Mining authority supports lecturers, students
JOBURG - Wits University received over R20 million from the Mining Qualifications Authority.
The money will be used to support seven lecturers in mining engineering and to provide 236 students with bursaries for studies in analytical, chemical, electrical, industrial, mechanical, metallurgical and mining engineering.
Head of Wits’ mining engineering school, Prof. Fred Cawood, said the university’s partnership with the authority dated back to 2005.
“This commitment speaks volumes about the authority, and sets an example for other SETAs,” he said.
Vice-chancellor and principal, Prof. Adam Habib, added that the historical disenfranchisement of some South Africans had created enormous levels of inequality which could only be addressed through collective action.
“The vice-chancellor can no longer say that his responsibilities end at the gates of the university. The CEO can no longer say that his responsibilities end with the company’s shareholders,” said Habib.
“How we begin to bridge institutional boundaries has become important. This partnership with the authority is testimony to what can be done.”
Of the money received from the authority, approximately R4.5 million will be used to support the lecturers and almost R19 million will be used for bursaries for disadvantaged students.
Habib said the bursaries would send a “powerful message of hope to the poor; that talented people have access to one of the best universities in the country” and that the support to be given to lecturers would be an “investment in the creation of a new black professorate”.
Cawood said R100 000 would be used to support students whose studies were affected because the students can’t afford necessities such as spectacles.
The authority also supports a university kitchen project that feeds students who can’t afford lunch.
“The school has seen an almost 99 percent success rate in students who have been assisted in this manner,” he said.
Yunus Omar, the authority’s chief financial officer, told university students and staff that the authority comprised people who had “been in their shoes”.
“They know what the students and lecturers are going through,” he added.
