44 / 78
CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 30, No 1, January/February 2019
42
AFRICA
•
addressing the developmental needs of society
•
contributing to the social–cultural and intellectual life of a
rapidly changing society
•
socialisation of enlightened, responsible and constructively
critical citizens
•
helping to lay the foundations of a critical civil society with a
culture of public debate and tolerance.
Furthermore, public good and social responsibility as functions of
universities, are closely related and often difficult to differentiate.
Here is an example of public good: under the inspirational
leadership of Prof Jakes Gerwel, the University of (the) Western
Cape (UWC) created a community legal centre [which was
recently renamed the Dullar Omar Institute of Constitutional
Law (DOI)], whose mandate was (to the public benefit of
South Africa): ‘the engine room of committed thought towards
the new constitution’. Its contribution to the South African
dispensation will be remembered for a long time. The Institute
was instrumental in the inclusion and phrasing of some sections
of the South African Constitution that deal with the National
Council of Provinces, socio-economic rights, enforceable rights
to housing, health, food and basic education.
5
In fact, UWC had
declared itself ‘the intellectual home of the left’.
6
Our Constitution (as amended) has enshrined in it a number of
civil rights, among which the right to education and the right to
academic freedom are of interest in higher education. The two are
interrelated in the sense that ‘if a person does not have access to
(basic or higher) education, the person is also deprived of academic
freedom’.
7
Academic institutions are better placed to promote the
understanding of this right to education and academic freedom.
The University of the Witwatersrand (commonly known as
Wits University), during the erstwhile leadership of the respected
and leading mathematician-cum-manager of our time, Loyiso
Nongxa, was in the public spotlight through its Targeting Talent
project. Through it, Wits would search for talented matriculants
and help them find admission spaces at higher education
institutions in the country.
8
South Africa is known for its social
inequalities; it is not uncommon that some of her brightest
learners are based at rural villages, often without access to the
internet, let alone information about academic offerings at
South African universities. When such learners graduate from
secondary education, having passed with distinction in critical
subjects such as mathematics, physical science and accountancy,
they would be unable to enter higher education. These are the
learners Loyiso would target: this is public goodness.
In November 2017, Nongxa’s successor, well-known political
commentator, Adam Habib volunteered his university’s expertise
to assess the status of numerous bridges in Gauteng and
advise the provincial government on whose responsibility it
is to maintain these bridges. This is an example of social
responsibility: providing the community with the expertise to
find solutions to a social challenge.
The success of universities in the three areas that this article
centres on depends on the role of their vice-chancellors; however,
a university community is also at the centre of the visibility of
the university in the public sphere. It is not surprising that at
the University of Zululand, Charles Dlamini noted: ‘When the
transformation committee was established at the University
of Zululand, I was excluded from it. I pointed out that the
people constituting the committee might not have the necessary
experience and expertise to lead the process …, but was told
to give these people a chance … When the process failed, I got
the blame’.
9
While university leaders are undoubtedly the face
and chief spokespersons of their institutions, their constituent
communities are the foot soldiers.
Contextual framework
In this article, community development derives from a form of
practice in the sense of it being inclusive. Some scholars refer
to this as a community of practice where interest groups come
together to share ideas on a specific activity; so, it is based on the
principles of equality and social inclusion.
10
Inclusion can also
take the form of selected variables that the targeted population
is expected to satisfy, as was the case with Kayama
et al.
,
11
where
the community was (hospital) patients who had dropped out of
out-patient care for more than three months.
Analogously, a group of small-scale farmers in a village is a
community, and their development could involve management of
maize varieties or dinawa recipes (as is the case in examples that
are discussed below). Being inclusive, community development
is necessarily collaborative in that there ought to be a mutual
understanding of community needs as well as availability of
resident resources, which will inform the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of
interaction between a university and the targeted community.
Our conception of the value and nature of a university is
best summed up by Chris Brink when, in reference to the nature
of a university, he says: ‘The first, which is a matter of quality,
is to ask what we are good at. The second, which is a matter
of equality, or more broadly, our role in civil society, is to ask
what we are good for’.
6
It is the reference to civil society that this
article leans on: to advance that which a university is good at for
the benefit of society. After all, Aasen
7
argues that a university
should contribute towards a better life for all.
Creating and sharing knowledge with communities is the
social responsibility of every higher education institution. For
centuries, universities have also been at the centre of social
change and development. The demise of apartheid in South
Africa and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe
resulted from many African and East European countries
in which universities played pivotal roles to dismantle the
two philosophies. In South Africa, while the contribution of
universities as centres of apartheid resistance was immense and
well documented, perhaps the contribution of white universities,
in particular the Universities of Cape Town (UCT) and the
Witwatersrand need acknowledgement.
Even though Hendrik Verwoerd had wanted the black child
not to be taught mathematics, and in consequence science,
engineering and accounting, UCT started the Academic Support
Programme (ASP) and Alternative Admissions Research Project
(AARP) as a ‘…means of access for educationally disadvantaged
students whose school results do not necessarily reveal their
potential to succeed in higher education’.
6
This is the highest form
(and example) of social responsibility: creating opportunities to
and helping those who were not meant to enter higher education
to succeed!
A university should be able to elevate its research to inform
its teaching mission and reinforce its historical commitment to
helping communities meet their needs.
12
In addition Bender also
argues that the pedagogy of engagement can be used to advance
social responsibility.