The Faculty of Humanities at the Central University of Technology recently hosted Dr Bishop Paul Verryn, who delivered a public lecture on the topic: “Access to resources by marginalized people during COVID-19 in South Africa”. The lecture offered the opportunity to discuss how the pandemic intensified inequality faced by the most vulnerable communities in the country and the role institutions of higher learning play in rectifying this.

“Educational institutions, and particularly universities are quite hierarchical, that’s the way they are organized, a top-down structure. And the cleverer you are the more access you have to get into the top. So, if we are going to talk about access, we have to struggle with this context, with what is very awkward,” stated Bishop Verryn.

Dr Bishop Verryn has worked across Southern Africa as a Methodist Minister and human rights activist. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Verryn has been involved in establishing platforms that bring together multiple stakeholders to address issues of gender-based violence, food security and the considerable crisis facing the sustainability of the Church.

He added that safety regulations for COVID-19 have emphasized the inequalities of the country, simply asking the question how do you wash your hands when one of the major crises that you have is access to water?

“When we speak about access to resources, let me say to you unequivocally that this country belongs to everyone who lives and not just to a few elites. There are strands of hope in a university of technology that tries to say we can’t think that we are doing what we are supposed to do as an institution, if the institution remains frozen in a lecture room. If for instance, the science we teach doesn’t enable an insight into how biology works, what is the use of it. If our language doesn’t articulate us into places of power and beauty, what’s the use of it?” he further enquired.

Dr Bishop Verryn added that the distance between the haves and the have-nots in the country is untenable. “20 million people go to bed hungry in South Africa every night. When one pulls those stats together and you are in an academic institution like this, your number one priority is what do we do about the poor. And you will know if you are poor that sweet dreams will not get us anywhere. There has to be an engagement with the poor that is a radical academic enterprise,” he said.

He concluded by stating how we could in actual fact engage the population in claiming back their own dignity. “If you want to know where the hope for the future of this country lies, it lies in the poorest of the poor. Don’t let it get trapped in an institution. Let the poor tell you what hope is about. Let the poor explain the detail of how to get there and then we’ll have access.”

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 Dr Bishop Paul Verryn delivered a public lecture at CUT regarding access to resources by marginalized people during COVID-19 in South Africa.