African Studies Institute - Seminar Papers

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1990 - 19952

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Author: search.filters.author.Murray, BruceSubject: search.filters.subject.University of the Witwatersrand

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    Wits at War
    (1990-08) Murray, Bruce
    The Second World War began as a European war on Sunday 3 September 1939 and ended six years later in the Far East with the Japanese surrender to the United States. In the history of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, as in the history of much else, the war was a watershed. The University became much more 'open' in its admissions policy, with blacks securing access to the medical school; war—oriented research, notably in radar, gave a new importance to the University as a centre of research; the war contributed significantly to a heightened political awareness among students and the beginnings of student activism at Wits; and the enrolment of thousands of ex-servicemen at the end of the war helped to make the University a distinctly more adult institution. The war also effected major transformations in the wider society, which in turn were to have a significant impact on the University's development. World War II, and South Africa's participation in it on the Allied side, greatly affected the economic, social, and political life of the country.
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    In defence of the 'open university': Wits University, student politics, and university apartheid
    (1995-05-15) Murray, Bruce
    In 1959 the Nationalist Government, after a decade in power, finally passed through Parliament legislation to impose apartheid on South Africa's university system. In protesting against the Government's proposals for university apartheid and an end to black access to the ‘open universities’, Wits and the University of Cape Town (UCT) demonstrated a high degree of solidarity, both in developing a united front on their respective campuses and coordinating action as between themselves. Two corporate protests, the first in the University's history, were organized by Wits against university apartheid; a march from Braamfontein to the City Hall in May 1957, and a general assembly in April 1959 to record the University's 'solemn protest' against the new legislation. Wits continued thereafter to mount 'solemn protests' against the application of university apartheid. In April 1969, to mark the tenth anniversary of the Extension of University Education Act, the University staged a week of demonstrations, culminating in another general assembly. The events of Academic Freedom Week at Wits', Convocation Commentary proudly declared, ‘showed that protest need not disrupt university life. That is the essential difference between student protest here and at some of the bigger institutions in Britain and the United States’.