Our Long Walk

6 days ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

On the 6th of June 1906, Pieter de Vos presented a petition to the Cape parliament. The petition was for an ‘inquiry into the position occupied by the Dutch language in schools, at public examinations, in the Civil Service, Courts of Justice and elsewhere’. It was a carefully worded appeal, but its intent was clear: to push back against the slow erosion of the language spoken by the majority of the colony’s white population.

1 week ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

This is the second post in a three-part series on the future of the university. Consider a paid subscription to read all three posts in full. I’m happy to bet anyone that I can write a PhD in a week. Maybe not yet a PhD in applied maths or engineering, but almost certainly a PhD in the social sciences. Yes – and I know this will irk many of my colleagues – I’m pretty confident I could produce a dissertation that would pass an Economics examination in less than a week. And it’s not just me.

1 week ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

In 2009, Lesotho experienced a sharp, if largely unnoticed, fiscal shock. The global financial crisis had begun to ripple through the world, and South Africa’s economy – like many others – was not immune. That mattered more than most people realised. As a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Lesotho relies on customs revenue collected by South Africa and shared among its smaller neighbours. That year, SACU transfers collapsed.

2 weeks ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

This is the first post in a three-part series on the future of the university. Consider a paid subscription to read all three posts in full. Almost every university appointment in South Africa now includes a question about the candidate’s social impact. Promotion guidelines list it alongside research and teaching. Universities have social impact committees, social impact registers, and vice-deans and vice-rectors for social impact who all produce social impact reports.

2 weeks ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

Imagine you’ve accepted an invitation to give a keynote at an international conference. The organiser asks for your passport details to book the flight. You dig out the document, only to discover – trigger warning – it expires the month before you leave. Your stomach drops. You know what this means: queues at Home Affairs, hours of idle waiting, a lingering fear that you’ll reach the front desk only to hear it’s too late in the day or – trigger warning – that loadshedding has shut down all systems.