Preserving African culture in a globalised era: The role of UP Ovuwa

message were not registered DASO members. One student confirmed that they were previously registered with DASO; while several other students confirmed that although they knew members in DASO they had never registered themselves. Some students even confirmed that they were not registered voters or South African citizens (with and without permanent residence) and thus would not appear on the voter’s roll. Another student confirmed that they had never been registered with the organisation, nor, to their recollection, had they ever had any contact with anyone who was registered with DASO. Similarly, first-year law student Adelle Jansen said, “I have never had any interactions with them before, but I just suddenly received a message from them, and I didn’t even know who they were until I asked some people about it.” So, it is unclear how DASO managed to obtain the cell phone numbers of so many students.

PDBY asked DASO how they obtained the contact information of students, not registered with DASO. Moses asked if these students had verified that they were not registered members. After this was answered in the affirmative, she responded, “interesting […]”. Upon being asked if she knew how this could have happened, Moses replied, “no, I was not really in charge of that department, so I’d have to verify with […] our members who were.”

A violation of POPI?

The allegations levelled concerning the way DASO obtained the contact details of students indicate a potential violation of UP’s Constitution for Student Governance (CSG). In terms of section 7 of the CSG, “every Student has the right to confidentiality of his/her University records, and no information contained in such records may be disclosed without the permission of the Student in question”. A student’s contact details would fall within the ambit of this section.

Furthermore, this matter could also constitute a potential violation of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPI), specifically sections 5, 11, and 12 of the Act. Additionally, this is also a potential violation of section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, which states that everyone has the right to privacy, including the right not to have “the privacy of their communications infringed”.

Tarik Lalla, the secretary general of the SRC, said, “obviously we’re well aware of the fact that [students who were not registered with DASO and received this message is a] violation of the POPI Act, […] where they get the numbers from”.

PDBY reached out to the Constitutional Tribunal on 26 August for an advisory opinion on whether these messages did violate the aforementioned sections, but initially they did not deem the matter to be particularly urgent.

However, PDBY informed DASO that the way in which the message was sent out to students was potentially a violation of the sections outlined above, but DASO declined to give comment on the matter. Despite this information, the link to the Google document contained in the text message remained operational. Furthermore, Moses uploaded a story promoting the link to the petition on her Instagram account after she was made aware that a number of students, who were not members of the organisation, received the message. Additionally, Moses explicitly stated that she would verify whether students who were not part of DASO received this message and get back to PDBY on the matter. Moses had not verified this and gotten back to PDBY , at the time of print. DASO members Nikita Scoble, who is running for the SRC’s marketing, media, and communications profile, and Christo Pretorius, who is running for the SRC secretary general profile, also declined to give comment on the matter.

These developments are contrasted by a similar set of facts which preceded them in 2021 where Jacobs allegedly reported his opponent in the run for chairperson of House Humanities, Captain Shongwe, for sending campaign messages to a number of Humanities students. Shongwe obtained these numbers from module groups and was subsequently disqualified. Upon being questioned regarding this matter, Shongwe also revealed that Jacobs messaged him via Whatsapp as part of his own campaign in 2021. Thus, Jacobs used a means similar to Shongwe to promote himself. When PDBY reached out to Jacobs seeking comment on this, Jacobs offered no comment.

Finally, at his SRC presidential manifesto presentation, Jacobs spoke on the lawfulness of DASO’s communication. Relying on section 31 of POPI Jacobs said, “[It] allows for political parties to access the data of any voter that is on the voters roll in South Africa, so as far I’m concerned that’s completely legal.” On reading, section 31 of POPI, the Act excludes “institutions founded on political principles” from the general prohibition against processing a data subject’s personal information if they: are a member or employee; or where it is necessary for founding the party; or for a national or municipal election or campaigning for a political election or cause. Section 31 takes it a step further, in saying that the information that these institutions may process cannot be supplied to a third party.

In light of this, Jacobs’ reply offered at the manifesto is not reflective of the content within section 31. However, DASO could only be acting in accordance with section 31 if there was no third party involved to which they either: supplied the information from or to. After several attempts to reach DASO to confirm the aforementioned, DASO has declined to give comment directly addressing this question.

Bokang Selepe

As the world is becoming increasingly globalised through media, transportation, and the rapid development of digital technology, so are our identities. The globalised era has birthed the ‘global citizen’ which is an allinclusive identity centred around the idea that we are all citizens of any part of the world by virtue of our interconnectedness. However, the idea of a global citizen poses a threat to marginalised cultures that have not had the opportunity to meaningfully establish themselves in the global system. So, how can African culture be preserved in the globalised era, well an answer can be found at UP Ovuwa.

On 25 August, UP Ovuwa held an electrifying performance showcasing the beauty of several Southern African cultures through music and dance as part of the weeklong UP Music Festival. PDBY held an exclusive interview with the director of UP Ovuwa, Mxolisi Duda, to find out more about how UP Ovuwa is promoting and preserving African culture and art. According to Duda, UP Ovuwa can be described as “a cultural ensemble that promotes, preserves and celebrates African musical art through indigenous music, dance and poetry”. The only way culture can be preserved is when it is passed down from generation to generation. UP Ovuwa fulfils this preservation role in several ways. Duda cited that some members of the ensemble have never been exposed to indigenous African cultures and through their time at UP Ovuwa, members not only celebrate African culture through performances, but they also gain knowledge of African culture. Duda further added that UP Ovuwa also aims to be an educational resource for audiences by providing pamphlets that accompany performances to explain to audiences the meaning and significance behind the various aspects of the show. According to Duda the aim of UP Ovuwa is to ignite a sense of pride in the identities African people and that this sense of pride is, “knowing who you are not because other people don’t exist but because we all coexist”.

PDBY also spoke to a member of the UP Ovuwa ensemble, Geraldine Mboweni, about her time at UP Ovuwa and she highlighted the positive impact UP Ovuwa has had on her. Not only has she successfully learned various indigenous African dances, with no prior experience, but she has also gained an appreciation for her own culture and other African cultures as well.

By taking an exclusive look at UP Ovuwa it is evident that African culture can survive the globalised era. These cultures have an established voice in the global system - if the arts are funded and individuals are given the creative freedom to create spaces that promote the transfer of indigenous African knowledge across generations.