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The Citizen
24 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Trombonist Siyasanga ‘Siya' Charles excited to come back home for the National Arts Festival
Trombonist, composer and arranger Siyasanga 'Siya' Charles is the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Jazz. On a Thursday evening in April, some of the country's foremost artists gathered in Bryanston, Johannesburg, as this year's Standard Bank Young Artist Awards (SBYA) winners were announced. Trombonist, composer and arranger Siyasanga 'Siya' Charles was named the SBYA for Jazz. A prestigious award, considering that all six recipients from different disciplines — dance, jazz, theatre, visual art, poetry and music — receive national exposure, financial support for their work, and a cash prize. However, there was some uncertainty when Charles' name was announced as the recipient for jazz, because some in the room weren't aware of her and her work. However, those who know, knew who Charles is. 'There were some fellow members of the South African Jazz community who were also Standard Bank Artist alums, such as Sisonke Xonti, Thandi Ntuli and Dr Nduduzo Makhathini, who presented the award to me and who I've had the honour and pleasure of working with in the past,' Charles says to The Citizen. 'He [Makhatini] also produced my debut single, so there were a couple of people in the South African jazz fraternity who knew of me.' ALSO READ: Nduduzo Makhathini on spiritual understandings anchoring his music and remaining modest Siya Charles' homecoming With most of her career spent outside of South Africa, this is likely the reason why she is not widely known and celebrated in Mzansi. She has been a professional musician for over a decade. Currently based in New York City, Charles enrolled for a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Trombone Performance at the University of Cape Town (UCT) which she finished in 2012 and then completed a Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree in Jazz Trombone Performance cum laude also at UCT the following year. In 2022, she received the opportunity to study for her jazz master's in music at The Juilliard School and graduated magna Cum Laude last year. Charles has worked with many greats, including the late Hugh Masekela and Grammy Award-winning musicians Ulysses Owens Jr and Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers alum Geoffrey Keezer. She spent a significant portion of her 20s travelling and forming connections worldwide, working with musicians in Europe and the US. 'I did receive a lot of welcoming [aboard]. I do believe in going where you are appreciated. I think that's very important as an artist to be surrounded by a supportive community. As much as I have experienced that in parts of Europe and New York, I am also excited to come back home and plant my roots in the South African jazz scene because it's been a while since I've been away,' she shared. Charles started attending the National Arts Festival in her teens. 'This year will be the 20-year mark of my time at the National Arts Festival and Youth Festival,' she said. She has performed at the National Youth Jazz Festival, played in the Standard Bank Schools Big Band in 2006 and 2007, and has also been part of the national youth jazz band in 2010 and 2012. This year's National Arts Festival will be held from 26 June to 6 July in Makhanda. Charles says it has sunk in that she's a recipient of the award, describing the win as a 'huge honour', and says she didn't expect the award since she's a person who is comfortable being in the background. 'I didn't think I'd be acknowledged in this manner, but I have to give a big thank you to Alan Webster who is the director of the national youth jazz festival, he has witnessed my growth over the last 20 years as a trombonist-he really advocated for me to win the award,' said the musician. She wants to use the award to champion other musicians who are women. ALSO READ: Lamiez Holworthy cancels work commitments due to illness Missing home She has performed on various stages, including the Arcevia Jazz Feast in Italy and Sweden's Stockholm Jazz Festival. Like most South African expats, Charles says she misses food from home the most. 'Nothing like South African home-cooked food, I definitely miss the food. I do miss Ubuntu, one thing that South Africans have is: we are so kind,' said Charles, speaking from the US. She says in New York, everyone is focused on what they want to do. Her goal is to be bi-continental, where she can work and collaborate with musicians from various parts of the world, while also giving back. 'My goal is to establish jazz education programs, which can also combine as feeding programs where kids can go to a couple of workshops, receive a warm cooked meal and learn some music.' ALSO READ: SA Gen Z's love for new-age Maskandi and Americans' craze over Amazayoni music Importance of education Formal education is usually frowned upon in the creative space, with artists preferring to lean on the flow of their creative juices. Charles, who admits to being a bit of a nerd, says she sees the value of formal education despite having interacted with legends who received no formal education. 'For me, I just wanted to develop certain skills that I may not have been able to have, had I not gone for formal training,' said the artist. She began attending the National Youth Jazz Festival at the age of 15, where she participated in workshops that explored the intricacies of jazz. 'I learnt a lot of skills going to school, firstly at the University of Cape Town. I was able to learn composition and arranging skills, something that I enjoy doing very much,' the composer shares. Through formal training, she has acquired skills in writing charts properly, being a band leader, and other elements that make up the ecosystem of music. All these teachings, she says, help one with longevity in the industry. ALSO READ: Simthande Myeza 'abducted and robbed' during e-hailing trip: TikToker's family speaks Still very much an artist She is both talented and has acquired formal training, a skill not many musicians possess. 'It is a skill to balance the creative with the cerebral. I am quite a cerebral person,' says Charles. In her performance at the Standard Bank Jazz Festival, just before performing one of her songs, Ascension, she mentioned that the song had come to her in a dream. Formal education has not stifled her creativity. 'I enjoy the technicalities of it [music] but I think it's amazing that I have this source that is outside of myself where I'm able to hear these melodies in my sleep,' shares Charles. She says her musicianship is linked to her faith, especially her compositions. 'A lot of the songs I hear them while I'm asleep, I see them as like musical downloads from the hereafter.' The beauty of the balance she strikes between the creative and the intellectual allows her to create musical notations after 'downloading' them in her dreams. '…cause sometimes you'll hear a song, and you don't write it down, it just disappears into the ether where it came from, so I've learnt how to balance the creative with the cerebral.' ALSO READ: 'Bucket list checked': Zakes Bantwini graduates from Harvard New music There are snippets and fragments of Charles' music online, particularly her live performances, but there's only one song available on streaming platforms. 'I've been very much focused on my studies, and now that I've graduated, I'm set to record my debut album between sometime this year and next year.' She says the music and the personnel are there; it's just a matter of making time to go into the studio. Charles's grandfather was a self-taught musician, despite never recording music. Her only song on streaming platforms, KwaLanga, is an ode to him. 'There isn't any documented work of his playing, but that song I dedicated to him, and there are a couple of songs that I've written, dedicated to family members that I love very much who are no longer with us,' she said. She will perform some of these compositions when she takes the stage at the National Art Festival. NOW READ: 'Black Women and Sex': South African filmmaker wins at American Black Film Festival
Daily Maverick
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Condemn Gaza genocide, academics, staff urge Stellenbosch University
More than 200 Stellenbosch University staff have said they believe the institution has 'a special moral responsibility' to break its silence on the issue, given its history with apartheid. Academics and staff at Stellenbosch University have called on the institution to break its silence and call for an end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip and sever any ties with implicated Israeli universities. In a statement issued on Wednesday, 18 June, more than 200 signatories called for the university's leadership 'to officially and unequivocally add the university's voice to this worldwide call'. 'The gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including the crime of genocide, being committed by Israel in its devastating assault on the Gaza Strip, raise profound questions about the responsibility of universities to condemn such acts and avoid collaborating with implicated Israeli institutions. 'Unlike several other South African universities, Stellenbosch University as an institution has been largely silent on this issue. A Senate motion calling for an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of attacks on civilians in Gaza and Israel, the passage of humanitarian aid and the return of all captives was defeated on 30 April 2024. As concerned members of the university community, we again call upon our university to take a public stand on the violations of international law being committed against the Palestinian people,' read the statement. According to the statement, the Stellenbosch University academics and administrative staff are calling for: An immediate end to the genocide in Gaza; Immediate relief aid, including food, medicine and fuel into Gaza; An end to starvation as a strategy of war; The establishment of humanitarian corridors so that the injured and sick may be safely evacuated and attended to; and A lasting cessation of violence against the Palestinian people. Several South African universities, including the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape and Nelson Mandela University, have all made official statements calling for a ceasefire and immediate humanitarian aid to Gaza. In April 2024, a special sitting of the Stellenbosch University Senate rejected a motion urging the institution to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, according to a GroundUp report. The motion followed a statement signed by 103 Senate members calling for an end to Israel's ' brutal and barbaric ' destruction of Gaza. It has been more than 18 months since Hamas' incursion into southern Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and took about 251 hostage. Since then, Israel has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, while displacing almost the entire population of 2.2 million, according to a Reuters report. On Thursday, 19 June, at least 51 people were reported killed by Israeli authorities, including 12 people who tried to reach the new aid distribution site operated by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the central Gaza Strip – the latest in reports of near-daily incidents of Palestinians killed while seeking food. The United Nations (UN) has rejected the contentious GHF operation in Gaza. In a statement on Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory called on the Israeli military to 'immediately cease its use of lethal force around food distribution points in Gaza, following repeated incidents of shooting and killing of Palestinians seeking to access food there'. 'We are horrified at the repeated incidents, continuously reported in recent days across Gaza, and we call for an immediate end to these senseless killings,' said OHCHR. The aid currently reaching Palestinians in Gaza is far from sufficient, and international humanitarian organisations have warned that the vast majority of Palestinians who live in the enclave are at risk of starvation unless the distribution of aid is urgently increased. 'A special moral responsibility' The signatories to the statement said they believed that Stellenbosch University had 'a special moral responsibility' to break its silence on the issue, given its history of facilitating, colluding and collaborating with apartheid, and thus violating human rights'. 'As academics and concerned staff on the African continent, and part of a global society, we recognise that our responsibilities must extend into the cultivation of a public good, not for some, but for all people. 'We also recognise our own positioning at Stellenbosch University, a context that continues to enjoy immense privilege, but which carries historical burdens. Our institution's renewed commitment to transformation demands a heightened sensitivity to human suffering and indifference, not only in the context of South Africa, but also beyond,' the statement read. Speaking to Daily Maverick, Professor Ashraf Kagee from Stellenbosch University's Department of Psychology said he believed that individual academics and institutions 'must be vocal and outspoken in condemning human rights violations of this nature'. 'I think we need to be very clear that we do not ever want to see a world where this is possible; where this is acceptable. And we need to marshal all organs of society, the institutions, the corporations, the governments of the world to address this matter, to isolate Israel, to put as much pressure on the Israeli government and its supporters in the West to make this genocide stop immediately,' he said. 'It's remarkable that almost two years since the genocide began, nothing has been done to stop it. In fact, Western countries are aiding and abetting Israel with support of their militaries.' Kagee said while there had been 'historical complicity with apartheid' at Stellenbosch University, the institution was making a concerted effort to reposition itself, and publicly calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza 'fits in' with its transformation efforts and a crackdown on racism, sexism and other issues of injustice at the institution. 'Suspend collaboration with implicated Israeli universities' Among the demands in the statement is the call for Stellenbosch University to 'commit itself to suspending all collaboration with Israeli universities where there is a risk of direct or indirect involvement in human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories'. Professor Sandy Liebenberg, the HF Oppenheimer chair in Human Rights Law at Stellenbosch University's Faculty of Law, said several universities worldwide had done audits of their relationships with Israeli universities and severed ties with those complicit in human rights violations. 'We would like to see the management of the university putting out a statement at least distancing itself from and condemning the gross violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law that's unfolding. But, perhaps more fundamentally, we would like to see some kind of audit committee set up to look at the contacts which might exist between Stellenbosch and implicated institutions – Israeli universities that might be complicit in human rights violations,' she said. In response to questions from Daily Maverick, Stellenbosch University spokesperson Martin Viljoen said: 'Stellenbosch University (SU) recognises the severity and far-reaching impact of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. It is important to emphasise that our institution stands firmly for the principles of peace, respect for human rights, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and the principles of international humanitarian law. 'SU is a multistakeholder institution and members of this diverse community will often have differing views on a multitude of matters. While SU as an institution must safeguard this freedom, it does however strongly condemn any form of violence where innocent lives are affected,' said Viljoen. He said that although a resolution on the conflict was not accepted by a majority of the Stellenbosch University Senate in April last year, the university 'acknowledges that this is a humanitarian crisis that has a devastating impact in the region as well as globally and has repeatedly expressed its sympathy for all those affected. 'It is important to emphasise that as a community of scholars, the university is committed to providing a space that encourages constructive debate and academic freedom. To fully perform its role in society, the university must maintain an environment of freedom of inquiry and expression,' he continued. Viljoen said that Stellenbosch University was 'not the only university, locally or globally, that has refrained from an institutional stance on this issue to safeguard academic freedom'. He did not respond to Daily Maverick's question on whether Stellenbosch University had any memoranda of understanding with Israeli universities. DM
Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Zionism untethered — inside the legal battle for the soul of UCT
Up until now, a narrative has been pushed in the local and international right-wing press that the council of the University of Cape Town had chosen to wilfully sacrifice R750-million in donor funding on the altar of its so-called Gaza resolutions. But new court papers submitted by an anti-Zionist Jewish group, as well as previously unreported sections of the UCT council's answering affidavit, reveal a concerted effort by the pro-Israel lobby to shut down criticism of the Jewish state. Just like at Ivy League universities in the US, threats and intimidation have characterised the case. Illusions of safety On a Monday morning in March 2024, Professor Susan Levine, the head of the anthropology department at the University of Cape Town (UCT), received an email from a man who claimed to be 'Benjy 'Ben' Steingold' of Tzfat, the famous 'holy city' near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. Levine, who had never met or even heard of Steingold, was wary — the events of the previous weekend, when it came to the actions of her colleagues and fellow Jews, had shaken her badly. As she read from the top, her fears were confirmed. 'This may be the most important email you have ever received in your life,' the message began. 'Please read to the end as it could give you the opportunity to change your eternal future.' That 'eternal future', according to Steingold — or whatever the sender's real name happened to be — would, unless Levine altered course, involve a particularly biblical form of punishment. Because she had allegedly 'vilified Israel' by spreading 'untruths and lies', she was destined 'in this incarnation or another reincarnation' to live under one of four enemy regimes: Hamas, Hezbollah, Isis or the Ayatollah's Iran. For the next 10 paragraphs, as payback for the motion that Levine had brought before the UCT senate the previous Friday, Steingold quoted a potent mix of Torah and American literature. Through it all, an undercurrent of menace flowed in a steady and self-assured stream, as exemplified in a citation from the Midrash (ancient commentaries on the Hebrew scriptures): 'If you are kind to the cruel, in the end, you will be cruel to the kind.' Two days later, on 13 March 2024, Levine would include these details in a sworn statement for the South African Police Service. At around the same time, the UCT authorities would deem the threat to her life significant enough to warrant full-time private security. In the third paragraph of her statement, Levine would succinctly explain the motion that she had proposed to the university senate on 8 March: 'The motion was one which urged UCT to cut ties with Israeli institutions of higher education until such a time that they acknowledge the value of Palestinian lives in Gaza and [call] for an end to what the International Court of Justice calls 'plausible' [genocide].' As it turned out, despite her refusal to rescind — aside from the Steingold threat, there was an attempt by UCT staff to place pressure on members of Levine's family, with one colleague even passing on the message that her life would be 'ruined' — the motion for an academic boycott did not win the requisite votes. Still, although she could not know it at the time, Levine's experience was fated to form a core part of one of the most significant court cases in the 195-year history of UCT. Lodged by Professor Adam Mendelsohn on 22 August 2024, the Western Cape Division of the High Court application would attempt to overturn a pair of momentous resolutions that had been passed by the UCT council, the university's highest decision-making body, on 22 June of that same year: first, the resolution not to adopt the international definition of anti-Semitism that encompassed anti-Zionism; and, second, the resolution to prohibit collaboration with academics or research groups affiliated to the Israel Defense Forces or the broader Israeli military establishment. In its 150-page answering affidavit, the UCT council — represented by its chairperson, Norman Arendse — would refer to these resolutions jointly as the 'Gaza resolutions,' thereby making it plain that they were a direct response to Israel's ongoing military offensive and the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). On page 17 of the affidavit, shortly after reiterating UCT's 'zero-tolerance attitude to anti-Semitism' and acknowledging that the Jewish people had in the past been 'victims of gross atrocities and genocide' themselves, Levine's experience was mentioned for the first time. The context, as the UCT papers explicitly stated, was that 'those who expressed views in support of the Gaza resolutions' were likely to face 'threats, intimidation or reprisal' if their identities were revealed. Mendelsohn, the affidavit alleged, was 'probably aware' of Levine's experience, and therefore should not have disregarded the 'safety and wellbeing' of council members by going public with the case. As examples of Mendelsohn's alleged breach, UCT cited the publication of his founding and supplementary affidavits on Politicsweb, 'with council members' identities disclosed … regardless of the request [for anonymity]'. Also cited was reporting on the case 'in pro-Israel and right-wing media in the United States', specifically an article in Breitbart Media by its senior editor Joel Pollak, dated 15 March 2025. What was not cited was a lengthy feature published in Haaretz, Israel's most progressive mainstream newspaper, on 24 September 2024. Titled '' Scary Time to Be a Zionist': Is Africa's Top University No Longer a Welcoming Place for Jews? ', the piece, authored by South African journalist Tali Feinberg, quoted Mendelsohn extensively. With a link to the original founding affidavit, published on Politicsweb on 29 August 2024, Feinberg noted that the resolutions (which were — and are — yet to be implemented) 'should be seen within the broader context of South Africa's fraught relations with Israel'. Here, while Feinberg failed to mention the exceptionally close relationship in the 1970s and 1980s between the Israeli establishment and the white supremacist apartheid regime, she did observe that 'the ruling African National Congress has long backed the Palestinians'. Likewise, while she failed to acknowledge the threats directed at Levine, the fears of certain members of UCT's Zionist student body — most of whom would only speak to her on condition of anonymity — were the central focus of her piece. As graduate student Esther (not her real name) told Feinberg: 'If someone assaulted me for wearing a T-shirt that said 'Am Yisrael Chai' ['The people of Israel live'], it wouldn't be seen as anti-Semitic. It would be 'anti-Zionist.' The overlap between the two is no longer allowed to exist.' In these inherently contested words, by Daily Maverick's reckoning, lay the essence of the case. Levine, who in the interests of academic freedom allowed us access to her story and her name, was for us an archetypal local representative of a deeply disturbing global phenomenon — the split in world Jewry, between Zionists and anti-Zionists, that was now violently shaking the foundations of some of the most prestigious universities on Earth. What if Einstein was an anti-Semite? 'I am an academic, writer and member of the organisation South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP), currently residing in Cape Town,' Jared Sacks testified. 'I do not disclose my residential address because SAJFP members are often subject to harassment and threats from individuals who support Israel and the ideology of Zionism.' As the opening paragraph of the application for the admission of the SAJFP as amicus curiae (friends of the court) in the case of Mendelsohn versus the UCT council, an affidavit that Sacks deposed on behalf of his organisation on 9 June 2025, the assertion — like Levine's story — was far from hyperbolic. A mere six weeks before, as reported by Daily Maverick, Sacks had been physically assaulted by an attendee of the Jewish Literary Festival in Cape Town, for the apparent offence of protesting Israeli war crimes in Gaza. The incident, it turned out, was nothing new to Sacks. As a PhD graduate in Middle Eastern Studies from Columbia University in New York, he had served as a teaching fellow on undergraduate courses that delved into the highly flammable terrain of Palestinian rights. 'I have first-hand knowledge of the current climate of political repression related to pro-Palestine activism at universities in the United States,' Sacks declared in his affidavit, 'including at Columbia, where a number of former colleagues and former students have been subject to harassment, doxxing, assaults, institutional pressure, procedurally unfair disciplinary processes, and unjust termination of employment due to their research and speech on Palestine.' By Daily Maverick's understanding, this anchoring of the UCT case in the international context, a point that the affidavit would repeat from multiple angles, was one of the primary motivations for the SAJFP applying as amicus curiae — in disentangling the religion of Judaism from the ideology of Zionism, Sacks testified, his organisation aimed to 'debunk the anti-Semitic notion' that there had ever been anything like a homogenous Jewish perspective, either globally or locally, on the actions of the State of Israel. Clearly, in emphasising 'the role that anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews have played in shaping discourse on [the UCT campus]', the affidavit was not only rejecting the attempt by Mendelsohn — director of the university's Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies — to speak on behalf of all Jewish students and staff; it was also affirming the SAJFP's support for free speech and institutional autonomy, particularly in the form of the Gaza resolutions. But as important, 'with billionaire philanthropists and politicians running roughshod over protected speech' at universities in the United States, the SAJFP was drawing attention to the 'distinct possibility' that what had been playing out 'at places like Harvard and Columbia' would 'become an issue at South African universities as well'. The question for the Western Cape Division of the High Court, of course, would be whether the SAJFP was overstating its case. And here, to offset Mendelsohn's opposition to the application, the organisation came armed with expert witnesses. At the top end, aside from the testimonies of Professor Steven Friedman and Professor Isaac Kamola, two local academics with deep knowledge of the issues, the SAJFP submitted an expert affidavit from Professor Joan Scott of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey — the same institute that Albert Einstein had joined in the 1930s, after seeking refuge from Nazi Germany. Scott, as Sacks well knew, had long been a leading global critic of the definition of anti-Semitism as laid down by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA — the very definition that the UCT council had rejected in its Gaza resolutions of June 2024, and the very definition, as articulated in his founding papers, that Mendelsohn appeared to be insisting upon. In paragraph 14 of her supporting affidavit, somewhat remarkably, Scott invoked the spirit of Einstein himself. 'Under the IHRA definition,' she testified, 'rejecting the idea of a Jewish state with borders and an army, as Einstein once did, could land even the most famous Jew of the 20th century in the position of being accused of anti-Semitism. Though he was sympathetic to Zionism, Einstein's comparison of Menachem Begin's Herut Party massacres during the Nakba to the Nazi Party would have fallen afoul of [the IHRA definition]. In today's academic world, he could have been fired for making such a comparison.' In other words, according to Scott, a celebrated Jewish scholar in her mid-80s who had witnessed — and commented upon — some of the worst anti-democratic impulses of 20th-century America, the Zionist radicals of 2025 would have burnt no less a luminary than Einstein. It was for this reason, she continued in her affidavit, that one of the original authors of the IHRA definition, Professor Kenneth Stern, came to regret what he called the 'weaponising' of the definition, arguing — in an opinion piece for The Guardian published in 2019 — that 'its misuse undermines efforts to detect and combat real instances of anti-Semitism'. In the same vein, Scott added, this was also why more than a hundred Israeli and international civil society organisations, in April of 2023 — as reported, again, in The Guardian — 'urged the United Nations to reject this definition'. Ultimately, for Scott — as for Friedman and Kamola — the IHRA definition had quickly become anathema to the very idea of academic freedom. Scott, however, had been watching its effects play out on US Ivy League campuses in real time. Republican politicians, she testified, 'many of them anti-Semites themselves', were now using the 'expressions of discomfort' of Zionist students and faculty to foreground anti-Semitism at the expense of all other forms of racial discrimination. '[Zionist] students express their discomfort in terms of feeling 'unsafe' or 'threatened,'' she added, 'when there is little or no evidence of any physical danger they have experienced.' And so Daily Maverick could not help but wonder: was this also the reality of Zionist fears on the UCT campus, as reported by Feinberg in Haaretz? The answer, it appeared, would be for the Western Cape Division of the High Court to decide. For the moment, what could not be disputed was how things were turning out in the US. 'The IHRA definition is now a political test for enjoying rights of free speech and academic freedom,' Scott testified. 'Those who support Israel have rights of free expression, those who criticise it are punished and banned.' The money problem On a Saturday morning in mid-March 2025, almost a year to the day after UCT had assigned full-time security to Professor Levine, the university council was asked to make a difficult decision. With the threat of US federal funding cuts looming, most likely in the form of an abrupt halt to grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the executive orders of President Donald Trump could no longer be ignored — for one thing, as the largest recipients of NIH grants outside of the US, the university's medical researchers were now at serious risk. For another thing, as every member of the council was keenly aware, pro-Israel donors had already withdrawn funding — and more were threatening to withdraw — on the back of the Gaza resolutions of the previous year. Although it had not been placed on the agenda for discussion, a motion was therefore tabled that the university should rescind the resolutions and withdraw its opposition to Mendelsohn's high court application. In a closely contested vote, the motion failed to pass. A few short hours later, as stated in the council's answering affidavit, Joel Pollak of the right-wing US outlet Breitbart Media ran an article under the title, ' South African university votes to keep boycott of Israel despite losing two-thirds of donor funding '. Before the end of the following week, in a similarly alarmist piece in the local Jewish Report (authored, like the Haaretz feature, by Feinberg), Rolene Marks of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) would also note her concerns. 'This self-inflicted crisis threatens vital resources and undermines UCT's global standing,' Marks stated on behalf of the SAZF. 'It exposes the ideological capture of its leadership at the direct expense of academic freedom, financial stability and student welfare. Council members have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the university, yet some are wilfully disregarding this obligation. Their hatred of Israel outweighs their responsibility for UCT's future.' By Daily Maverick's reading, this was an uncanny summary of one of the principal arguments from Mendelsohn's founding affidavit of August 2024 — the notion that, by failing to take account of 'UCT's finances, existing relationships … and reputation', the council had acted in an 'irrational' manner. But if Mendelsohn was indeed the source of the leaks, as alleged in the UCT answering papers, he would not admit as much to us. In response to a series of questions sent on 12 June, in which Daily Maverick also sought clarification on the publication of the names of council members, he noted his 'surprise' at our email — we should 'surely know', he wrote, that it would be 'improper' for him to respond while legal proceedings were pending. Given Mendelsohn's extensive interviews with Feinberg, we noted, we too were surprised. Still, irrespective of the source, the tenor of the media campaign against the UCT council was unmistakable — the underlying message was that the university had been financially punished for taking on the Zionists. The SAJFP, for its part, was unimpressed. Referring in a footnote to an attendant statement from Mendelsohn's supplementary affidavit, the organisation pointed out the obvious: 'The assumption that 'Jewish connected' donors would have a homogeneous reaction to resolutions against Israel's actions in Palestine is not only incorrect … it also panders to historical anti-Semitic tropes of a Jewish cabal working in unison and employing financial power to promote its political agendas.' Of course, if the SAJFP was implying that there was no such cabal, the optics weren't working in its favour. Further down in its application, the organisation got at the heart of the matter, noting that since 7 October 2023 the 'risk to university autonomy and academic freedom' from private donor money had become extreme, 'particularly at Ivy League universities' in the US. 'Wealthy donors (with the support of politicians) have drawn on the IHRA's conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism to pressure universities like Harvard and Columbia to ban student groups like Jewish Voices for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine,' Sacks testified. 'Donor pressure has also forced the suspension and expulsion of students for peaceful protests, the militarisation of campuses by armed police and the resignation of university presidents that sought to push back on their demands.' Unlike Harvard, the SAJFP noted, where philanthropic contributions 'made up about 45 percent of all revenue in the 2024 financial year', private donor funding made up 'only ten percent' of UCT's revenue in 2024. Still, with the overall trend in South Africa towards 'increased reliance on such funding', one of the dangers — as the SAJFP saw it — was that donors' political views would soon play an outsized role at our universities too. A major milestone, according to the SAJFP, had been passed in the signing of a contract between UCT and the Donald Gordon Foundation (DGF) in 2023, wherein the latter had agreed to fund the creation of a neuroscience institute (at a cost of R200-million over a 10-year period) on the proviso that UCT's 'zero-tolerance attitude to anti-Semitism' was anchored in the IHRA definition. As the UCT council's answering affidavit made clear, on 6 August 2024 — around six weeks after it had passed the Gaza resolutions — the DGF informed the university of its 'decision to cancel … the donor agreement'. In total, the council devoted all of 24 paragraphs to the contract's background, arguing that the IHRA clause had never been used or intended as a dealbreaker and expressing the hope that the relationship with the DGF could be restored. But Mendelsohn, in his own papers, had left no room for doubt — not only had the UCT council sacrificed the neuroscience institute on the altar of its Gaza resolutions, he testified, it had burnt the chances of a mooted 'R400- to R500-million from the DGF' for a new academic hospital too. And likewise for the SAJFP (although from the diametrically opposed stance), there was nothing ambiguous about the DGF contract. 'If the DGF donor agreement were to be enforced,' Sacks testified, 'this would mean that Zionism's adherents on campus would be protected by the IHRA in the same way as a racial group or religion. Meanwhile, the agreement would institutionalise discrimination against those who oppose Zionism by branding them with the false label of anti-Semitism.' The Western Cape Division of the High Court, then, was being asked to pass judgment on one of the most heated and divisive topics of the modern era — a touchpoint that was pitching students against professors, voters against politicians, Jews against Jews. For anti-Zionists like Levine and Sacks, the violence that their brethren were capable of was hardly a joke; but for Mendelsohn too, who in September 2024 had requested additional security from the university, the stakes were sky-high. On 23 and 24 October 2025, the matter would be heard before a full Bench. Arguing for the admission of the SAJFP as amicus curiae would be Geoffrey Budlender, a graduate of UCT and one of the most respected senior counsels in South Africa. According to Sacks, Budlender had agreed to take on the case pro bono. Given that Budlender, himself a Jew, had recently been honoured with the George Bizos Human Rights Award, it was likely to be an uncompromising show, a battle worthy of the oldest university in the country.
IOL News
3 days ago
- Health
- IOL News
Professor Lucie Cluver honoured with OBE for contributions to child wellbeing
Professor Lucie Cluver, honorary professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and professor of Child and Family Social Work at the University of Oxford, has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours List Image: UCT In recognition of her unparalleled dedication to children's wellbeing and public health, Professor Lucie Cluver has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours List. An honorary professor at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a professor of Child and Family Social Work at the University of Oxford, Cluver's groundbreaking research over the past 14 years has made significant strides in improving the lives of children and adolescents across sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Cluver, in collaboration with Associate Professor Elona Toska, director of UCT's Accelerate Research Hub, and Professor Cathy Ward, director of UCT's Safety and Violence Initiative and the Centre for Social Science Research, has been a leading force in interdisciplinary studies that address the multifaceted challenges facing vulnerable children. Her enthusiasm and collaborative spirit shine through in her reflections on the award: 'I am honoured and amazed at being given this award. Every impact that we have had is because of an incredible team of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and colleagues – across South Africa and the UK – who are dedicated to improving the lives of children,' she stated. From 2019 to 2024, Cluver took the helm of the UKRI GCRF Accelerating Achievement for Africa's Adolescents Hub, an ambitious £20 million initiative aimed at identifying and scaling effective strategies to enhance outcomes for young Africans. Through this hub, Cluver has successfully brought together a diverse group of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, creating an ecosystem for innovative solutions to address youth challenges in the region. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Additionally, in 2022, she co-led the Global Parenting Initiative, which seeks to offer free, evidence-based parenting support worldwide with the aim of preventing child sexual abuse and family violence. This initiative connects leading institutions and charities globally to provide parents with the tools needed to create safer and more nurturing environments for their children. Cluver's work was especially vital during the Covid-19 pandemic, where she spearheaded the Covid-19 Emergency Parenting Response alongside UCT's Centre for Social Science Research. Supported by WHO, UNICEF, and PEPFAR, this initiative delivered critical resources to over 210 million people across 198 countries, directly influencing parenting during a tumultuous time and being adopted by 34 national governments. Reflecting on her journey, Cluver recalls her early contributions as a social worker in Nyanga, where she learned the crucial need for research in addressing the complexities surrounding HIV/AIDS. 'In 2002, I was a social worker in Nyanga, trying to help mothers and children who were dying of HIV/AIDS. I asked local charities what they needed, and to my astonishment they said 'research': they wanted to know what would be most effective and affordable ways to protect children,' described Cluver. This initial insight has propelled her career, as she now collaborates with governments and global agencies to implement effective interventions targeting vulnerable populations.
The Citizen
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Citizen
Record fifth selection for Fourways sprint rower to represent SA at World Sprint Championships
Jordan Klopper, from Fourways, has been selected, after the SA Sprint Championships, to represent SA at the World Sprint Championships. What is even more amazing, is the fact that he has been selected five times, which is quite an achievement. 'I honestly wasn't expecting to be selected this year,' said Klopper. 'I've just moved into a new age group (U23), and with the transition to university life at the University of Cape Town, there were a lot of changes and challenges to navigate. 'I set realistic expectations for myself, going into this year's national trials. When the team selection was announced, I was incredibly surprised and proud to have qualified for the national team again. It's a huge honour to represent my country for the fifth time. Preparation will involve consistent training on the water, complemented by regular gym sessions.' Also read: SA Sprint Championships showcase talent at Roodeplaat Dam He said, heading into this year's world championships, he has set more realistic expectations for himself, especially since he is now competing against athletes who are several years older. 'My main goal is to gain valuable race experience, give it my all, and most importantly, enjoy the process.' His schedule keeps him busy as a bee, but he finds way to manoeuvre. 'A typical training week is carefully balanced around my demanding university schedule. I usually start my mornings with a gym session, or a run, before heading to campus. Once classes are done for the day, I head to the water for a 90-minute to two-hour training session. I aim to train five to six days a week. 'Over the years, my training routine has evolved to include more cross-training and interval sessions, tailored specifically to my sprinting requirements, rather than focusing solely on time in the boat.' Also read: Curro Riverside football team clinches victory at AISJ tournament When asked about specific techniques or strategies he focuses on to gain a competitive edge in sprint canoeing, he said his approach has always been to focus on enjoying what he's doing, and to compete in the events that excite him most. 'I believe that when you're passionate about something, and commit fully to the process, the results will naturally follow. I take the time to plan and structure each day and week carefully to ensure I can manage everything. During the week, my primary focus is on academics, attending classes, and fitting in my training. 'I make sure to take a rest day over the weekend to recharge, relax, and spend quality time with my family. To any young athlete out there: Always enjoy and have fun with what you're doing. Stay committed, never give up, and just keep pushing forward… No matter what.' Follow us on our Whatsapp channel, Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok for the latest updates and inspiration! Have a story idea? We'd love to hear from you – join our WhatsApp group and share your thoughts! At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
