Rhodes lecturer at end of tether

A RHODES University lecturer has had enough and wants to call it quits after months of claimed verbal abuse and some threats from her students.

Dr Nosiphiwe Ngqwala, a fairly new lecturer at Rhodes, started lecturing in pharmaceutical biochemistry at the beginning of this year.

In numerous communiques to university management, Ngqwala complains she has had enough of the daily racial slurs and disrespect from her students.

After months of “discrimination” and no assistance from the dean in her department, she has now written to the university’s powers that be describing her concerns as a “matter of life and death”.

The Daily Dispatch could not get an interview with Ngqwala, but the newspaper is in possession of a dossier containing letters she has written to university management.

In a letter addressed to the human resources director, she cites threatening calls, notes and comments from students who do not approve of her accent.

“Since I started teaching this course, I have been experiencing difficulties in a way that has reached a stage where it is a matter of life and death.

“Things started with a conversation in the corridor where I bypass my students having conversations about me. Issues escalated to the threats and I couldn’t even walk around Grahamstown,” Ngqwala wrote.

The Dispatch has tried many times to get a detailed response from the institution’s communication department.

A list of questions sent in October were finally responded to on Wednesday, with spokeswoman Catherine Deiner declining to comment on an “internal matter”.

“Rhodes University deals with all concerns raised by employees seriously and follows up on grievances diligently as per university procedures. These matters are dealt with confidentially in order to uphold the rights, dignity and privacy of all parties concerned,” Deiner said.

However, the Dispatch understands that Ngqwala has, on numerous occasions, reported the alleged abuse but the university did not deal with her grievances.

In her letter to the HR manager, she recalls times when students would steal her register and not give it back to her after class.

“I will be left miserable after class looking for the register which I may find in pieces or the students will push it under the door or just give it to the class rep. I continued and my breath and taught the class up until the last day of term without any intervention from the dean, or even acknowledgement of my e-mails,” her letter reads.

She adds she has given up hope of intervention from her department.

“I do not know what else I can do except to just resign and leave in peace, rather than having to explain the transformation issue and prove myself within the university.”

In an October 10 e-mail to the department’s dean Professor Rod Walker, Ngqwala asks for urgent intervention.

“I have been struggling with the behaviour and the attitude of the students since day one. I am writing this to please do something about this as it is escalated beyond the class,” Ngqwala wrote.

Higher Education spokesman Khaye Nkwanyana said: “If the lecturer has exhausted all internal efforts to raise the matter, especially even at VC level without joy, she must raise it with us as a last option.”