May the death of Professor Mayosi serve as a reminder that actions have consequences

The departure of Professor Bongani Mayosi leaves a deep wound to the faculty, not only in South Africa, but around the world. This is an open letter to the detractors of Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng.

Addressing the media on Sunday, July 29, and the UCT community on Monday, July 30, 2018, Professor Phakeng (Vice-Chancellor and Director of the UCT) hinted that the Professor Mayosi's premature departure may have been accelerated by student protests of 2015-17

Responding to his comments, on social media and online, some members of the student body – from Rhodes University, Wits and UCT – have attempted to discredit Professor Phakeng on the premise that his claims were unfounded. Anticipating this criticism, the Vice-Chancellor of the UCT made it clear that we must recognize the pressures facing institutional leaders from various sections of the academic community such as the council, faculty and students. Professor Phakeng's words inspired this critical reflection on the role of the intellectual in the contemporary South African university.

South Africans can not deny the wave of opposition that academics / intellectuals face (d) when they dared to speak critically about the 2015-17 student protests. This moral disappointment came from students, progressive academics, and social activists who, in my view, have lost sight of the role of a higher education institution, defined as a space of criticality, reason, and purpose. debate.

The university underpins the main foundations of innovative teaching, inclusive and multidimensional learning as well as the inventive development of research. In addition, these main foundations of an institution of higher education are, in the ideal context, protected, preserved and enjoined by the sacrosanct pillars of academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

However, reading Professor Phakeng's position against his scholarly opinion, I could not help thinking of the concept of Pedagogy as Obligation; a concept abused by students who have become clients of contemporary neoliberal university

Reflecting on the concept of pedagogy as an obligation, I must begin by saying that unlike basic education, the Teachers of higher education are not forced. by the ethics of pedagogy as described in the Code of Professional Ethics of the South African Council of Educators. This freedom emphasizes and protects the academic freedom and institutional autonomy that allow intellectuals to conduct innovative research, without clutter and valiantly on the lookout for political ideologies likely to lead the intellectuals' efforts, in agreement with the zeitgeist.

Remind South African students, academics, and the general public why higher education institutions fought so boldly to guarantee these freedoms. It is in resistance to the injustice of the rigidity and oppression of apartheid that intellectuals fought for academic freedom. Although I anticipate objections from ethicists and other members of society, which will remind me of the Manhattan Project and how these principles of academic freedom have led to the tragedies of Nagasaki and Japan. Hiroshima, my answer is simple: knowledge is power and substantial justice lies in what we choose to do with that knowledge.

However, what about the concept of pedagogy as an obligation? My presentation detailing the principles of academic freedom provides a framework for examining the issue in more detail. Due to academic freedom, the professorship is not beholden to the students, because from a Socratic definition of the role of an academic, the first allegiance of the intellectuals is to the knowledge. From the position of academic freedom, the student body should get rid of the misconception that professorship is used by us.

Academic freedom suggests that professorship is first obliged to produce knowledge for the advancement of humanity – as witnessed in Professor Mayosi's work. However, at a more basic level, Professor Phakeng's suggestion that Mayosi's departure could have been precipitated by student protests inspires some critical issues that the student-client should consider.

When students, whose academic / teacher / professor cares deeply, call, in a frenetic temper, said academic a "sell-out", a "rapist apologist", a "coconut tree", a "collaborator", is it said academic to answer? When, in pursuit of retributive justice, the student calls the academic " inja " because of his unreasoned intellectual position that is justified by their inability to resolve the intellectual difference with the reason and the debate; what should the university do? When the student, after showing unbridled temper, returns to the university lecture hall and expects – as does a dedicated guest – to be served by the student. academic, what recourse to the intellectual?

The contemporary South African university lies in our madness that equates the academic to a teacher. The professor professes knowledge because of their distinguished position in the intellectual community, lecturer lectures informed by their disciplinary expertise in their field of research. The teacher teaches from a position of Educational Obligation, and not Academic. It is confusing the teacher with the teacher that the contemporary student makes the categorical mistake of expecting an ethical obligation on the part of the teacher.

The departure of Professor Mayosi leaves a deep wound felt by the faculty, not only in South Africa but in the whole world. As the scientific community mourns the death of a researcher, an academic and a professor, I would like to invite South African students to think about their role at the university and at the university. that of the professorship.

I invite my colleagues to reflect on their position as students, as ours – when properly understood – is defined as a role for learning and learning. extending the boundaries of knowledge by taking over the professorship and by committing to producing and innovating for the progress of humanity

The untimely death of Professor Mayosi is a constant reminder to the generation of "two minutes that the actions have consequences while prompting us to really engage in the role of the university and our place in it; defend the production of knowledge in order to advance humanity. DM

Siseko H Kumalo is reading for his Master of Arts in Philosophy at the University of Pretoria. He holds a BSocSci license in Politics and Philosophy from Rhodes University.