“Our songs,” says Zachie Achmat, “are part of our education.” This bodes well for the learners of Sakulunthu Youth Choir, as they enthusiastically sang and danced to loud applause and standing ovations at the opening of the Community of Mandela Rhodes Scholars Conference.
“Our songs,” says Zachie Achmat, “are part of our education.” This bodes well for the learners of Sakulunthu Youth Choir, as they enthusiastically sang and danced to loud applause and standing ovations at the opening of the Community of Mandela Rhodes Scholars Conference.
Sitting at the back of the lecture venue, Alinka Brutsch beamed as she watched the choir perform. As one of the organisers of the conference, she was relieved to see her work coming to fruition.
It certainly did not go unnoticed as the Vice Chancellor of Rhodes University, Dr Saleem Badat admitted that, compared with students from other institutions, “Rhodes students have to work especially hard to host national events”, and thanked them for their efforts.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Ethical Leadership: the Promise and the Practice”, and controversial Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) co-founder Zachie Achmat was invited to deliver the opening address.
Achmat spoke in a friendly and joking manner, yet the seriousness behind his words was palpable.
“Ethical leadership,” said Achmat, “requires first and foremost an ethical person who is also an ethical citizen.”
However, he quoted Jean-Jacques Rousseau as saying: “To form citizens is not the work of a day; and in order to have men [and women]it is necessary to educate them when they are children.”
Apartheid, according to Achmat, “destroyed the ethical foundations of all education” by imposing an inferior education on non-white learners.
He believes that this inferior system of education still prevails in the townships of South Africa.
This kind of education has a deep impact on learners.
“It undermines their dignity as human beings, and it undermines our dignity of human beings,” he emphasised. He believes that, as citizens, it is our responsibility to do something about the system of education to “ensure that education becomes the common property of every person“.
“Don’t say it can’t be done,” he proclaimed. “It can be done if we work together.”Specifically drawing attention to the problem of language in schools Achmat says that, at the moment, the 11 official languages are only taught up until Grade 4 level.
Thereafter, scholars are expected to learn English and Afrikaans as their main languages, even though the teachers themselves are often not first-language English or Afrikaans speakers.
The outcome of this is that many of these learners are only able to communicate properly in their home language, rather than being able to speak a number of the 11 national languages, creating a number of separate societies.
Though it may be a challenge, Achmat insists that a multilingual and multicultural society must be created. “It has been done in many parts of the world, and we have to do it.”
Badat admitted that we are currently in what Charles Dickens might have called “the worst of times”, but these kinds of conferences make him determined that “among the dark clouds there could be a silver lining.” “We move into a spring of hope,” he announced, “where everything before us depends on us.”
