For several years, Berdine Vos lived on a farm with her husband, Kobus, in Vanwyksvlei in the Northern Cape. In February 2018, tragedy struck. Vos was forced to pick up the pieces and take over the farm after her husband’s death. 

Kobus, who was dealing with depression, had taken his life when the area where he farmed was hit by widespread drought, threatening food security and leaving thousands of farmers in limbo.

But 70-year-old Vos said life had to go on. She said the animals needed to be fed and she needed to survive.

‘I locked the safe but…’

Due to the drought in the area, water sources dried up, and plants and animals – a source of income for farmers – died.

Sitting in the lounge of her colleague, Rudi Oberholzer, Vos relayed her ordeal and remained composed as she spoke to News24.

The interview was part of a tour News24 attended with GWK and Agri Northern Cape, under the theme Just One Drop, to some of the areas worst hit by the drought.

At each farm, it was a similar situation.

Dressed in white jeans and blue top, Vos sat crossed-legged with one hand on her cheek as she told News24 what life was like since her husband’s death. 

She said her husband suffered from heart disease but was strong until the drought first hit the area in around 2011 and 2012. then “he couldn’t take it anymore”.

She said although Kobus was hardworking, like all farmers, the situation became so dire that death became an option for him.

“He shot himself. It was a shock to us, but I knew it was coming. He was very stressed about the situation.

“I did my best to protect him and giving him moral support. I locked the safe. But somehow it happened. I don’t know how it happened,” Vos said as she wiped her face.  

Needs a man

The 70-year-old, who is now alone on her farm, said she sometimes wished she could have staff, but she would need money for that.

She has had to lay off some staff because she is unable to pay them. 

“As a woman, I cannot do any windmill work. I have to hire someone but because we don’t have any sheep. There is no money coming in. You just turn a blind eye…

“At my age, I cannot change a tyre. My greatest fear is to get a stroke or fall and then be dependent on my children, which I don’t want to happen.”

Vos added: “I can’t do some things in farming, without a man around. Not a husband but a man. I need one to look after the farm, but I cannot afford one because there is no income.”

The family had more than 1 200 sheep on the farm when it started but is now left with only 30. 

Like many other farms, the scarcity of animal feed forced them to sell some sheep so that they can afford to keep the remaining sheep alive.

Choosing happiness despite disaster

Vos said in previous years, the government offered aid to farmers but this was no longer the case.

However, organisations such as GWK and Agri Northern Cape tried their best to provide packages to keep them going.

“Random people even help us. Our friends brought me 14 tons of feed last week. People are good to us. “

But despite all her woes, the mother of three said she decided to live life with a positive mindset and keep smiling because sulking and moaning about the situation won’t help. 

She said: “I only have so many years left and I must decide whether I’m going to do it with a smile on my face or otherwise. I have to keep my children standing and move on with life.”

Fort Hare University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, has been cleared of allegations against him following an investigation by independent assessors. However, the assessors found systemic mismanagement lay at the heart of the problems facing the university.

In April the former Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr. Naledi Pandor, dissolved the Council of the University of Fort Hare and appointed Professor Loyiso Nongxa as its administrator.

This followed after a range of reports in the media of purported divisions within the university’s council, the misconduct of senior officials and suspensions served on them as a result, News24 previously reported.

Pandor said she had to “intervene directly to ensure good governance” and appointed Nongxa. 

The overall management of the university remained the responsibility of Buhlungu and his Management Executive Committee.

One of Nongxa’s tasks was to conduct an independent investigation into the affairs of the university “particularly in light of, amongst other things, the resignations, suspensions and dismissals that have taken place; alleged financial irregularities and other related matters…”. This was carried out by an independent panel of assessors, whose report was published on Friday.

The assessors found the most important source of the difficulties facing the University of Fort Hare is “the general disregard of a fundamental principle of governance: the principle, namely, that the role of a governor is to act at all times in the best interest of the institution as a whole, not to act as a ‘representative’ for any particular constituency or group.”

The report further found systemic problems that go back at least a decade, linked to the lack of a culture of responsibility and accountability; a general view of the University as a cash cow; deplorable conditions of teaching, learning facilities and some residences; a factionalised council unable to provide the necessary support to the Vice-Chancellor; and a prevailing belief that the University should be run not by a commonality of ‘stakeholders’ as opposed to management team.

The report has made recommendations, which will be addressed in a systematic fashion, says Nongxa, and will be incorporated into the Turnaround and Performance Improvement Plan.

“The report paves the way for the Management Executive Committee to get on with the important work of rebuilding the University of Fort Hare … I believe that, under the leadership of the Vice-Chancellor, a strong management team is in place to drive the processes so critical to the University’s recovery,” he says.

Former Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State Professor Jonathan Jansen has warned graduating students that the “ideal of the university is under threat”. 

“I would be remiss on this grand occasion if I did not warn you that in South Africa today, that ideal of the university is under threat,” he told students during the University of Cape Town’s graduation ceremony on Friday. 

“When you burn down things at a university because you’re angry, you undermine what a university is for. When you hide and conceal artworks you don’t like, you threaten the idea of a university. When you tell white students and colleagues that they cannot speak in the learning commons, you make a mockery of what a university stands for,” he added as he cited instances that he said placed the ideal of a university under threat. 

Jansen was speaking at the third ceremony of the last graduation season of 2019 for the faculty of humanities, which took place in the newly named Sarah Baartman Hall, and saw close to 400 graduates capped.

Jansen further cautioned that when you refuse to meet with and engage your academic colleagues “because they hold different views from you”, or are “critical of your work”, then you diminish the very idea of a university.

‘A space in which ideas matter’

“Make no mistake, when you stand up for the idea of a university as a democratic space in which ideas matter and not the force of numbers or the membership of race or the allure of money or the blessing of government, you will be ostracised and you will be marginalized,” he said. 

This is what sets a university apart for the former VC of UFS, as one’s membership does not depend on shared beliefs.

“What is this thing we call a university?

“You see a university, in essence, is a place where reason triumphs over rage. It’s a place where our common humanity matters more than our racial nicknames. It is the one place where anybody and everybody can speak without the fear of being shut up,” he explained. 

The idea of a university, however, was to also produce leaders who stand for something and who are prepared to stand alone, he said.

“The University of Cape Town, with its stellar reputation, can only soar when it could be said of every graduate that, through your leadership and public duty, you remain, in the words of Cornel West, ‘unbought, unbound, unafraid and un-intimidated to tell the truth’.”

While he acknowledged that the institution still struggled with its colonial legacy in the post-apartheid years, small steps towards social transformation had been made. 

‘I am honoured, I am grateful’

“Small steps, perhaps, but today the Senate Chambers is called the Archie Mafeje Room, this graduation hall is named after Sara Baartman and Cecil John Rhodes is nowhere to be seen. For this, the campus and the country owes the activist community of UCT a debt of gratitude,” he added

Jansen told the room full of students that UCT, being the closest university to his home, had led him as an 18-year-old to start his studies four decades ago.

Little did he know that he would return decades later to be honoured.

“The two ladies in ‘admin’ looked at my matric certificate and laughed quietly among themselves. I went home with a heavy heart. Today, four decades later, you invite me to the same place for an honorary doctorate. 

“I am honoured, I am grateful and I thank you all,” he said.