Homecoming

Paint a city blue and gold

More than 10 000 Wits staff and students across faculties and departments joined the special Centenary parade on 2 September 2022. In a spirit reminiscent of Wits Rag, Witsies wore wigs, miners’ hats, tutus and academic gowns, waving balloons, flags and banners. Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Zeblon Vilakazi said: “We built this city. Let’s paint it blue and gold” before taking the wheel in his classic Ford Galaxie 500 to lead the procession through the streets of Braamfontein.

ALUMNI WELCOME EVENT

A night to remember

Alumni in Johannesburg were welcomed to an evening of cocktails on the Solomon Mahlangu Concourse on the Friday evening of the Homecoming Weekend. They collected Centenary goodie bags, enjoyed performances by the Wits Choir and posed for photographs with Wits mascots. “Tonight is about celebrating you who represent the best in us,” said Professor Zeblon Vilakazi. The welcome event was followed by an interactive light show by Marcus Neustetter (BA FA 1999, MA FA 2001) and The Trinity Session, titled “Visible Resonance”. The iconic Great Hall was illuminated, and the audience was taken through the past 100 years of South African history.

SCHOLARSHIP BOARDS UNVEILING

Peter Maher, Prof Vilakazi and American Consul General, Vincent Spera

Forever in the Great Hall

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, and Alumni Relations hosted an intimate ceremony on 3 September 2022 to honour and celebrate recipients of three prestigious scholarships awarded since the University’s inception: Rhodes, Fulbright and Mandela Rhodes. The names of recipients are now permanently etched on scholarship boards housed in the foyer of the Great Hall. “We need to make the achievements and success of our alumni and staff visible; to inspire students, to give recognition to those who excel, and to reflect our standing as one of the world’s great universities,” said Peter Maher, director of Alumni Relations.

Front from left to right: Stephen Tollman, Sha'ista Goga, Mandisa Mathobela, Eddie Webster, Mark Orkin, Graham Craig, Cikida Gcali-Mabusela, Vukosi Marivate, Sekibakiba Lekogoathi, Lucy Allais Back: Mulweli Mathagu, Owen Horwood, Saul Musker, Allen Leuta, Amir Rezaei, Max Price, Chandi Gopal, Shahana Rasool

FOUNDERS’ TEA

A lifetime of friendships

The Centenary Founders’ Tea was held on the warm spring morning of 4 September 2022 on the Gavin Relly Green, West Campus. Around 450 guests had much to reminisce about after a two-year COVID hiatus and Alumni Relations welcomed the classes of 1980, 1981 and 1982 to their first tea. Former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke provided an inspiring talk on the value of institutions of higher learning as keynote speaker, while Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, outlined recent developments at Wits and Chancellor Dr Judy Dlamini gave a special vote of thanks.

One of the oldest attendees, 94-year-old David Lopatie (BCom 1950, CA 1953), remembered his time on campus alongside ex-servicemen and the makeshift huts on the library lawns. “My first lecture was at 8am and I had free time until 5pm.” He remembered sitting around the pool steps listening to the debates between Professors Phillip Tobias and Sydney Brenner: “I got a suntan and a political education,” he said.

Around the tables, the fondness for the University and fellow alumni was palpable. “This University means a lot to me,” said Paul Taylor (BSc Eng 1962). “I made friends here that are still my friends after 60 years.”

SPECIAL WISHES FOR THEIR ALMA MATER:

• Michael Marsh (BSc Eng 1973): “Keep going. Instead of only focusing on social differences, the world needs help with the environment, global warming, water shortages, energy etc. The best brains in the world are not doing enough.”

• Pamela Bailey (BA 1963) “May Wits continue to be at the cutting edge of education, social justice and upliftment.”

• Tessa Ziegler (BMus 1970): “A privilege to be here on the Wits 100th. Thank you for all the luminaries who contributed so meaningfully to our democracy – we really need you!”

AMONG THE MANY SPECIAL MEMORIES SHARED:

• Paul Edey (BA 1979, PDipEd 1979): “Phyllis Lawson’s history lectures, the marches against apartheid in 1976; the WITS Student magazine, which challenged and provoked; watching Wits FC playing at the Milpark Stadium.”

• Carol Clark (BA 1968, PDipLib 1972): “Robert Kennedy’s visit to Wits in 1966.”

• Dr Jane Townsend (BA 1971, BA Hons 1973, MEd 1982, PhD 1991): “I arrived at Wits in 1967 when the iron huts were used. The overnight library I haunted and rushed down to from a lecture to book the books we were told we needed to use for our essays. I was the JCE Rag princess.”

• Dorothy Hodgskiss (BEd Hons 1974): “I loved the experience of creating lessons and being watched through a two-way mirror. I got chastised for letting my pupil be too noisy!”

• Martin Pomeroy (BSc Eng cum laude 1964): “The sing-songs at the swimming pool led by Des and Dawn Lindberg and the Rag week in the early 1960s.”

• Derek Diamond (BSc 1980, BSc Hons 1981): “Graduating and receiving prizes with hair down to my back and beard down to my chest!”

• Raymond Druker (BA 1973): “Met my wife on the first day of orientation week. (Not sure if it was the great personality or the miniskirt and long hair.) The belief that we were actually achieving something. Remember police dogs and police charging just after being pulled with loudhailer off the fire hydrant. Wonderful years of victorious idealism.”