Message from the Vice-Chancellor

MESSAGE FROM THE VICE-CHANCELLOR Health and Wellness

My last communication with our alumni, donors and friends using this platform was in the second semester of 2019. We would have liked to have communicated with you earlier than now, but I am sure you understand how badly lives have been turned upside down by the outbreak of COVID-19.

This message follows two editions of Iminingo between April and June dealing not only with the difficulties COVID-19 has created, but also important lessons from this ostensibly debilitating experience. I am assuming that all our internal stakeholders, including alumni, regularly receive university communiques. For this reason, I will not repeat what I have said in the two editions of Iminingo I am referring to. It’s safe to say that our Alumni Office always facilitates engagement with you. As you would have noticed, I also deal with other important institutional affairs and developments.

Be that as it may, this piece of communication is about extending my heartfelt greetings and well wishes to all our alumni, donors and friends of DUT. I trust that you have managed to remain unscathed by the global pandemic that has besieged us and, in fact, continues to do so more virulently now. Please continue to look after yourselves and encourage all your loved ones to be careful, too. The virus can be fatal.

Serendipitously, the theme of this edition is Health and Wellness, an apt topic during these physically and psychologically testing times. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly challenged us in many ways. We have read about how being in great physical health can significantly improve our chances of recovery if infected. Fortunately, both national and global statistics demonstrate significantly higher recovery rates. The lockdown and the restrictions that accompany it have been challenging to many from a psychological perspective as well. Social isolation, especially for those living alone, is much more difficult, but we trust that you have had access to various technological devices that connect you with loved ones.

The consequences of the pandemic have been far-reaching. Of great concern, even from the onset, was the stress it would bring to bear on the health system in terms of availability of beds, ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPEs). I must also use this opportunity to express our appreciation to all those alumni and friends of DUT working hard on the frontlines of the health profession to assist those who have been infected and affected by the virus.

Unfortunately, we must also acknowledge that the pandemic has drawn the great divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ and the severe societal inequalities that exist into sharp focus. The ‘haves’ are able to ride the proverbial coronavirus wave with relative ease with access to various resources, making the social distancing and lockdown restrictions more bearable. Many households experience partial or complete loss of income as a result of the restrictions, leaving many vulnerable and dependent on handouts and the generosity of others. This divide is a result of both our history of separate development and the post-apartheid mistakes we have made as a nation.

It is against this backdrop that our Envision 2030, the new strategy we launched in February this year, is very deliberate about DUT positively impacting the lives and livelihoods of our people through its socially aware,

creative and innovative people. Whereas many a times, universities of technology tend to tailor-make their outputs to business and industry, perhaps for excusable reasons, our new strategy demands that the outcomes and impacts must be witnessed in the broader society.

COVID-19 has also forced us to innovate how we conduct our graduation ceremonies. I, thus, congratulate all those trailblazing graduates who experienced our first virtual graduation ceremony on 10 June 2020. This is a first for DUT and certainly for many other universities.

I understand that the joy of physically walking across the stage to receive your qualification with your family cheering you on is priceless and is what you have been looking forward to. We have had to accept that the implications of the current circumstances are such that we cannot congregate physically for such celebrations. We are grateful though, that technology at least affords us the opportunity to still hold the ceremony, albeit virtually.

While we note that they graduated under unusual circumstances, it is our sincere hope that this year’s graduates will also be unusual, that they will use the very experience of changed circumstances to be adaptive and agile in fast-changing circumstances, and reinvent themselves in order to sustain their relevance and currency in this harsh world.

In keeping with our values of being compassionate, as enshrined in our Envision 2030, we have also set up the DUT COVID-19 Solidarity Fund: Committed, Compassionate, to play our part in contributing towards assisting those in our community who have been adversely affected by the pandemic. The focus of this fund will be on providing care and support to those in need. A number of our management team from peromnes levels1-5 have committed a percentage of their salaries towards the fund for a period of three months from May 2020. The University has taken responsibility through a readjusted University budget towards detection and prevention. Among others, this will take care of the provision of PPEs and other preventative and protective measures, including deep cleaning, sanitisation and disinfection.

Given what Management and the University have done, I would like to encourage anyone who is in a position to make a contribution to this important initiative to visit our website (www.dut.ac.za) and click on the DUT SOLIDARITY FUND link, which will take you to our donation page where you will find various convenient donation options.

DUT has continued with some of its operations remotely (although limited to some extent) during the lockdown, even under restriction Level 5. Of course, the major aspect of our operations, namely, teaching and learning, was severely disrupted since students had to be at home. We have had to make some major adjustments as we planned and prepared to provide a more comprehensive multi-modal/blended learning format for our students. Hitherto, online teaching had constituted but a nominal aspect of our teaching and learning modality.

This radical change has brought with it a number of challenges since many of our students do not have the connectivity, devices and data required to access online learning. We welcome the interventions and support by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) in assisting students they support by allowing for the purchase of devices and data using the allowances they receive. We do still, however, have to consider those students who are not funded by NSFAS and yet are unable to afford devices and data – ‘the missing middle’. To this end, the University has been able to secure a deal with mobile network operators for data provision (for both staff and students) and the DUT COVID-19 Solidarity Fund may also assist some students with devices, among other needs. We are in the process of negotiating with banks for ‘soft loans’ or sponsors for such students and their families.

It has been a challenging time for us all, but we hope that we will come out stronger and wiser as a nation. The pandemic has compelled us to be creative and innovative in how we do business and live life in general. If nothing else, the pandemic has demonstrated the importance of being adaptive to change, which is one of our key strategic objectives in Envision 2030. We have also initiated a process, led by my office, which will help us to prepare for the new unknown as it continues to unravel. As the lockdown restriction levels begin to ease and life seems to be returning to some form of ‘new normal’, we trust that you will continue to observe good and responsible practices so as to protect yourselves and others from the spread of the virus.

Stay safe and best wishes.

PROF THANDWA ZIZWE MTHEMBU

DUT Vice-Chancellor & Principal