Transformation 4 (1987)                                        Document
    INAUGURAL           ADDRESS,          5   June      1987
  Prof GJ Germ!
   I WISH FOR NOTHING MORE THAN TO BE ABLE TO PUT MY PRESENT POSITION AS VICE-
  CHANCELLOR AND RECTOR AT THE SERVICE OF THE FURTHER GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
  OF THE UNIVERSITY AS AN INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING WHICH THE NATION CAN
  BE UNRESERVEDLY PROUD OF. ALSO THROUGH OUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT
  OF A NATION OF WHICH WE ALL CAN BE PROUD. SHARING COMMONLY IN ITS VALUES.
   ITS SYMBOLS AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
      Chancellor, as I was nominated by ny colleagues for this post in which
  you have Just installed me and elected and appointed to it by the Council
   of the University, I need in the first place to express to them my thanks
   and appreciation for so honouring me with their trust. I can only rei-
   terate the pledge made; that I shall strive at all times and to the best of
  my ability to protect and defend the rights and privileges of this institu-
   tion.
      The University of the Western Cape occupies a very special place in my
   life. There were only three years since first joining the university as a
   student 1n the early Sixties in which I was not attached to it in one or
  the other capacity. I saw, experienced and participated in its growth and
  development over the years; I was privileged to share in the process of Its
  emancipation - an emancipation from the academic and Intellectual deprived-
  ness of its origins as an ethnic college to being today Intellectually one
  of the most exciting and charged institutions of higher learning In the
  country, daringly exploring new spaces and modes of academic and intellec-
  tual pratice; emancipation from the political and Ideological restrictive-
  ness of Its apartheid origins to being a place where the examination and
  pursuit also and particularly of progressive ideas are not only protected
  but actively encouraged.
      But, Chancellor, It Is exactly that Impulse of a university to be,
  perhaps, more pronouncedly involved in the social processes of transforma-
  tion and reordering than is perceived as conventional or traditional that
  has in recent times given rise in certain quarters to increasing ques-
  tioning of, disquiet about, hostility and antagonism towards this and some
  other South African universities. Historical development within national
   life as well as within the universities have combined to produce a situa-
  tion where our roles in the social and political life of the country are
  being foregrounded and highlighted, often overshadowing (if you will pardon
  the mixed metaphors) 1n the public and state perception the scholarly and
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 Transformation 4                                                    Germ!
educational activities which unobtrusively still continue to be the bulk of
what we are occupying ourselves with at universities. There have in the
recent past been threats of closure directed against this university and
there 1s presently again widespread speculation about Impending state curbs
upon certain universities. It Is in a general sense being suggested that
the universities concerned are, under the pressures of overt ideological
commitments, defaulting their tasks of being objective and scientific
searchers after Truth. The suspicion, and often expressed accusation, 1s
that our emphasis on radical and revolutionary change-seeking relevance has
compromised our essential Identity as 'disinterested' searchers after
Truth.
   Hy Vice-Chancel lor colleagues at the other universities thus Implicated,
do not need me to speak on their behalves. I can only speak for myself and
Interpret my understanding of the university which I serve. I cannot even
pretend to speak for my university because a university shall never have a
corporate opinion. I have however in the 21 months since the announcement
of my appointment quite often written, spoken and given interviews about my
vision for and understanding of the historical role of this university,
expressing views which at the least were never repudiated by Council of the
university and were in fact, when presented in the form of a letter to the
Minister of National Education, endorsed by. the Council. And it may be
appropriate. Chancellor, to briefly present to this congregation a synopsis
of those views. Allow me then a few minutes to address, also apropos of my
introductory remarks, the topic of 'Truth, transformation and the univer-
sity', obviously with specific reference to the University of the Western
Cape.
   In spite of our genuine commitment to free scholarly discourse and
research every South African university has a dominant ideological orienta-
tion which describes the context of Its operations. This 1s not necessarily
as restrictive as it sounds for the university can dynamically and criti-
cally interact with Its context and need not be encapsulated by 1t. And
where different ideologies exist, operate and contend In a society it is as
well for the society that a university interacts in that way and establi-
shes a discourse with ideology.
   I would further suggest that the ideology to which a university relates
has a correlative in some organized political movement; the university is
thus linked to some Ideological establishment. This 1s detnonstrably true of
both the sub-sets of historically white Afrikaans-language and English-
language universities. The Afrikaans universities have always stood and
still stand firmly within the operative context of Afrikaner nationalism,
networking in a complex way Into Its various correlative Institutions,
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 Transformation 4                                                   Germl
whether It be educational, cultural, religious, economic or political.
Equally the English-language universities operate within the context of
anglophile liberalism, primarily linking and responding to Its Institu-
tional expressions as In the English schools, cultural organizations and
iwportantly big business.
   The one Ideological formation under-represented, or not at all represen-
ted In a similar way within the South African university coanunity Is that
of the more radical Left. Such political descriptions are not precise, but
In essence with the South African Left one Is collectively referring to
those people and Institutions seeking and working for a more fundamental
transformation of the old settler-colonial dominated order which Is the
present South Africa. The major thrust Is towards a non-racial and aajori-
tarian democracy, reflecting Itself not In the Mere form of multi-racial
political arrangements but More fundamentally 1n the social reorganization
of power and privilege. Organizationally this finds political expression
now In the extra-parliamentary democratic novenents.
   The University of the Western Cape, like the other predominantly Black
universities, did not In Its beginning years have any organic relationship
with an Ideological context. It was created by and for the purposes of an
Ideology which was fundamentally antagonistic to the coanunity It was to
serve. For reasons and through a process which we need not deal with here
tonight the University of the Western Cape, more so, even unlike, any of
the other Black universities Managed to extract Itself from the ethos of
U s creator ideology. Undoubtedly the most important factor in that process
was the student body who through Its dissent, protest and activism against
Apartheid, and specifically the Apartheid-created and reproducing Institu-
tion which they were forced to attend, established the counter ethos for
the university. H1th the renaissance of open extra-parliamentary protest
politics In the Black Consciousness movement of the Seventies the student
body of this university fully and vitally participated, 1n fact represen-
ting one of the strong growth points of that movement. Equally with the
resurgence of Congress politics, partly flowing from the Black Conscious-
ness movement of the Seventies the student body strongly reflected and
continues to reflect the movements and tendencies of national extra-parlia-
mentary politics. Coupled and 1n response to this formative presence of the
students was the Vice-Chancellorship of Prof Richard van der Ross who with
his liberal ant1-apartheid background gave recognition and space to this
counter ethos which the students carried from their conwunity life and
experience Into the university, and gradually built it into the dominant
orientation of the university.
   This university 1s therefore historically placed. In fact faces the
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Transformation 4                                                  Germ I
historical Imperative, to respond to the democratic Left, to be an intel-
lectual home for the Left. We are an open but predominantly Black univer-
sity drawing our students from all the statutorily defined Black groupings.
It 1s through our students and the conmunity from which they come that we
are presented with the Ideological formation with which we interact in the
way that I suggested for the historically White universities.
   There is therefore an internal Imperative for this university to develop
a critical alignment with the democratic movement as the dominant ideologi-
cal orientation describing our operative context. The integration of acade-
mic and intellectual life with and the development of It out of the reality
of people's social experience and world is essential both for the order of
our functioning and, more importantly, for the vitality and quality of our
intellectual environment. I remain convinced that without that perceived
and experienced nexus with a real and shared-in social world, a university
Is emasculated and intellectually anaemic.
   But, to be quite frank, there is also and Importantly an external poli-
tical Imperative for that route. If I plead and work for this university to
provide an intellectual home for the left It 1s not merely out of mana-
gerial expedience thinking that it would be good for the university's
orderly functioning. Universities, and education generally, reproduce the
social order, but it can, alternatively, educate towards and for a changed
society. And I cannot in conscience, in Truth, educate, or lead education,
towards the reproduction and maintenance of a social order which is undemo-
cratic, discriminatory, exploitative and repressive and stands universally
recognised as such. While a university may never have a corporate opinion
our university, at least, can never condone or live comfortably with Apar-
theid in any of its mutations. And the democratic Left stands as fundamen-
tal opposition to Apartheid in all its dehumanizing aspects.
   To repeat what as Dean of Arts I wrote to my colleagues some years ago:
one need not spend emotional and intellectual energy arguing the fact that
our society is in the throes and traumas of transition, or on the nature
and length of that transition period. What seems to be beyond argument Is
that what I previously called the settler-colonial dominated social order -
 In its most latter stages manifested as Apartheid - faces its terminal
crisis. We could as an educational institution either be oppositional to
the historical movement of our society or be a facilitating agent for It
while at the same time retaining what is essential to our definition of
being a university.
   We need to pursue an in-depth discussion of and investigation into what
university teaching means and Involves in an historically transitional
period and situation like ours. He shall have to examine afresh for our-
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 Transformation 4                                                    Germ!
selves the definition of 'the university1, to determine for ourselves what
Is essential to that kind of Institution which can rightly call Itself
'university', to see how we can replace where necessary that which Is non-
essential with features necessitated by our context and circumstance; and,
•ore fundamentally, to contemplate and execute the adaptation of the Iden-
tified essentials of 'a university' Into real life concert with our his-
torical locality.
   How does one translate this comitnent Into academic and Intellectual
practice? And would one 1n the process be defaulting on your commitment to
Truth and to Science?
   The question of translation Into practice of these commitments 1s one
which Is and has for seme years been occupying the minds of academics at
this university. This renewal and transformation will be a complex process
the nature and content of which shall differ from discipline to discipline.
Already much which 1s new and Innovative Is being done at this Institution.
 It Is recognized that such renewal will Involve various levels: what we
teach 1n terms of contents, but also how we teach, within which structural
context and towards which goals, what we research and how we disseminate
our research results. Also that while teaching, research and community
service are the three defined functions of a university we may In our
situation have to take that third function of community service even more
seriously than 1s traditionally done at universities. He have to comprehend
more deliberately the content and meaning of 'conrounity' - what 1s that
conrnunity that we wish to serve? - and have our other two functions also
been Informed by that definition. While for other universities, relating to
more established social order, the content of 'community' may be more of a
given, In our orientation we are Involved In the creative conceptualization
of a future community beyond the destructiveness of an Apartheid order.
   And as for the second question, whether one will not perhaps In this
process be defaulting on your obligation to Truth and Science. I would
perceive it, grounded as It 1s 1n scholarship and discource, to be exactly
the opposite. They are suppressed social realities which through discourse-
censorship, and research-resistance as a manifestation of discourse-censor-
ship, are largely unattended to in scientific discourse.
   I did not want to Indulge 1n the academicist practice of quotations
tonight, but just this one: 'We have to consider the unconscious self-
censorship of scientific discourse. The fact 1s that discourse-censorship
controls "educated thinking", or more precisely, the process of research
Itself. By controlling the research process 1t produces 1n generative
sequence both the ... corruption or learned thinking and the subsequent
suppression of "unlearned thought". Thus it Is not by accident that the
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Transformation 4                                                     Gomel
corruption of "learned discourse" leads to the suppression of "unlearned
thinking" (Wolf Schafer). What I an then suggesting Is that we could In
fact be broadening the scope and horizons of Truth and of Science at the
same time through our academic practice and scholarship empowering the
suppressed social constituencies which we serve. What we are or can be
involved in here is not a disregard for Truth and Science but rather a
social reconstruction of science.
   We touch here on old Issues of the sociology of knowledge and science,
the Issues of so-called untamed and unlearned thinking. An education In
science always contains a strong disciplining of thought - the repression
of 'uneducated thinking1 - which at some points in history can be at great
costs. I do not wish to go Into that except to remark that the concept of
'people's education1 which emerged as one of the most creative finds from
the educational crises we have been experiencing since 1976, Is to be taken
seriously - and is being taken and explored seriously by a growing number
of academics on this campus. It provides a rich and suggestive concept for
educational renewal towards a changed society, and it Is deserving of the
attention of scholars that it is increasingly receiving.
   Chancellor, 1n stannary then: I can with every bit of conscience and
honesty declare to this congregation that this university remains true and
committed to the values and the vigour of critical scholarship. If opposi-
tion to us is based on political and ideological grounds and formulated In
those terms, I an happy to face that criticism and to confront it and
answer to it as scholar and educational administrator.
   We cannot and do not wish to deny that there are deep and serious
tensions in and strains upon university life as we reconnoitre this road of
educational renewal. The leisurely contemplation which had been the hall-
mark of university life until recently is a product and function of a
specific political culture. As an increasing number of students not sharing
in that political culture, or feeling themselves alienated from that cul-
ture, enter the universities the reproduction of that style in university
life 1s inevitably going to become less automatic than it has previously
been. The old problem of the connection between theory and practice will be
carried as a real problem into universities: students feeling themselves
Intimately and directly Involved by the practice of social and political
discrimination will, one can expect, continue to seek to divert their
academic and Intellectual life to action related to those aspects of their
lives. And this does pose problems and challenges to the university.
   These are challenges to which some of us as universities have responded
In the most constructive and creative way that we find ourselves compelled
to as Institutions of higher learning. The easy authoritarian reflex is
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 Transformation 4                                                 Serve 1
challengeable on a number of grounds. If the university has the broader
educative function of transmitting als« through example the democratic
culture, then authoritarianism, even In the face of provocation, will be a
denial of Its own character and function.
   But we m y also, as Vice-Chancellors and as citizens entrusted with an
important civil responsibility, put counter-demands as demands are placed
on us. The functioning of our institutions and our own functioning are
Impacted upon by the political situation of the country, something which 1s
not of our making or under our control. I consider that I may rightly ask,
or that I have the duty to ask, that those 1n power attend urgently and
fundamentally to the political crises of the nation through the creation of
the conditions for legitimate democracy: the abolition of apartheid laws
which is at the basis of our societal crises and which we in our universi-
ties are therefore also continuously called upon to manage; the release of
political prisoners to allow them to participate In the democratic recon-
struction and healing of the nation; the recognition of organizations like
the African National Congress as Integral and essential to any solution of
the country's problems, and their legal admission to the political proces-
ses of the country. If legitimate government by consent is established
there will be greater justification for censuring us as university Vice-
Chancellors for not containing adequately the conflicts and tensions in our
universities.
   Chancellor, I must conclude and thank the university for the honour and
the challenge of this position offered me. But I think It will be ungrate-
ful and ungracious If I end without giving recognition and paying tribute
to just a few of those many people and instances who can rightly claim part
of the honour you have bestowed upon me.
   At the risk of sounding sentimental: to my parents whom I hope would,
had they been alive, have found some reward In this evening for their
unstinting efforts. They, like other parents of their generation, represen-
ted so much of the spirit that I perceive in this university. With minimal
education themselves, farm-labour peasants, they represented something of
that underrated 'uneducated thinking1 referred to earlier. They started a
little farm school which opened on the day their eldest child turned six;
out of their meagre earnings they helped keep and maintain the school until
their deaths; they provided each of ten children with a post-secondary
education or training.
   To my brothers and sisters who participated In our parents' scheme that
you are educated with understanding - and my father made us sign a rudimen-
tary contract! - that you would on qualifying contribute to the education
of the others. And I did tax your contributions.
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Transformation 4                                                      Germ)
    And n\y wife and children. Phoebe for her support and for having to bear
up to pressures that none of us anticipated when we innocently fell in love
on this campus twenty years ago. To my adopted daughter Jessie, for letting
me know that there will always be somebody loving me no matter what hap-
pens. And my son Hein for keeping me sane with his debunking kind of love.
    Chancellor, there are friends and family too many to mention. Thank you
for your support and encouragement. Colleagues - academic, administrative,
workers: I do not know that I have earned your respect, but your frequent
warm expressions of it encourage me to try to deserve 1t. I have already
referred to my predecessor, D1ck van der Ross. But I must mention him as
friend and as a mentor. And the man who had blazed the trail and laid the
true foundations for this university. The Chairman of Council particularly
and Council as a whole. No Vice-Chancellor can hope to ask for a more
supportive governing body than I have found you.
    I also want to particularly say to friends and associates in the demo-
cratic organizations how, even in these few months in my post, I have found
your support, your advice, your willingness to listen and to help, a source
of great sustenance. You have in times of difficulty given me an exciting
insight into and feeling for what it could be like being a university vice-
chancellor in a new South Africa. And made me appreciate and understand
what the institutional support networks may mean for my colleagues at the
other universities.
    That then. Chancellor, is the end of my cathecism, as Fa11staff put it.
I hope that I might have left with this congregation some understanding and
acceptance that what I endeavour at this university 1s informed by a very
basic concern and love for this country,
    I have a very special guest here tonight, a citizen of the other country
I feel near to my heart - Ireland. And I steal from the words of one of the
many patriots whose graves adorn that little island, Robert Emmet, who said
amongst other things: 'Let no man write my epitaph ... until my country
takes her place amongst the nations of the world.'
    I am still far, I hope, from the epitaph stage but I beg that for a
final evaluation and judgement of my Vice-Chancellorship. This is a great
country. We should have been the leading partner in a cooperative common-
wealth of states in the sub-region. Our voice should have held sway in the
deliberations of the Organization of African Unity and in the Movement of
Non-aligned Nations. Our seat should nave carried the weight of our human
and material potential at the tables of the United Nations. I and others
 like me continue to educate in the faith and conviction that through our
scholarship and educational leadership we can and shall realize the great
potential of our nation.
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