Wits demands action from ‘world-class’ city

Vice-chancellor furious bullets were fired into student residence

ITS vice-chancellor Adam Habib has written a scathing letter to the mayor, describing Joburg’s officials as “incompetent” and questioning the council’s claim that the city is world-class.

This follows the firing of shots at one of the Wits student residences in Hillbrow last week.

In a fiery e-mail to mayor Parks Tau, Habib said the municipality had failed to ensure a safe environment for students, despite repeated warnings.

Last Sunday, a bullet hit a seventh-storey window of the

Wuniversity’s Esselen Street residence and lodged in the wall of a student’s bedroom. The student was not in the room.

According to police, several shots were fired from the roof of the old Florence Nightingale maternity home – a hijacked building that shares an alleyway with the residence.

The Esselen Street residence is used mainly by medical students through the partnership between the university and the city that created the Hillbrow health precinct.

“I cannot in good conscience wait for a student to be killed before the city decides to act. I warned in my e-mail that we were beginning to explore alternative options,” Habib said.

“I now believe we have to, because of a recalcitrant and incompetent municipal state.”

Habib was referring to an e-mail he sent the mayor and city manager in September, informing them of what he said were “repeated administrative and implementation failures” by officials and entities to enforce by-laws against the building alongside the residence.

“Students’ lives,” Habib wrote, “should not be threatened by administrative incompetence of municipal officials.

“Moreover, if you subject us as a public institution to such incompetence, how truly do you treat ordinary citizens?

“We cannot build a worldclass university and address the challenges required of us by the National Development Plan when the city administration has become one of our largest risk variables.”

Habib added scor nfully: “We can talk as much as we want about being a world-class city, but frankly it will not happen while this kind of incompetence is allowed to continue in the municipality.”

The City of Joburg’s spokesman, Nthatisi Modingoane, said yesterday that significant steps had been taken by the council to address safety around the student residences, such as the closing of an illegal car repair shop in the area.

“We are co-operating with the South African Police Services to improve safety around the area.

“The Johannesburg Roads Agency and transport department are facilitating the closure and managed access of the street in front of the residence.”

Modingoane said that the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department had stepped up patrols in the area.

The city was also pursuing legal action against the owners of the Florence to ensure there was proper management of the property, crime and waste.

He said the city was deeply concerned about the shooting and would continue working with SAPS to ensure that such incidents did not occur again.

Habib threatened to lead a march of Wits students and staff to the city council after a student wrote him a letter complaining about their safety.

He said the writer complained that Habib was not taking students’ concer ns about safety seriously.

“What do I say? Do I tell them that we have been repeatedly thwarted by your municipal officials with regard to the matter?

“Do I provide them with the train of events demonstrating the utter incompetence of municipal officials in the city?”