Vice Chancellor Prof Adam Habib is pictured, 29 October 2015, at the Senate House at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, during a meeting with campus staff and students about the outsourcing of workers on campus. Picture: Alaister Russell
Vice-chancellor and principal of the University of the Witwatersrand on Monday wrote a column that was published in The Daily Maverick which criticised the behaviour of the EFF.
In the column, he warned South Africans to be aware of the red berets’ “uncivil and spectacle politics” which involved “the advancement of ethnic and/or racial politics, the public slander of individuals, threats of violence, and a social mobilisation that trashed public facilities, private businesses, and mythologised militarism.”
This, he said, started when EFF leaders Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu were still in the ANC Youth League supporting former president Jacob Zuma during the Khwezi rape trial.
However, EFF student command chairperson Sinawo Thambo responded to Habib in a column published in the same platform, calling him out on his apparent hypocrisy for criticising EFF leaders while they praised former president Nelson Mandela and Anton Lembede.
He said it was hypocritical of him to criticise the EFF leaders while describing the older generation of the ANC as “humble, disciplined, and respectful”.
However, Habib responded to the criticism and said it was “interesting” that EFF leaders and supporters “confidently” commented on his role as a vice-chancellor when none of them had been one.
In fact, according to Habib, when some of those leaders served as CEOs, they allegedly plundered and destroyed the institutions they led.
“Some EFF leaders have also commented on the quality of my argument and writing. Yet their remarks are so ahistorical and ignorant, one has to wonder whether they read anything beyond party memorabilia. This is the problem with politics of spectacle – it requires so little of one,” he concluded.
Habib was further criticised by EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu, who said Habib was only bitter because his “intellectual laziness and shallowness” was exposed by a student leader.
“Wits is cursed to be led by a bigoted and self-ingratiating fool,” said Shivambu.
His followers, including former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, also criticised Habib for his ‘hypocrisy’.
User Shima said: “You have never formed and led a political party, yet you write articles about them…o se tsaya kae sebete se se kalo [where do you get such confidence]?”
“And on his second point? Just to complete the story,” added Shilowa.
Habib said his criticism of political leaders was justified because he had “studied it all my life, including having completed a PHD, publishing numerous peer-reviewed journals articles and books. Come on, Chief, think. It is not that hard.”
TheLandless responded: “Studying and forming and leading a political party are two different things… Ask Dr Ramphele [Mamphele]… It’s easy to read and write sitting on a comfortable chair at home.”
Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde
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