

It would appear that

Mazansky has, in many

ways, led a charmed

life. Is this so? “No life

is charmed, we all have

disappointments along the

way,” he replies.

“What matters is that when things don’t go quite how we want

them to, we find it in ourselves to make up for this, improve, pick

ourselves up and start again. In life, we constantly have to assess,

reassess and adapt.

“This is the key.”

“SINCE I WAS A KID I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED PHOTOGRAPHY AND NEVER TRAVELLED ANYWHERE WITHOUT A CAMERA”

Masks on Canal Bridge, Venice Carnival


PAGE NAME

ADLER MUSEUM OF MEDICINEWits Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown Tel +27 (0) 11 717 2081 | [email protected] Cost free but venue hire tariffs on request | Hours: Monday to Friday 09:00 – 16:00. Saturdays on request

WITS ART MUSEUM | WAMUniversity Corner, Corner Jorissen and Bertha Streets, Braamfontein | Tel + 27 (0) 11 717 1365/58 | [email protected] | www.wits.ac.za/wamHours: Wednesdays to Sundays 10:00 – 16:00WAM has a café and hosts regular events and exhibitions. Admission free. Donations encouraged.

WITS THEATRE COMPLEX East Campus, Wits University, Performing Arts Administration, 24 Station Street, Braamfontein | Tel +27 (0) 11 717 1376 | [email protected] | www.wits.ac.za/witstheatre | PAA reception hours, 08:00 – 16:00, Monday to Friday | Theatre costs vary according to programme | Tickets: www.webtickets.co.za

THE WITS CLUBWits Club Complex, West Campus, Wits University Tel +27 (0) 11 717 9365 | [email protected] www.olivesandplates.co.za | Hours: 07:00 – 17:00 for breakfast and lunch from Monday to Friday.

Booking is essential.

PLANETARIUMEast Campus, Wits, Yale Road off Empire Road, Entrance 10, Milner Park, Braamfontein | Tel +27 (0) 11 717 1390 | [email protected] | www.planetarium.co.zaHours: Kiddies’ show (5 – 8 years), Saturdays 10:30, R27

MAROPENG, THE CRADLE OF HUMANKIND AND THE STERKFONTEIN CAVESDirections: Off R563 Hekpoort Road, Sterkfontein, Gauteng | Tel +27 (0) 14 577 9000 | [email protected] | www.maropeng.co.za | Hours: 09:00 – 17:00 daily | Costs: Maropeng: Pensioner R77, student, R90, adult R144, child (4 – 14 years) R80 | Sterkfontein Caves: Pensioner R77, child (4 – 14 years) R87, student R90, adult R149 | Combination ticket:

Child (4 – 14 years) R129, adult R194

THE ORIGINS CENTREWest Campus, Wits, cnr. Yale Road & Enoch Sontonga Avenue, Braamfontein | Tel +27 (0) 11 717 4700 | [email protected] | www.origins.org.zaHours: Daily and public holidays 09:00 – 17:00 | Costs: Adults R80, children (u/12 with adult) R40, guide fee (minimum 10) R200, learners R45, teachers (with school groups) R55, lectures, temporary exhibitions/walkabouts and films R50, Giving Back ticket R40 + 4 non-perishable food/toiletry items

WITS RURAL FACILITY Directions: From JHB, N14 and from PTA, N4 to Witbank (eMalahleni) to Belfast (eMakhazeni) to R540 to Lydenburg (Mashishing) to R36 to Abel Erasmus Pass to R531 to Klaserie then Orpen Road turn-off 2km past Klaserie, Limpopo | Tel +27 (0) 15 793 7500 | [email protected] | www.wits.ac.za/wrfCost*: Terminalia and Vaalboom en-suite units: R684 for two, R278/extra person | Lodge: pps R254, single R382 | Anselia self-catering unit: pps R321, single R435 | Aerocamp: pps R285, single R399 | Bushcamp/4-person dormitory: R124 pp. * Wits rates quoted. Refer to website for public rates.

to visit at Wits

Details accurate at time of publishing. Please contact facilities directly.

Places


PAGE NAME

Jack studied civil engineering at Wits, where

he met zoology student, Babs Maisel. They

married in 1946 and Jack graduated in 1948

– a class renowned for a significant cohort

of world-renowned engineering alumni. Jack

moved to London and in 1950 joined Ove Arup &

Partners. In 1954, Jack returned to South Africa to

establish Ove Arup here with Michael Lewis (BSc Eng

Civil, 1949). The firm was awarded the design of

Johannesburg’s Brixton Tower.

On 26 March 1960, Sharpeville happened. Jack

was unable to reconcile himself with a society in

which police opened fire on thousands of protestors

opposing apartheid “pass” laws. Sixty-nine people

died. Jack returned to the UK.

He began work on the Sydney Opera House,

designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon. The design

presented huge engineering challenges. Ultimately

the solutions proposed were under Jack’s leadership

in collaboration with Utzon.

The roof of fan-like precast concrete arches employed

techniques that were used for the first time.

Jack became Chairman of Ove Arup in 1977 and

global co-chairman in 1984. He was knighted in

1989 and received numerous prestigious awards

recognising his contribution to the built environment.

In his acceptance speech for his honorary degree

from Wits, he said, “Education has always been a

passion in my life. Education really is key, and you can

never spend enough – not just money, but time.”

The Jack Zunz Scholarship was created to provide

advanced study opportunities for talented engineers

within Arup. The University of Technology, Sydney set

up The Zunz Lecture Series in his honour.

His legacy and Arup’s spirit of education endure

in South Africa through the Arup Education

Trust, established in 2010. The Trust sponsors

undergraduate study in the built environment and

runs a high school holiday programme.

Sir Jack Zunz Engineering an

BY GAIL GORDON

Opera House

In recognition of his contribution to engineering and the built environment, as well as his contribution through the Ove Arup Foundation, Sir Jack Zunz received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Wits University at its Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment graduation ceremony on 9 December 2015.

Zunz, 92, who was unable to travel from England to attend, pre-recorded his address. A retired director of Arup, James Oppenheim accepted the scroll on Jack’s behalf.

GETTY IMAGES


PAGE NAMEWITSIES IN SYDNEYSeveral Witsies were involved through Ove Arup

in the Opera House:

Michael Lewis (1927–2011) and Jack met at Wits and Jack

introduced Lewis to Sir Ove Arup. Lewis joined Arup in1950 and

in 1954 co-established Arup South Africa. In 1962 Arup asked

Lewis to lead Arup’s work on site in Sydney, while Jack led the

engineering design team in London. Lewis went on to lead Arup’s

Sydney office before moving to London where he headed up

infrastructure work.

Cliff McMillan, Principal at Ove Arup New York and Jack’s friend

since 1966, says, “Michael Lewis merits special credit. He was

responsible for all the difficult action in Sydney.” McMillan (MSc

Eng Civil 1966) himself celebrated 50 years at Arup in 2015. He has

an enduring interest in the Opera House. “I arrived in the London

office in early 1966, shortly after the architect, Utzon resigned – it

had everyone talking. The roof structure construction was already

well advanced.” That further kindled McMillan’s interest in

computer-based analysis of complex structures. “For my Master’s

I taught myself Fortran to analyse structures at Wits using the IBM

1620 – with all of 16k storage!” McMillan first visited the Opera

House in 1975 and has returned frequently. “It never ceases to

impress me,” he says. “I’ve given many presentations on it and

now, with Jack, am one of few surviving ‘authorities’ in Arup.”

Alan Levy (BSc Eng Civil 1956) went to London after graduating.

In 1961 Arup persuaded him to accept the position of resident

engineer of the Opera House. Levy, then 28, spent a year in

Sydney helping with the design and building.

Right panel, top - bottom: Sir Jack at Ove Arup | Sir Jack Zunz (L) at Ove Arup | Sir Jack and Lady Zunz at home in London, December 2015 | Lady Zunz and Sir Jack the day Sir Jack was knighted in 1989 | Bottom L-R: Jack Zunz, Michael Lewis, Alexander Sascha Magasiner, Arthur Moss-Morris


PART ONE

The Many Happy Returns series in the WITSReview invites alumni who have returned to campus since graduating to share their memories and observations of Wits then and now.

PARTONE

In Part 1, five alumni born on 29 February returned to campus for their first birthday in four years! They are among the 82 “leapling” Witsies worldwide and arguably our “youngest” alumni.

Leap-year alumni (L-R): Matthew Zylstra, Mohsin Seedat, Carla Martins-Furness, Hannah Le Roux, and Nicole Gundelfinger (front)


HAPPY RETURNS

LATE 1980s

Associate Professor Hannah le Roux, PhD (BArch 1987, MA 2002) studied architecture at Wits. The late Pancho

Guedes (BArch 1953, honorary DArch 2003) was head of Architecture during her first degree so it’s appropriate

that she write his obituary 30 years later. Hannah (13) is now Director of Architecture in the School of Architecture

and Planning at Wits. She’s seen some changes since her student days when graduation exhibitions were held

in the Flower Hall. “You never think of Wits as having heritage because it’s quite a new university in the global

scheme of things, but it’s getting to a point where there is actually heritage,” she says. “The Revolving Restaurant

closed a year or two before I came, and they should bring back the cable-car [at the Tower of Light].” The gallery

near the School of Law is important heritage. “It was Rembrandt, I think, who paid for it, but as part of the Rand

Show, not as Wits. It’s a really beautiful building but nobody’s taken it on as a restoration project.” Hannah

reveals there used to be a sauna in the Bozz change-rooms. “It was always on, so we’d sometimes go on Friday

afternoons.” Nowadays the PPS Lounge in the Matrix is the place to be; there’s free coffee and Wi-Fi. “Our senior

students go there to work. They just disappear!”

EARLY 1990s

Dr Carla Martins-Furness (BSc 1995, BSc Hons 1996,

MSc 1999, PhD 2009) met her husband, Damion

Furness (BAS 1994, BArch 1996), at Wits. “At the Bozz,

on Valentine’s Day,” she recalls. Carla, 11 (44), always

wanted to come to Wits. “I was accepted at Tukkies,

but I wanted to come here. Wits was renowned as the

best university in South Africa.” She remembers first

year as “a lot of work!” but also the camaraderie. “Yale

Road wasn’t closed,” says Carla. “They put a poster by

the robots, which said ‘motorists, be careful: do not run

over a student; wait for a lecturer!’” She remembers

political tension preceding 1994, and students dancing

and singing in unison; the impact of their rhythmic

footfalls causing the floor of the Oppenheimer Life

Sciences building to vibrate. Protest characterised

those days: “A lot of intimidation, a sense of what’s

gonna happen next? Similar to what we’ve experienced

now,” says Carla. She would know – she lectures in

the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology and

witnessed #feesmustfall. Carla credits strong female

lecturers for her scientific career at Wits. Among her

mentors were Professor Valerie Mizrahi and Dr Michele

Ramsay (PhD 1987). “There was still much patriarchy in

science and these women were powerful role models,”

says Carla. “They made us feel we could get there.”

With four Wits degrees, Carla certainly has.

LATE 1990s

Mohsin Seedat (BSc Eng Industrial 1999, GDE 2001) is

an Associate Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers who

studied industrial engineering at Wits. “I remember the

Chamber of Mines building very well,” he says (noting

that it now has a fourth quadrant), and sitting on the

steps of the Mech Eng building between lectures.

Mohsin, 10 (40), says parking issues persisted in his

student days: “We had those ‘meter-maid’ security

guys. They’d look at your sticker and see where you

could park.” Yale Road parking was the most sought-

after; close to everything. The late Peter Roberts

(BSc Eng Mech 1987) was a favourite lecturer: “He

was witty, funny, connected easily with all students,

passionate about the auto sector and a fundi on

production techniques,” recalls Mohsin. He credits his

Wits education for his career success: “My Wits degree

gave me the opportunity to work on and lead some

of the largest and most exciting power projects in the

world,” he says. Mohsin has returned to campus since

graduating: “The Planetarium is amazing – I came here

a couple of years back – [but] they can make it more

exciting for the kids.” Mohsin says it seems that Wits

is in good hands. “Campus looks cleaner; the buildings

are upgraded and covered in beautiful artwork. I

hope the high standards of education we received are

retained for generations to come.”


HAPPY RETURNS

To arrange your own happy return to campus, contact the Alumni Office for a free campus tour and/or discounted rates on selected destinations including the Origins Centre. Email [email protected] or [email protected] or call 011 717 1093.

Matthew Zylstra (BSc 2001) claims meeting his wife, Lee-Ann (née

Van der Westhuizen) at Wits is the reason he almost failed Statistics

in second year. “My wife was at JCE res for a few months – then she

moved in with me…” he says. Although their early co-habitation was

distracting, Matt, 9 (36), graduated in Actuarial Science and he’s now

a healthcare actuary at Discovery. At Wits he played water polo and he

still does. “I met my wife at a ski club party on campus and she came to

watch my water polo training during lunch,” he recalls. Matt also played

squash. “I used to play my lecturer, Stephen Jurisich [BSc 1986, BSc Hons

1988].” Classroom-time also made an impression. “I was amazed at a

blind student who came to my mathematics lectures. I couldn’t imagine

learning maths without being able to see – he definitely inspired me.”

Matt remembers exams in Hall 29. “That’s a cold hall in winter,” he

says. He and his friends took bets: “We’d have just slops and shorts

on and see who could persevere. You won a case of beer – the stakes

were high!” The biggest change on campus is the canteen: “The Matrix

was completely different when I was here, with only one restaurant,”

and signage has improved (he’d had nightmares about getting lost on

campus). He found his way and says, “Wits was the best start I could

have asked for to become an actuary. Campus looks even better than

before, and I hope to be able to send my children here one day.”

LATE 2000s

Nicole Gundelfinger (BA 2010, PDM 2011) studied law at Wits and

management at Wits Business School. Her favourite haunt as a student

was the Library Lawns on East Campus. “Nino’s at the Matrix made

the best – and cheapest at R10 – cappuccino!” recalls Nicole, 7 (28).

An enduring memory is the pervasive parking issue. “I remember the

parking nightmare and having to walk up from the bottom of West

Campus to the top of East Campus!” More favourably memorable was

Nicole’s English lecturer. “By far my best – Timothy Trengove-Jones had

the sharpest sense of humour!” She emphasises it’s Trengove, not grove:

“He used to give us huge grief when we submitted assignments with

that pesky little ‘r’ stuck in!” Nicole’s graduation proved the penultimate

experience: “I clearly remember the ceremony in the Great Hall. I

remember feeling so honoured.” Nicole’s qualifications have served her

well; she’s now Digital Marketing Manager at MultiChoice. “Wits is well-

known around the world and my Wits qualifications set me on a path

to success,” she says. “I wouldn’t be where I am now without this.” On

returning to campus Nicole remarked, “The buildings are brighter. I can’t

believe how much has been done to improve infrastructure!”.

“CAMPUS LOOKS EVEN BETTER THAN BEFORE, AND I HOPE TO BE ABLE TO SEND MY CHILDREN HERE ONE DAY.”


PAGE NAME

WRITING EDGE

WITSIES WITH THE

BY DEBORAH MINORS


WRITING EDGE

The Dream House by Craig Higginson

Craig Higginson (BA 1994, BA Hons 1995, MA 2010)

is an internationally acclaimed writer and theatre

director. He won the UJ Prize for South African

Literature in English for his novel The Landscape

Painter (2011), for which he earned his MA cum

laude in Creative Writing from Wits. The Dream

House (Picador Africa, 2015) is his fifth novel. It is

set in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, where an

elderly white couple are packing up their farmhouse.

Wheelchair-bound Patricia; her farmer husband

Richard; their enigmatic driver Bheki; and domestic

worker Beauty each narrate their perspectives. Then

Looksmart, born on the farm and favoured by Patricia,

who ensured he received a quality education, returns

from Johannesburg after a long absence. The Dream

House is a meditation on memory, ageing, meaning,

family, love and loss. The novel is a portrayal of a

country pulled between affection, anger, nostalgia

and resistance. Nobel Laureate and alumna, the

late Nadine Gordimer (honorary LLD 1984), earlier

described it as “an open and frank exploration of

human life that resonates beyond race”.

Manifest Reality: Kant’s Idealism and his Realism by Lucy Allais

Lucy Allais (BA 1995, BA Hons 1996) is a Professor of

Philosophy at Wits and the Henry Allison Chair of the

History of Philosophy at the University of California,

San Diego. As an undergraduate she won the James

Grieve Prize for Best Philosophy student and she was

a Rhodes Scholar in 1996. She also holds a BPhil

(1998) and DPhil (2001) from Oxford. Allais’ research

has focused on the philosophies of Immanuel Kant

(1724–1804), one of the most influential Western

philosophers ever. Allais’ book Manifest Reality:

Kant’s Idealism and his Realism (Oxford University

Press, 2015) is about Kant’s metaphysics (the first

principles of things) and epistemology (nature and

scope of knowledge). Allais interrogates a position at

the centre of Kant’s philosophy: his account of the

nature of the relation between mind and reality. Kant

sees this position as crucial to solving the problem of

freedom of the will, which forms the basis of his moral

and political philosophy. The publisher describes the

book as written by “a leading Kant scholar… [which]

promises to be a landmark work in Kant studies.”


WRITING EDGE

What if There Were No Whites in South Africa? by Ferial Haffajee

Editor-in-Chief of City Press newspaper, Ferial Haffajee

(BA 1989) is one of South Africa’s thought leaders

and social commentators. She sits on the boards of

the World Editors Forum and the International Press

Institute. She is lead judge of the CNN MultiChoice

African Journalist of the Year Awards and has won

several local and international awards related to

media freedom and independence as well as for her

reporting. In What if There Were No Whites in South

Africa? Haffajee examines South Africa’s history

and present in the light of a provocative question

that yields some thought-provoking discussion and

analysis. She writes, “Perhaps because I grew up

reporting the making of the Constitution and now

enjoy the opportunities and protections of that

sacrament, I feel my equality in deep and appreciative

ways.” From round-table discussions with influential

South Africans to research, personal thoughts and

powerful anecdotes, Haffajee takes the reader

through the rocky terrain of race rage in South Africa

and grapples with what it means to be South African

in 2015 and beyond.

Encountering Difference by Robin Cohen & Olivia Sheringham

Robin Cohen (BA 1964) is Emeritus Professor of

Development Studies, Principal Investigator on

the Oxford Diasporas and former Director of the

International Migration Institute at the University of

Oxford. Since his days as an undergraduate student

at Wits, he has pondered the question: Why does

conflict mark so many inter-ethnic relationships

and are there other places and ways of interacting

which increase harmony? Professor Cohen has now

co-written a book analysing how and why people

of different origins and backgrounds manage to live

with one another. In Encountering Difference (Polity,

2016), he and co-author Olivia Sheringham examine

how difference has been overcome in particular

areas such as islands, port cities and cities formed by

migration and globalisation. They consider how the

concepts of “identity formation”, “diaspora” and

“creolisation” (creating new cultures from prior ones)

help us understand cultural encounters. Encountering

Difference traverses social and political theory,

history, cultural anthropology, sociology and human

geography. It includes insights from musicology and

linguistics. All these suggest how we can mitigate

cultural conflict through everyday social changes and

explore new ways of overcoming difference.


WITS PRESS

This fine anthropological study

of the Universal Church of the

Kingdom of God raises some

penetrating questions about

the purpose of a church and

who is served by Christianity

in the broadest sense and by

this particular Pentecostal,

charismatic church in a narrow

sense.

South Africa since 1994 has seen

an upsurge in new churches

in city centres. These new

churches have shifted their

appeal from white, relatively

affluent Christians to aspiring

black congregants and work

with missionary zeal; if you travel

along Louis Botha Avenue from Hillbrow to Alexandra

in Johannesburg you will spot many “churches”

popping up in old shops and derelict buildings.

Nigerian, Kenyan, Ghanaian and Malawian preachers

have entered Africa to preach a prosperity gospel and

wage spiritual warfare, with dramatic sermons against

demons, witchcraft and Satan, while promising

congregants material rewards if they donate to the

church generously.

These men are latter-day

evangelists with Bible in hand

and the right quotation for

every crisis. It has become an

entrepreneurial race and the

successful churches, such as

the Universal Church of the

Kingdom of God, move from old

shop front to cathedral status

in Durban’s Smith Street or to

Soweto. (Their Cathedral of Faith

is ostensibly the largest church

building in Southern Africa.)

Pastors have commoditised

religion into a product that

appeals to the poor, the hopeful,

the urban migrant. Often noisy

affairs making use of amplifiers,

these churches offer entertainment and excitement

while promising salvation in the next life and wealth,

happiness and cures for all ailments in this life. There

is a beguiling mix for the vulnerable; if you pray hard

enough, have strong faith and pay the tithe and more,

the demons will be exorcised, all your dreams will

come true, and a job, a house, the perfect partner or

the panacea for multiple illnesses will be delivered.

BookReviewsWITS ALUMNI, STAFF, AND STUDENTS QUALIFY FOR A 20% DISCOUNT ON WITS UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLICATIONS WHEN BOUGHT AT WITS PRESS PREMISES AT UNIVERSITY CORNER, BRAAMFONTEIN.

A CHURCH OF STRANGERS: THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN SOUTH AFRICA

BY ILANA VAN WYK Published by Wits University Press, 2014


BOOK REVIEWS

This is a book that deepens one’s scepticism. The title,

A Church of Strangers, is arresting but peculiar as one

assumes that a church is a religious and community

organisation supporting and connecting its members

in a social welfare network of help through life’s

trials and tribulations. Not this church; it discourages

social intercourse, intimacy and connectedness.

This particular church is of Brazilian origin and its

missionaries spread its word in the UK, the USA,

Jamaica and parts of Africa.

The author, Ilana van Wyk, undertook the field work

for this study (the immediate objective of her research

was a PhD) in the period 2002 to 2005 in Durban,

where this church had a strong and growing presence.

By 2005 it was the fastest growing church in South

Africa, with a new church opening every week. The

South African Council of Churches and the Human

Rights Commission landed in hot water, though,

when they tried to launch an enquiry into financially

exploitative practices and psychological conditioning.

Van Wyk comments on her surprise at discovering

that this church discouraged close social ties between

members. However, her study deftly weaves the

experiences of the many people she sought and

interviewed with an analysis of the methodologies

and strategies of the church at a macro level. I found

it interesting that Van Wyk joined the church, at least

in the sense of attending services and attempting to

talk to pastors, bishops and ordinary people. This led

to another finding, namely that the membership is

unstable. There is a high turnover of congregants.

It seems more important to fill the stadiums than to

follow up. People seem to come and go in search of

answers.

A particular challenge for an anthropologist is to

retain a balance and a distance between scientific

investigation and participation. Van Wyk does not

shy away from these ethical dilemmas. Her command

of the literature takes her deep into the ethnological

studies of religion in other parts of the world and

the bibliography is a model of sound scholarship.

There are plenty of text-notes and cross references

but the reader is not overwhelmed by detail. The

style of writing is engaging and, having recently read

the classic Ellen Hellman study of the slum yards of

Johannesburg of the early 1930s, I rank this book

as an anthropological classic in the making. I would

like to know, though, if Van Wyk sees Pentecostal

evangelism as a real solution to societal ills and how

this particular church fits into the wider spectrum of

church choices.

I found the analysis of the shifting centre of global

Christianity towards the emerging developing

countries of the global South, and the success of this

particular church in appearing to be both global and

local and to indigenise a Brazilian message, particularly

insightful. Because this study was rooted in a specific

period of fieldwork, one did wonder about future

trends and directions both of this particular church

and of the Pentecostal appeal.

REVIEWS BY KATHERINE MUNRO, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

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This book by Brenda

Schmahmann, Professor in

the Faculty of Art, Design and

Architecture at the University of

Johannesburg, is the product

of research supported by the

National Research Foundation. It

is serious, scholarly, provocative

and very readable. The work

gives a fascinating insight into

transition and transformation

through the medium of the visual

arts, university insignia and art

collections assembled by South

African universities.

How do universities acquire status to demarcate and

enhance their importance, relevance and presence

in society? Schmahmann shows how art collecting,

insignia and elaborate costumes worn at graduations

are codes for conveying complex messages about

positioning, the recreation of an image and

significance. It was never a simple matter or just a

public relations exercise. The redesign of so many

universities in a transformed shape after 1994 to shift

from a model of apartheid stratification or colonial

rectitude to being inclusive, South African, culturally

diverse, relevant and a lot more open was also played

out in the forms, symbols and codes revealed in

new coats of arms and art works. There has been

a conscious effort to express the arrival of both old

and new universities in a different political space.

The remaking of the university (the amalgamation

of previously segregated universities to become

new higher education post-apartheid institutions,

the conversion of technikons into universities,

and changes in councils and

governance) meant that there

was a particular challenge to give

accessible visual expression to

these structural and intellectual

shifts and indeed revolutions

after 1994.

Universities are patrons,

purchasers, repositories and

depositories of public art.

Art collections are among

the tools of education in fine

arts, sociology, history and

anthropology. Art collections

housed in galleries or even in

spaces like libraries, council chambers and senate

rooms accumulate through the decades to become

part of the fabric of the institution, a treasured

public commodity. But there is an expectation

of accountability in the display, collection and

interpretation of these art works. Often universities

receive gifts of works of arts or commission works

for museums or public spaces. The author largely

concentrates on four South African universities – Cape

Town, Rhodes, Wits and Pretoria, which almost stand

for case studies of the visual transformative agenda,

but other universities, for example the Free State and

the University of Johannesburg, also feature. The

study does not encompass architecture.

One particular challenge for many universities was

what to do with older art works commissioned when

different ideologies prevailed. The commemoration

of the Great Trek had to be given a more distant

historical perspective by the addition of new

contemporary works of art at the Free State University.

WITS PRESS

PICTURING CHANGE: CURATING VISUAL CULTURE AT POST-APARTHEID UNIVERSITIES BY BRENDA SCHMAHMANN Published by Wits University Press, 2013


BOOK REVIEWS

The Louis Trichardt ox wagon was an iconic symbol

of the Great Trek and the makings of Afrikaner

nationalism at the University of Pretoria but was

dispatched to an off-campus museum.

Rethinking university insignia leads Schmahmann

into investigating the shifts, adaptation and redesign

of coats of arms, motifs and ceremonial dress to

introduce new African identities and move away

from Eurocentric biases, but heraldic continuities

and traditions are still drawn upon. I was personally

particularly interested in the chapter on art collections

and new acquisitions of public art to support

the repositioning and transformative agenda of

a university. Wits University added to the duo of

historical narrative paintings by Colin Gill and JH

Amshewitz, which generations of students know from

their study time spent in the William Cullen library, by

commissioning Cyril Coetzee to create the third giant

wall-filling canvas, T’kama-Adamastor, in 1999. It did

not take long for this painting to become a traditional

and almost iconic treasure and it did not raise any

controversies.

Portraits, paintings and busts acquired by other

universities reveal new histories, new interpretations

and different priorities. It is worth remembering

that these art works will themselves become

representations that fit the struggles and mind-sets

of the current generation and will age into fusty

traditions. Another tradition that has been reinvented

but where there is continuity is the commissioning

of official portraits of university officers (chancellors,

vice-chancellors, chairmen of councils). Portraits are

meant to flatter, to compliment and to endure and

hence artists with modernist leanings are constrained

by their brief to portray verisimilitude. The official

portrait marks a term of office and a dedicated service

to the University and here the author discusses how

some renowned South African artists have risen to

the challenge. The problem remains where to hang

such portraits of elderly, grey, mainly white males

representing another era and other politics.

The Wits collection of portraits has now been moved

from the Council Chamber and Senate foyer and

consigned for safekeeping and care to the upper,

remoter reaches of the Wartenweiler Library. They are

still part of a tradition but now are much less visible as

daily points of reference.

A final chapter addresses the delicate question of

the arts, the pitfalls of censorship and the right to

freedom of expression. Schmahmann discusses

four case studies of art works at four universities

which were perceived as controversial and raises

the question of the management and responses of

university authorities to external and internal criticisms.

The 1996 ceramic ashtray in the shape of a vagina,

entitled Useful Objects, crafted by Kaolin Thomson,

was the winner of the prestigious Martienssen Prize

at Wits and resulted in a row when the then deputy

speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Kgositsile,

used her dislike and reaction to the work to try to

modify the new Films and Publication Bill to be more

repressive. The University stood its ground and did not

remove the work from the exhibition.

In summary, this book by an art scholar of note is

a balanced, original and well researched analysis of

the role of the arts in the transformative agenda of

universities. It is a beautifully produced book with a

good selection of excellent colour photographs. It is

a work that should appeal to all who are interested

in South African art history in the making and should

also be read by University movers and shakers who

wish to patronise artists and grow their art collection

while at the same time thinking about the meaning of

their authority and how they wish future generations

to view their legacies. This is particularly apposite

now that so much art is being produced to honour

the memory of Nelson Mandela, some of which will

no doubt find its way into university collections. Art

is a source of pride, of identity and expression, but

we are usefully reminded that there is also a political

dimension.


JEREMY ROSE (1963–2015)

Renowned South African

architect Jeremy Robert

Rose (BArch 1988) died on

20 December 2015, aged

52. He was born on 24

May 1963 in South Africa.

At Wits he was a member

of the National Union of South African Students

(NUSAS) and active in the End Conscription Campaign.

Before 1994 he lived in Botswana as a conscientious

objector. In 1995 Jeremy returned to South Africa and

he and Phill Mashabane established Mashabane Rose

Associates. Over the next 20 years the practice would

produce iconic projects including the Origins Centre at

Wits, the Apartheid Museum, Liliesleaf and Freedom

Park – the latter two Jeremy presented at the 2009

World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, Spain. He

supported the contemporary South African art scene

and was himself a talented draughtsman, painter and

sculptor. He relentlessly pursued excellence in design

yet balanced his high expectations with genuine

empathy. He enjoyed teaching and was a warm and

enthusiastic mentor. He was a gentle giant with a

cheeky, mischievous wit and a big laugh. He would

greet his colleagues with a hearty, “Good morning,

Comrades!” Jeremy’s memorial on 30 January 2016

took place at the Apartheid Museum. He leaves his

daughter, Maya, and partner Mary Wafer (PGD 1999,

MAFA 2009).

TONY WILLIAMS (1926–2016)

Dr Antony Arthur Butler Williams

(BSc Eng Civil 1948, PhD 1976)

passed away on 4 February 2016.

He was born on 24 February 1926

in Kokstad and matriculated at

Michaelhouse. He enrolled at Wits

in 1944 but joined the navy to serve

in WWII. He returned, graduated in 1948 and then

studied further at Imperial College and Cambridge

in the UK. Tony spent 35 years at the Council for

Scientific and Industrial Research, specialising in soil

mechanics and pioneering the field of geotechnical

engineering. He was widely published and eminent,

having being awarded the South African Institution of

Civil Engineering Meritorious Research Award (2015),

the Institute for Engineering and Environmental

Geologists’ Gold Medal (2005), the JE Jennings

Award (1998); the South African Geotechnical Gold

Medal (1991); and the J Douglas Roberts Award

(1980). In retirement Tony enjoyed travel, fly-fishing

and wild flowers. He worked with his son, Matthew,

to establish the Red Desert Nature Reserve in Port

Edward. Tony was a formidable squash player and

achieved colours at university and provincially. He was

a gentleman, a sportsman and a scholar. He was a

proud Wits alumnus and produced a memoir, Some

Reminiscences of the ’48 Class of Civil Engineering. His

wife of over 60 years, Vron, their four children and six

grandchildren survive him.

IN MEMORIAM

ObituariesBY DEBORAH MINORS

WITS UNIVERSITY FONDLY REMEMBERS THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED AWAY


OBITUARIES

“With his passing, a new generation knows his rich legacy, which remains significant in fashioning an African architectural identity”

PANCHO GUEDES (1925–2015)

Architect, artist, philosopher and

professor, Amâncio “Pancho”

d’Alpoim Miranda Guedes (BArch

1949, honorary DArch 2003) died

peacefully near Graaff Reinet on

7 November 2015, aged 90. He was

born in Lisbon on 13 May 1925 but

moved to Mozambique in 1933.

Educated in South Africa, Pancho

matriculated at Marist Brothers

College in Johannesburg and studied

architecture at Wits. Here he was

inspired by the previous generation

of revolutionary modernists, notably

Rex Martienssen (1905–1942) and

Norman Hanson. They were critical

followers of Le Corbusier, whose

letter to the “Groupe Transvaal”

Pancho later framed and displayed in

the Wits library. Pancho met Dorothy

“Dori” Ann (née Phillips) at Wits,

and they married in 1947.

In 1950 Pancho returned to

Mozambique and began practising

privately in Lourenço Marques

(Maputo), later that decade

becoming a patron of the young

art student Malangatana Valente

Ngwenya. In the 20 years that

followed, Pancho designed

prolifically, notably celebrated

projects including The Saipal Bakery

(1952), Smiling Lion apartment block

(1956) and “Clandestine Nursery

School” in the Caniço (1968).

Pancho’s progressive sympathies

did not endear him to Portuguese

colonists in Mozambique. At

independence in 1975, he was

forced to leave Maputo in haste.

Herbert Prins, an architect friend in

Johannesburg, recruited him to head

the Department of Architecture

at Wits. Here he was an inspiring

and iconoclastic professor who

appointed excellent teachers, among

them several women, including

Marilyn Martin, Mira Fassler Kamstra

and Jenny Stadler.

Pancho retired from Wits in 1990.

He was subsequently rediscovered

as an alternative modernist of

great significance and his work

was exhibited in Lisbon, Venice,

Switzerland and South Africa. With

his passing, a new generation

knows his rich legacy, which remains

significant in fashioning an African

architectural identity.

Hannah le Roux, PhD (BArch 1987, MArch 2002), Associate Professor, Wits School of Architecture.

PANCHO IMAGE CREDIT: IMAGENS4.PUBLICO.PT


IN MEMORIAM

MARGARET THOMPSON (1937–2015)

Margaret Louise

Thompson

(née Lennox) (DOH 1958) died

peacefully in Port Elizabeth on

28 July 2015, aged 77. She was

born in Morocco on 13 October

1937 and came to South Africa in

1946. She matriculated at Pretoria

Girls’ High and then studied

occupational therapy at Wits.

She practised in Johannesburg

and is credited with pioneering

occupational therapy in the

medico-legal field. This was after

she gained considerable experience

working with Workmen’s

Compensation patients and later

helped establish the Independent

Living Centre for the disabled.

Margaret retired in 2003 and

moved to Port St Francis. Here she

set about improving conditions

and resources at the Sea Vista

Primary School. In October 2013

Margaret wrote to the Alumni

Office and shared excerpts of her

manuscript, Remember when –

Wits experiences: On being an OT,

which she wrote for her children.

Margaret wrote that Wits gave her

“a kick-start in the most satisfying

career [she] could have wished

for”. She leaves a son and two

daughters from two marriages, and

Tim, her partner of many years.

HELEN NOLTE (1933 – 2015)

Helen Ruby

Smith Nolte (née

Gordon) passed

away on 29 July 2015, aged 82.

She was born on 27 July 1933 and

held three degrees from Wits: BSc

1954, BSc Hon 1955, MSc 1956.

During her postgraduate studies,

Helen worked in the Zoology

Department at Wits. She married

a former Professor of Genetics at

Wits, Daniel Johannes Nolte (DSc),

shortly before earning her Master’s.

Earning this degree was all the

more remarkable for the fact that

Helen wrote the dissertation from

her hospital bed. She developed

rheumatoid arthritis at the age of

16, which interrupted her studies

for a year. Despite being plagued

by ill health her whole life, Helen

endured. She left her job as a tutor

and lecturer at Wits to raise her

children, and she later qualified

and worked as a teacher for many

years. Helen regularly attended the

annual Founders’ Tea and she was

a Wits benefactor. She donated

to the School of Animal, Plant &

Environmental Sciences to support

the field of Zoology, and she left

a bequest to Wits Donald Gordon

Medical Centre for teaching and

research into rheumatoid arthritis.

Her daughters Danielle (BA PDE

1984, MA (ClinPsych) 2006) and

Andrea (MBBCh 1987) survive her.

ANNE SASSEN (1958–2015)

Pianist and

English teacher

Anne Sassen (BA

Ed 1993) passed away on 22 April

2015 after a devastating stroke 10

months earlier. She was 56. Anne

was born on 12 June 1958. She

was a talented pianist and obtained

her Licentiate in 1981. She was

included in the International Who’s

Who in Music in 1982 and became

a fellow of London’s Trinity College

of Music in 1983. She graduated

with a degree in education from

Wits in 1993 and then earned

her Honours degree from the

University of Johannesburg. She

taught English at Jeppe Girls,

Athlone Girls and Queens high

schools, among others, and she

worked with an NGO assisting

Soweto’s teachers. Anne was an

informed and unique teacher with

a genuine belief in the power of

words and the magic of reading.

She loved art, music, literature,

theatre and language. She read

Italian and isiZulu at university and

was learning Tshivenda and Sepedi.

Anne was fiercely intelligent, an

energetic organiser, deeply sincere,

and serious about basic human

values. She leaves her parents and

sisters, Peta and Robyn (BA 1993,

MA 2005).


OBITUARIES

CYRIL TOKER (1930–2015)

Dr Cyril Toker (MBBCh 1952, MMed 1962) died in Florida,

USA on 8 August 2015, aged 85. He was born on 29 March

1930 in Ermelo, South Africa. He studied Medicine at Wits,

as did his younger brother, Eugene (1957), and their father,

Philip (1927). Dr Cyril Toker became a Fellow of the Royal

College of Surgeons in 1957 and won the Hallett Prize. He

emigrated to New York in 1962 and specialised in pathology at Mount Sinai

Hospital and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. A pioneer in the field

of Surgical Pathology, he was the first to identify the Toker cell and trabecular

carcinoma of the skin (also known as Merkel cell carcinoma). He became Professor

of Pathology at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University of Maryland Medical

School. He published over 100 papers and wrote a medical textbook and a

novel, The Sibylline Books, which references Wits. In 1999 he obtained a Juris

Doctor degree from the Florida Coastal School of Law. He was a man of courage,

persistence, intelligence, kindness and humour, dedicated to justice, fairness

and environmental conservation. He was passionate about aeroplanes and his

grandchildren called him “Captain Cyril”. His wife of 47 years, Karen, children

David and Rachel, his brother, and four grandchildren survive him.

YVONNE STEIN (1933–2015)

Yvonne Lorna Stein (née Fridjhon) died on 19 April 2015 in

London, aged 82. Yvonne was born in Pretoria on 12 April

1933. She attended Kingsmead School in Johannesburg. She

graduated from Wits with a BA Honours in Social Work in

1954. She made a major contribution to family, couples and

individual psychotherapy in Johannesburg, spending a large

part of her working career at the Johannesburg Child Guidance

Clinic and in private practice in Norwood. In 1987, Yvonne and

her husband emigrated to the UK to be closer to their children.

Here Yvonne continued her career in social work. Most recently

she worked at the Helen Bamber Foundation, where she initiated and provided a

family therapy intervention programme for families and individuals seeking asylum

in the UK. She inspired many people both personally and professionally. She was a

valued therapist, supervisor and teacher in her field. Her children, Alan, Mark and

Lynne, and seven grandchildren survive her. Yvonne’s husband, Professor Harry

Stein (MBBCh 1949), to whom she was married for 61 years, died three months

earlier on 31 December 2014.


Aubrey Sheiham, epidemiologist, emeritus

professor of dental public health at

University College London (UCL), and

major donor to Wits, has died aged 79.

Born on 12 September 1936 in Graaff-

Reinet, Aubrey graduated from Wits with a Bachelor

of Dental Science (BDS) in 1957. In 1958 Aubrey

went to London, where he first worked at the London

Hospital Medical College. In 1966 he married Helena

Cronin, a philosopher. In 1984 Aubrey moved to UCL

as professor of dental public health. He retired in 2001

as professor emeritus.

Retirement did not end Aubrey’s career. His relative

and friend Professor Sir Michael Marmot points out

that Aubrey had 264 publications at the time of

his retirement, yet published a further 242 papers

subsequently. Aubrey also supervised 52 PhD students

from 20 countries. It is not just the quantity but also the

quality of Aubrey’s research that Sir Michael highlights.

He praises Aubrey’s use of carefully researched

evidence to inform the promotion of oral health in

“three complementary directions” – diet, (“[h]e played

a central role in keeping the evidence on sugar and

dental caries before policymakers”), whole-population

thinking (“[t]his radical approach had a profound effect

on oral health policy in the UK and internationally”) and

the social determinants of oral health (“Aubrey did as

much as anyone to put inequalities in dental health on

the intellectual and policy map”).

It is related to this last-mentioned area, inequality,

that Aubrey and his wife Helena have made a

profound contribution to Wits. In 2015, the couple

had already donated over R11-million to support the

Vice-Chancellor’s focus on addressing inequality. The

gift is initially being used to support a programme in

the Wits School of Public Health to research the social

determinants of health and health inequalities.

Aubrey was globally eminent. Among other accolades,

he received honorary doctorates from the University

of Athens and University of the Western Cape, and in

2015 he received the Distinguished Scientist Global

Oral Health research award from the International

Association of Dental Research. Late last year Aubrey

received an honorary fellowship of the Faculty of

General Dental Practice, Royal College of Surgeons.

Helena accepted the award on his behalf.

In a tribute to Aubrey, his UCL colleagues Professor

Graham Hart and Professor Richard Watt described him

as “highly respected, much admired and loved…for

over 30 years he was an inspirational teacher, mentor

and public health advocate for social justice and global

health”.

Aubrey won’t just be remembered for his scholarly

contribution, his visionary policy work and his social

justice advocacy, because all who knew him remark

on his generosity, kindness and care that he showed

towards others.

TRIBUTE

TRIBUTE: AUBREY SHEIHAM

1936–2015By Lynda Murray

The late Dr Aubrey Sheiham and his wife Dr Helena

Sheiham, June 2011


WITS END

BY KEYAN G TOMASELLI*

At the height of the “everything must fall” protests late last year I picked up a Canadian professor from the airport. His first reference to making sense of a very strange South Africa was to invoke Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show: “When South Africans are collectively angry, they sing and dance.” This anecdotal insight underpins Handel Kashope Wright’s key theoretical insight in developing originary African cultural studies as being about “bodies that do not belong” (in the North). Wright originally hailed from Sierra Leone.

On my vehicle being

searched and my

passengers being frisked

on our daily entry onto the

University of Johannesburg

campus, the private security

guards always addressed

Handel in Zulu, then in Tswana and then, in

desperation, Sotho. When they got no response

in any of these languages, I revealed Handel’s

Canadian citizenship. How could a black man

not speak Zulu? Did he not know who he was?

For me, the significance of the encounter was:

“Does Wright really have a body – or perhaps

language – that does not belong anywhere?” Is

he rendered thus stateless – a makwerekwere?

Contradictions of Identity


Peter Sellers once played a bungling Indian actor

accidentally invited to a lavish Hollywood dinner in

The Party. A fish out of water, Bakshi blunders about

observing people in embarrassing situations and

unintentionally causing minor damage to fittings and

fixtures. He is yelled at: “Who do you think you are?”

I once felt like that when I tried to cash in a 20-year

investment. The company claimed that my John

Hancock bore little resemblance to my earlier scrawl.

Clearly, I did not know who I was and I had to prove

my bona fides by signing and providing all kinds of

certified documents to convince the company that the

investment was mine.

But few South Africans have these items – utility bills,

bank statements, fixed street addresses. That’s the

flaw with Black Economic Empowerment legislation.

Only those with verifiable documentation can

invest and participate in the formal financial sector.

No wonder the masses are calling for the fall of

everything.

Where Wright made notes on how his identity was

being constructed for him by the security guards (who

were looking for petrol bombs), Bakshi’s response

was: “Where I come from, we know who we are.”

It’s disconcerting when a faceless manager tells me

that I am not who I know I am because he thinks that

my signature is different – photo IDs, fingerprints and

DNA aside.

Wright himself learned that he was positioned as

“African” and “black” when he first

arrived in Canada as a graduate

student. Until that time he thought he

was just human. When I have worked

at African universities and with black

and African studies centres in the US, I have

been assumed to be black, because of the

nature of my academic activism rather

than what I look like. Only in South Africa

am I irredeemably “white”, or a “body

that does not belong”.

Ian Player and Johnny Clegg, among others, were

inducted as “White Zulus”. Why are Tswana speakers

with accented Zulu othered as “not African” by the

Durban Zulu-speaking rank and file? Afrikaans is

considered indigenous by the First People. The first

known Afrikaans script is in Arabic, emanating from

the Malay slaves brought to the Cape. Is speaking Zulu

without an accent the key to ethnic adoption? How

does one then tick the form asking about “race” (for

statistical purposes?).

The roles that we know we are playing are often

demonised as “belonging” somewhere else. Identities

are constructions; they are not cast in stone, pigment

or language. Most of us would like to construct our

own identities rather than having categories assigned

to us by bureaucrats and ideologues – we don’t like

being told where to belong. In the USA self-identified

Irish, Italian, African, Chinese and other hyphenated

Americans are all overwhelmingly patriotic Americans.

They know where they belong even as they identify

and behave differently.

As Trevor Noah asks, why are South Africans so

insular?

Blackface, whiteface, purpleface, Trekkie faces

(Klingons, aliens of various kinds) – man, Al Jolson

must be mystified at what goes on in SA. Trevor Noah,

please come home. We really need you, and Schuster

needs some help. We all need some help.

WITS END

* KEYAN TOMASELLI IS DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG. [email protected]

Wits improves in World Rankings

QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2016

Wits University has been ranked

Performance indicators forQS subject rankings

Academic reputation 40%

Student-to-faculty ratio 20%

Citations per faculty 20%

Employer reputation 10%

International faculty ratio 5%

International student ratio 5%

The QS World University Rankings by Subject for 2015/16 were announced on 22 March 2016. Wits has improved in 10 subjects that the QS World University Rankings measure according to a university’s six performance indicators: Academic reputation; student-to-faculty ratio; citations per faculty; employer reputation; international faculty ratio; and international student ratio.

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Wits ranks internationally

Geography

EngineeringMinerals & Mining Anthropology

TOP 100

TOP 150English Language & Literature

Earth & Marine Sciences

TOP 200

Communication & Media Studies

History

Medicine

Pharmacy & Pharmacology

Politics & International Studies

TOP300 Physics & Astronomy

TOP

5014thDevelopment Studies

26thArchaeology

Archaeology

Engineering(Mineral & Mining)

Dentistry

Materials Science

Anthropology

number onein South Africa

33rdin Alumni Outcomes*

in the world

* QS considered the educational background of over 20 000 highly influential employers, sector leaders, and award-winning professionals, as well as individual professionals to rank which universities are proving themselves as sources of successful employees and employers, and can claim to have positively influenced their alumni’s development.

Make the most of being a Witsie. Stay connected

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