Professor Sipho Seepe
“NOW THAT we know, can we still be innocent?” The question, courtesy of a colleague, is a shorthand for the burden of responsibility that comes with knowing.
Knowing imputes a moral obligation on the “knower” to act in a manner that is consistent with the acquired knowledge.
As Covid-19 casualties rise and its devastation rips through our society, we cannot say we did not know. South Africans had the benefit of learning from experiences of other countries. Epidemiological studies indicated that the country’s infections rates would peak in winter.
The dreaded devastating storm is upon us. The health-care system is overburdened. With more than 10000 new cases reported every day, South Africa shares the dishonour of being ranked number five in the countries with the highest infection rates.
Reports abound that most private and public hospitals are full. Doctors have been forced to play God, deciding who should live. How we respond will determine whether we emerge as a nation that has saved thousands of lives or as a nation culpable in the loss of thousands of lives.
Five teachers’ unions have called for the closure of schools. In the cacophony of ensuing debates on what needs to be done, the higher education sector has been deafeningly silent. This is worrying as institutions of higher education should be at the forefront of knowledge generation and dissemination in society.
Universities seem to be caught in a daze of deathly parade and competition on how well they are doing as opposed to their counterparts.
The minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation has argued that while the academic year must be saved, this cannot be at the expense of lives. He has urged universities to put plans in place “to offer various forms of remote and flexible learning”.
The higher education sector has not risen to the challenge. We have seen little visionary leadership, idea formation or innovative solutions.
We seem to be traversing the same path as we did during the HIV controversy debate. At the time the South African government seemed impervious to the scientific evidence that spoke to the causal relationship between HIV and Aids. Except for a handful of scholars, like Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, many chose to hide in the academic bunker. The rest moved with great speed to ingratiate themselves with the powers that be. On the whole, the sector preferred the golden comfort of silence.
Perhaps the greatest scholastic disgrace was when the National Research Foundation hosted a conference on whether HIV causes Aids. Instead of defending scholarship, the foundation extended a lease of life to ideas that had been rejected by the scientific and medical fraternity. In the end, the country had an estimated 330 000 deaths because of the failure to make antiretroviral drugs available.
While the sector remains mum on Covid-19, teachers’ unions have responded to the question, “now that we know, can we still be innocent?”.
In the end, as civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King jr said: “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” It is time that higher education shows its mantle as a citadel of thought.
* Professor Seepe is deputy vice-chancellor of Institutional Support at the University of Zululand.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL.