Professor Dasarath Chetty, an adjunct Professor, at the Centre for Continuing Professional  Education (CCPE) was elected President of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on “Participation, Organisational Democracy and Self-Management” in Toronto last week.

Prof Chetty, a project executive from the eThekwini Municipality, is also one of the key stakeholders who has evolved a Higher Certificate with a specialisation in Public Participation at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) and has ensured that this programme is a success. The World Congress of Sociology that Chetty attended brought together over 5000 social scientists from all over the world under the theme of Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses, Responsibilities. This XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology focused on how scholars, public intellectuals, policy makers, journalists and activists from diverse fields can and do contribute to our understanding of power, violence and justice.

Chetty said he is excited at the prospect of leading the Research Committee over the next four years with International Conferences being planned for Durban, Rome, Porto Allegre and Melbourne amongst other places. Dr Colin Thakur CCPE Head said: “This is a mega multi-year training intervention which innovatively took a Higher Certificate and added a specialisation in Public Participation.”

The Public Participation Training Programme was initiated by the eThekwini Municipality and DUT in 2015. The one-year programme has equipped municipal employees with critical skills in the execution of their duties. 363 eThekwini municipal employees have already graduated with this qualification and a third cohort of 200 are to begin the course in August 2018. In this regard, Professor Gyoergy Szell, a renowned international expert on Participatory democracy, stated “the Public Participation Training Programme launched in Durban by the Durban University of Technology and the eThekwini Municipality is one of the most fascinating and promising initiatives to promote democracy and quality of life and working life in South Africa and beyond.”

Thakur concludes stating: “International exposure such as the one by Prof Chetty allows us (CCPE) to bring distinguished academics to our shores thereby adding value to our offerings.”

Pictured: CCPE’s Prof Dasarath Chetty, newly elected president of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee with his international board colleagues from Germany, France, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Sweden and Lithuania.

Waheeda Peters