WSU Council Chairperson Adv. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi is concluding the first leg of his campus infrastructure walkabout in Mthatha recently.
The campus tour which started at the Butterworth resulted in constructive guidance towards improved institutional governance.
The University council committed itself to ensuring the implementation of high speed wireless internet access for staff and students as well as infrastructure projects across WSU’s four campuses.
The University Council has allocated a budget of R80 million in projects towards infrastructure developments at the Butterworth Campus alone. Some areas of concern include ease of accessibility for people with disabilities.
The WSU Chair of Council, Adv. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said he had invested interests to involve Eastern Cape companies in the contract work done at the University.
“Why are we not appointing local contractors as a matter of policy? I’m interested in the principle of local economic empowerment. Of course we need to make sure the contractor knows the work, but it must be in the context of our local economy,” said Adv. Ngcukaitobi.
An excess of R8 million was already spent on wireless connectivity at the Butterworth Ibika Campus, with another R16 million contribution underway.
Ngcukaitobi said WSU problems were old ones such as structural concerns and delays within the system.
“We must affirm what we said before that there must be strong consequence management. People who do not do their job must be at least spoken to or given a warning for not doing their job,” he said.
WSU Council was taken on a detour to the WSU Centre for Entrepreneurship and Rapid Incubator (CfERI) that assists students, alumni and community to develop sustainable businesses.
CfERI is a new phenomenon in scholarship and student development in South African universities and colleges that aims to identify and nurture entrepreneurial culture and ability.
The idea of establishing a CfERI at WSU started in 2019 when SEDA launched a call for proposal for all universities in South Africa to apply
WSU Council also strut down corridors of SA history during their visit to The Specifically Declared Broster Beadwork Collection housed at WSU.
This is a bead collection from abaThembu, amaMpondo, amaMpondomise, amaBomvana, amaXhosa and amaXesibe.