Wits University at 100 , livre ebook

WITS UNIVERSITY AT
100
From Excavation to Innovation
Photo: Shivan Parusnath

Contents
Foreword by Judy Dlamini
Introduction: Looking Back, Moving Forward
Chapter 1: Origins
The Last Word: Benedict Vilakazi
Wits Pioneer: Johnny Clegg
Dynamite Underground: Wits Geosciences
Fighting the Good Fight
Wits Pioneer: Stephen Matseoane
Life as We Know It: The Story of Life
Wits Pioneer: Advocate Thuli Madonsela
Chapter 2: Space and Place
Behind the Scenes of #FeesMustFall
Activists, Scientists and a Lifetime of Service: Maurice Smithers
Wits Rural Campus: The Hidden Gem
Knowing Your Place
Activists, Scientists and a Lifetime of Service: Patrick Soon-Shiong and Michele B. Chan
Leading the Charge
Activists, Scientists and a Lifetime of Service: Bhekokuzakuye ‘Keith’ Mdlalose
Chapter 3: The Future
Light Years Ahead: Invention, Innovation and the Structured Light Lab
Minding the Matter
Wits Futurists Lead the Way: Achille Mbembe
Fringe of the Future
Wits Futurists Lead the Way: Marcus Byrne
African Art Beat: Wits Art Museum
I Have a Dream …
Chapter 4: The Next Century Begins Now
Afterword by Zeblon Vilakazi
Acknowledgements
Timeline
Notes
Interviewees
Bibliography and Source Material
Index
FOREWORD

Photo: Gordon Harris Photography
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, known colloquially as Wits University, is a national treasure that has advanced society for over 100 years. It is renowned for its academic and research excellence, its innovation, social leadership and commitment to justice, enquiry and the search for truth.
Wits has evolved over the last 100 years, rooted in its place and space in Johannesburg, but impacting globally. Its origins and its trajectory – shaped by the staff, students and alumni who have walked its corridors and are charting its future potential – are captured in moments throughout this book. We also explore some of the challenges that Wits has had to endure during this time.
The birthplace of new ideas, Wits developed with the City of Johannesburg, and its roots are inextricably linked to that of industry and mining. Since the early 1900s, Wits has developed the high-level scarce skills required in adequate measure to move Johannesburg and the South African economy forward. For example, Wits’ journey with the mining industry, from excavation to innovation, has evolved over the decades. The University is now working with the mining industry to digitise mines, to make mining safer, to transform its workforce, gender profile and leadership, and to ensure that it is environmentally sustainable.
This University has nurtured over 200 000 formidable alumni over ten decades, many of whom have made their mark in Africa and across the globe. These are creators and artists, inventors and innovators, thinkers and intellectuals, problem-posers and problem-solvers, change-makers and social leaders who serve as catalysts for change in a rapidly moving world.
These are Witsies who are curious about the world, who seek new knowledge, think critically and are enthusiastic about changing the world for good. Some of the famous names associated with Wits include Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Aaron Klug, Sydney Brenner, Benedict Vilakazi, Sibongile Khumalo, Nadine Gordimer, Thuli Madonsela, Johnny Clegg, Hugh Masekela, Adrian Gore, Phillip Tobias, George Bizos, Koos Becker, Dikgang Moseneke, Joe Veriava, Jody Kollapen, Sir David King, Bruce Fordyce, Ivan Glasenberg, Gary Bailey, Ahmed Kathrada, Joel Joffe, and Precious and Patrice Motsepe – some of whom feature in this book.
Wits is driven by curiosity that spurs innovation and many spectacular discoveries and world-firsts have emanated from this great institution. From the Taung Child and Little Foot to Homo naledi , the many discoveries related to the origins of plants, animals, hominids and the thousands of archaeological artefacts that help to tell the story of humans are unprecedented.
Having produced many world-firsts, Wits is a global innovator. For example, the first radar set was developed at Wits within three months of the outbreak of the Second World War. In the very same place where it tested successfully – outside the Great Hall – a team is currently testing another world-first: the secure transmission of data through light. Wits was the first African university to own an IBM mainframe computer. Today, it is the first African university to have access to a quantum computer, which will undoubtedly transform our lives in the future.
A social leader, Wits was born out of protest in the early 1900s, and its official opening was postponed by about six months due to strikes and the Rand Revolt. The first protest against fee increases took place in the 1930s, and intermittently thereafter, escalating over time and culminating in the #FeesMustFall protests. Protests against the apartheid regime spanned several decades, often resulting in the University being heavily penalised by the state. Some Wits activists paid the ultimate price in their fight for freedom.
Today, Wits has taken a strong stance against gender-based harm and launched several initiatives to address gender inequality in the academy, in the workplace and in society. Wits is one of the founding champions of the United Nations Women’s HeForShe movement, which is part of the IMPACT 10x10x10 initiative to unveil ground-breaking solutions that have the potential to see gender equality achieved in our lifetime. Using an intersectional lens to address gender and racial inequality in academia gave birth to the Female Academic Leaders Fellowship, a centenary initiative that seeks to address the representation of women, and especially black women, in leadership in academia. Wits is tackling inequality in one of the most unequal countries in the world, an issue that, together with climate change and sustainability, is a priority for the University as it looks towards its next century.
Wits impacts beyond its sphere of influence geographically, intellectually and socially. The University is based on the ridge of the Witwatersrand, which I am told is what gives it the edge. Its footprint extends way beyond its lecture theatres and research laboratories, as is demonstrated in the ‘Space and Place’ chapter of this book. Wits hosts South Africa’s only privately funded teaching hospital, the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, which develops hundreds of specialists annually. The world’s first living donor liver transplant from an HIV-positive mother to her HIV-negative child took place in 2017. Wits also owns caves and land rich in fossils in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site where staff and students explore, discover and conduct research. In Mpumalanga, the Wits Rural Campus conducts world-class longitudinal research, while back in Braamfontein, the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct brings people together to engage in digital entrepreneurial and innovation activities that transform our world for good.
Wits is home to two commercial companies; a Planetarium that will soon be transformed into the Wits Digital Dome; the Wits Art Museum, which houses over 9 000 works of unique African art; the Origins Centre; the Palaeosciences Centre and Fossil Vault, which houses invaluable fossils, and the Historical Papers Research Archive, which curates national treasures such as former president
Nelson Mandela’s Rivonia Trial papers, on behalf of the people of the world.
But Wits could not exist without the people who have made this university great – the staff, joint staff, students, alumni, donors and friends of Wits across the world who continue to make a difference in their sphere of influence every day. Some of them are profiled in this book. They are the ones who stand up for social justice and pursue the truth. They have a passion for progress, empower others and change the world for the better. These are the people, like you, who stand up and stand out, not for themselves, but for others, to secure our collective futures.
I hope that you will learn more about Wits through the stories of the people reflected on these pages and that you, too, will be inspired to change our world. May we achieve equality in our lifetime, working together, for good.
Dr Judy Dlamini
Chancellor of the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Photo: Shivan Parusnath

Wits Central Block as photographed in 1929 (left) combined with an image of the Wits Great Hall taken in 2000 (right). Photo: (left) Dr Martinus de Kock and (right) Shivan Parusnath
INTRODUCTION: LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD
A century. One hundred not out. A significant milestone for Wits University. Add to that the fact that Wits was founded and has grown and thrived in a city not much given to looking back. Johannesburg, the City of Gold, has an edgy urban history befitting a place that began life as a mining town, and its development, like that of Wits, is inextricably linked to mining and political and civic activism.
This book presents a narrative of Wits as a living and dynamic institution, celebrating its existence through its people, many of whom, in one way or another, have positively impacted on the world. Their stories – some of them told in their own words – map the University’s current and future vision, and show how Wits has transitioned from colonial, racialised and historical inequality to a global symbol of a flourishing and inclusive society.
There are many stories to tell, too many for one publication, and this book holds but a sample from the broad array on offer. Three major themes run through the text – origins, space and place, and the imagined future – accompanied by appropriate stories, photographs and illustrations. These stories have been chosen to reflect the diversity of the protagonists, the subject matter, and historical periods, and their contribution to the public good.

Present-day aerial drone ima