South African History Online

23 March 1991

Mr Vice-Chancellor,
Members of the University Community

I am honoured to be invited to be present at this graduation ceremony,
especially as it marks the progress in achieving unity in the university, unity
of purpose towards dealing with the problems and challenges that lie ahead. In
this period of transition for Medunsa, for our entire education system and for
the country as a whole, the more unified we are the better are able to deal with
the challenges.

The problems and challenges that re faced in this University mirror the
problems and challenges of the educational system in general and that of the
country as a whole.

Some people appear to hold the view that we are already in the new South
Africa. Changes are said to be so irreversible and improvements already made, so
substantial, that protest and struggle are said to be unnecessary.

One needs merely to look at some of the statistics for training of the
medical profession to realise how untrue this is and how skewed our social order
remains in its provision of basic services.

We note with continued concern and anger that of the 1300 doctors produced
annually by all medical schools, only 300 are black and of these, only 120
African.

We know that the same picture of neglect holds for the training of blacks as
health workers in general-dentists, dental therapists, physiotherapists,
radiographers, occupational therapists. Degrees awarded in Nursing education and
administration, oral hygiene and pharmacy also reveal that very few of these
graduates are black.

We, in the ANC, believe that a democratic South Africa requires not only the
enfranchisement of the black majority but the empowerment of ordinary people to
take care of their own lives.

But the way in which professional skills are distributed means that knowledge
and science remain the preserve of whites. Paying for such knowledge, or not
having access to it and consequently dying young or contracting illnesses
unnecessarily, remain the preserve of blacks.

Apart from some extremists, there are few people who do not recognise the
crisis of apartheid and the apartheid education systems. While there is
widespread recognition that apartheid must go, our crisis continues because
there is not always a willingness to take the steps necessary to remedy the
situation. This applies to all areas of South African life:

• political, white minority rule is doomed, but there is not yet an
  acceptance that freedom and equality, unqualified by a minority veto, must
  replace it.
• vast disparities of wealth are recognised but any talk of an economic
  growth path that includes redistribution is treated as outside of legitimate
  debate.
• inferiority of black education is recognise by and this is glaring in
  the case of Medunsa, means are not provided to remedy this.

Recently, we have heard a lot of the deracialising of land ownership. All
people can buy land on the free market, but the existing land allocation, born
of apartheid, born of forced removals s and other crimes, is to remain
untouched. We are told we should put the past behind us and build anew.

This is a very unsophisticated way of insisting that existing disparities
remain permanently.

In the same way there has to be a recognition that when we look at the
provision of education to black South Africans we start with a situation of vast
disparity. Any attempt to address the provision of adequate education must
immediately pour resources into the upgrading of facilities, and the upgrading
of expertise.

To speak of rationalisation of educational facilities as if these disparities
do not exist is another way, as with the maintaining of existing land
disparities, of ignoring the inequality that exists.

We know that for some time Medunsa because of its origins has been viewed
with suspicion by democrats. But we are in transition in South Africa. Many
thins are changing, but exactly what type of change results and how we all
contribute to that change depends on how we operate in each of our respective
spheres of competence.

It is not too late for Medunsa to lay a key role in transforming the present
South African health system into a system that truly serves medical needs and
not primarily that for the elite of our society. The origins of this University,
as an inferior child of apartheid, are no bar to this University making rapid
strides to ensure that it is counted as one of those that helped-in its own
discipline - building the new SA as a truly democratic state.

This is not just a question of health. It is also a question of peace. There
cannot be peace while our people lack basic social facilities, including basic
health care. There cannot be peace, while the overwhelming number of doctors and
medical facilities are concentrated in areas of accessible only to a small
section of the population. The rest of the population cannot be left free to
contract diseases without proper medical attention.

We will not allow this to continue and unless there is a recognition that an
element of the new South Africa is the urgent remedying of this situation, we
will remain as we are in substance, in the old South Africa. We have to choose
whether we remain in the South Africa of inequality of wealth, opportunities,
health, housing, education etc, or whether we are to make it possible for this
new South Africa to be, one which truly belongs to all who live in it. If we
choose the road of progress e have to take steps to ensure that this new nation
will provide for basic social needs, including health care.

I have referred to the encouraging signs that all sections of the University
recognise the need to break with the apartheid past and join in rebuilding
Medunsa as part of the SA of the future, the SA where health care will be a
human right accessible to all.

But I think there are some specific elements in this process that are worth
mentioning: For there to be confidence in this venture it is essential that the
University show the community that its facilities and expertise are made
available in ways that they recognise as socially beneficial. I am not
suggesting that this is absent, now, but it is important that it be more
prominent and be seen to b so. In addition, the communities need to be involved
in the projects, in determining what the needs are and how resources should be
allocated.

This is not something that we see as being required only in apartheid South
Africa. Even when we are free we will want our communities involved in public
issues in education, wealth care and numerous other issues where decisions are
made which concern their own lives. We want to empower them against apartheid
but we also want them to have a say in the running of their own lives, to have
professional decisions democratised. And this is necessary now and in the
future.

Related to projects, is research. We feel that it is crucial that all
research undertaken in medicine be responsive to the needs of the community. It
is sometimes said that scholars must be disinterested, meaning not swayed by
passion. We feel, however, that scholars must be engaged-activity committed to
ensuring that their profession be part of the process of bettering peoples'
lives. We therefore consider it very important that research projects be
manifestly socially progressive.

The University is well aware, also, that the exclusion of students is an
issue that arouses very strong emotions. It is essential that teaching and
evaluation methods be raised to the highest level of competence and that
academic support programmes be made effective. It is not the fault of the
University nor the students that Bantu education has impaired our students'
abilities. But it is the responsibility of Universities to ensure that students'
potential does emerge and that no step be left unturned to ensure that this
happens.

Before concluding I wish to make some remarks on the current political
situation. I have made continued reference to transformation necessary in the
educational and health systems in this country. In a sense, nothing of a
substantial and enduring nature can be created until the question of political
power is resolved. WE can begin a process of substantial change but it can only
be adequately backed up in a truly democratic state. Only truly democratic state
has an interest in freedom and social justice.

We, in the ANC are determined to create such a state as speedily as possible.
When the opportunity to explore the possibility of a negotiated settlement came
to the fore in the late 1980s we immediately grasped it and set in motion an
initiative that has resulted in a series of talks between the government and
ourselves.

We do not go into these talks with an open mind as to the final outcome. We
will accept nothing less than the basic democratic rights universally recognised
as necessary in any social order. If one person one vote is the norm in every
democracy, we do not see why the people of South Africa should settle for less.
We therefore seek a constitution that is based on the principles of
non-racialism, non-sexism and democracy.

Believe is through a thoroughly democratic constitution-making process. That
is why we believe that a Constituent Assembly, elected on the basis of one
person one vote is the most appropriate forum for making the new Constitution.

The Constituent Assembly would be elected on the basis of proportional
representation, so that the support hat any organisation commands, the extent to
which its vision of a new constitution is shared by the electorate, would be
reflected in the vote. Whoever gets the most votes would have the dominant say
in constitution-making and that is normal democratic practice. At the same time
this process is inclusive in that any organisation that commands support has the
opportunity to stand for elections and make a contribution to the process.

We also campaign for the replacement of the existing government by an Interim
government to oversee the transition. We do this because the present government
is a negotiating party. It cannot simultaneously act as 'referee'.

We need to negotiate a new government, with greater representivity and
legitimacy, which at the same time has the capacity to govern effectively. This
government would oversee elections for a Constituent Assembly and ensure that
there is freedom of political activity in the period ahead. This government
would operate for a short time, so that elections for a truly democratic
government can be held as soon as possible.

This, we believe is the path most likely to lead towards the speedy
termination of apartheid conflict. We cannot really build much of enduring
significance until we have peace. There will not be peace while black South
Africans are denied basic rights. I therefore hope that all that are present
will join us in demanding Peace and Freedom now! And throwing their weight
behind our call for an Interim Government and Constituent Assembly.

Let me conclude by expressing my congratulations to new graduates. You have
had opportunities open to few of our people. I am sure that you understand how
and that you will use your skills to serve them.

May I say to the University as a whole, thank you for inviting me to deliver
this address. May I wish you well in the year that lies ahead.