Wits gets Thuli to probe ‘racism’

● The University of the Witwatersrand has roped in former public protector Thuli Madonsela to advise on how to handle future cases of racism.

Madonsela’s appointment to an independent panel follows racism allegations made in recent months. The other members are former Unisa vice-chancellor Barney Pityana, Wits scholar and clinical psychologist Garth Stevens, and psychiatrist and businesswoman Mashadi Motlana.

Last month a group of final-year black medical students claimed the university had pushed through a white student despite her failing a six-week integrated primary-care course, a concession not made to 27 black students in the same predicament.

Vice-chancellor Adam Habib told the Sunday Times at the time that the white student had the second-highest mark, but this had been incorrectly transcribed. Of the about 320 final-year medical students, 256 will graduate, 11 failed and a further 53 carried one or two blocks into this year.

Wits spokeswoman Shirona Patel said it had become “increasingly difficult” to distinguish between legitimate complaints of racism and those made by people pursuing alternative agendas. “Matters are sometimes contaminated by individuals and misconstrued by some political parties to further opportunistic agendas.”

The university’s transformation and employment equity office, tasked with investigating and prosecuting acts of racism, would continue “to manage the day-to-day programmatic interventions” to address racism and foster transformation, she said.