The new Director of Equity and Institutional Culture at Rhodes University hopes to inspire critical honesty and compassion in addressing the institution's need for change.
The new Director of Equity and Institutional Culture at Rhodes University hopes to inspire critical honesty and compassion in addressing the institution's need for change.
Tshidi Hashatse, former deputy dean of students at Rhodes University, has been appointed the first director of Equity and Institutional Culture at the university. Her appointment, effective from last month, deserves mention on two fronts: she is the first director of the department; and she will have to bring a unique remedy to fix an old problem: equity.
Hashatse, an advocate who studied journalism before law, and was deputy dean of students from 2009 until her new appointment this year, assumed her new position on 1 May. "I am hoping that the conversations that the institution needs to have with itself will not be moribund because of negative reaction," she told Grocott's Mail.
"I am hoping that even if we start conversations holding opposing views, we can still have mature, open, honest and critical discussions, held with compassion."
Before landing jobs at Rhodes, Hashatse worked at the Centre for Human Rights, at the University of Pretoria, from 1993 to 1998. From 1998 to 2006, she worked as a private consultant and practitioner. Both jobs were related to equity and transformation in public and private institutions, the same issues she will have to address at the university as part of her new post, which was created last year by the university.
Among her functions, Hashatse will be working towards improving the university's equity standards, reporting to Dr Saleem Badat, the vice-chancellor, and working closely with the university’s Equity and Institutional Culture Committee.
When announcing Hashatse's appointment in an email, Badat wrote: "Advocate Hashatse brings considerable intellect, knowledge, expertise and experience to the post and we are very fortunate to secure the services of a person of her calibre." Although Hashatse herself is aware that equity and equality begin with the constitution and the human rights enshrined in it, she also realises, however, that "the stroke of the legislator’s pen did not miraculously undo the inequalities of the past and that, in fact, as far as some markers of inequality are concerned, the gaps have widened and the inequalities are crystalising in our society.
"Even the equality clause of the constitution introduces the concept of redress in order to ensure that the equality which we aspire to, can move towards becoming a reality. "I think Rhodes has been engaged in a process of putting in place policies and procedures to tackle issues related to equity, the time has now come to put greater effort into implementation, and to show in demonstrable ways that we have the will and conviction to do what the policies say."
Hashatse was born and raised in Diepkloof, Soweto. "I entered university in the mid 1980s and was influenced by what was going on the country at the time," Hashatse said, explaining how she entered journalism. "I was fascinated, even as a young child in the 1970s, to see newspapers exposing the ills of apartheid. I lived in the same street as [the famed photographer]Peter Magubane and his pictures in the newspapers telling more than a thousand words ever could, inspired me.
"Later on, in the 80s, during the State of Emergency, when newspapers would publish blacked-out sections, the censorship, the court battles of the time, and my involvement as Media Law Tutor under the guidance of John Grogan, convinced me that I could perhaps make a better contribution by fighting injustice using the law, even as it was then."
About what's expected of her at Rhodes, Hashatse said: "I can achieve nothing in this area if the Rhodes community does not come to the party. There is a role for everybody to play, and I hope and trust there will be a will to engage."
