Mondli Hlatshwayo: Reconnecting after thirteen years!
In March 2011, I bumped into Dr. Elzbieta Matynia, the Director of The New School’s Transregional Centre for Democratic Studies, during a seminar at the University of Johannesburg. The last time we met was in Cracow in July 1998. Fortunately we recognized each other!
I am one of those who had a privilege to attend the Summer School in Cracow. This was my first trip to overseas. I have to admit that it was also my first air flight. Since then I have travelled to numerous international destinations.
The academic experience of the Summer School was fascinating. We had brilliant academics such as Professors David Plotke and Jorge Castaâ±eda. What I liked about their style of teaching was that they also provided ample space for debate and discussions. Students from Central and Eastern Europe who were also part of the Summer School had just come out of the repressive Stalinist regimes. They also had an opportunity to debate the meaning of their new democracies in a post-Stalinist era. As South African students, we were also trying to grapple with the challenges of our transition from apartheid to democracy. All this allowed for an exchange of experiences about South African and Central and Eastern European transitions from authoritarian regimes to democratic dispensations. Professor Plotke called this democratic consolidation, .
Among other places, we also visited Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The visit confirmed the importance of struggling for a society that respects and values human life. We have to continue struggling for a society that is free from war, torture and barbarism. Cracow is an exciting medieval city. We were also able to visit castles and other important sites.
Since the Summer School of 1998, I have been involved in many things. I completed Bachelor Administration Honours at the University of the Western Cape in 1998. I then worked for Khanya College, a leftwing Non-Governmental Organisation in Johannesburg, as a researcher and manager for 10 years. I was also involved in building a cadre of the new social movements. This also meant running educational programmes such as study circles, seminars, film screening and newsletters for social movements’ activists from the working class areas in Johannesburg and the surrounding areas. I was also a regular contributor to the Khanya journal, a journal which is managed by Khanya College.
Between 2004 and 2006, I became a secretary of the Social Movements Indaba, a network of social movements struggling for access to water, electricity, land and other basic service. This also provided a space to engage social movements in other countries. In 2004 and 2007, I participated in the World Social Forum, an international forum of social movements and leftwing activists, in Mumbai and Nairobi respectively. I have also been involved in the Anti-War Movement.
I also pursued my studies on part-time basis and received a Master of Arts Degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 2003. In 2009 I registered on fulltime basis for Doctoral Studies at the University of Johannesburg. I am examining trade union responses to technology in a steel plant.
I am looking forward to reconnecting with all the alumni of the Transregional Centre for Democratic Studies.
Mondli Hlatshwayo
Krakow Alumn, 1998
(To reconnect with Mondli, please e-mail TCDS at tcds@newschool.edu)
