WE NEED MORE JIMMY MANYIs TO TRANSFORM SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES
It was a good thing that the "thick skinned firebrand" Jimmy Manyi and his Progressive Professionals Forum decided to challenge Wits University, in general, and its vice-chancellor Prof Adam Habib, in particular, on the issue of transformation and racial imbalances. It is strange albeit not surprising that Habib did not seem overly concerned that Wits is not transforming under his leadership (see Citizen report).
These are the troubling statistics that emerged from that encounter: of the 483 professors at Wits, only 158 are South Africans; and of these few South African professors, only 28 of these are black. It would be far too embarrassing to break these figures even further down to "How many of the black South African professors are Black Africans ?" .
This is a very sensitive topic that most academics choose not to discuss in public for the fear of internal victimization and also the fear of being branded "xenophobic" or racist. It is precisely because of these intimidation tactics that twenty years after the historic first democratic vote in 1994 we still find such statistics in South Africa.
It is disappointing that Habib, who should know better as a former "academic activist" at the former University of Durban Westville, does not see the need for urgency in addressing the disturbing racial imbalances at his university. He tried to defend himself by highlighting that Wits has transformed significantly in terms of the demographic breakdown of its students, while grudgingly conceding that they have not done anything much to transform the Wits staff profile.
Habib is quoted as saying "We need to strike a balance, however, between advocating transformation and remaining competitive. We need to have a balance between diversity and being cosmopolitan". Implied in Habib's statement is that the appointment of and / or the promotion of black professors negatively affects the competitiveness, hence the international rankings, of universities.
Wits Is Just A Microcosm of What Is Wrong With The Lack of Transformation At Most South African Universities
Before many of you, the readers of this article, start demonising comrade Prof Adam Habib as "one of the many reactionary university vice-chancellors"; I need to point out that Habib is purely a victim of what is wrong with most South African universities' perception and understanding of what their core mandate is. What is good about him is that he is open minded about this issue and is willing to honestly engage on this matter; whereas others choose to kill the messenger instead of addressing the transformation issues being raised.
My comments on what Habib said or says will thus be purely done for contextual purposes in order to highlight the lack of a meaningful transformation agenda at most South African universities; and not in any way meant to cast Habib, in his personal capacity, as a counter-revolutionary.
On the transformation of the student body
Habib is proud that Wits has significantly transformed its student body. This process was engineered and achieved by his predecessors over the past three decades; and he cannot take any personal credit for it. Wits has to be applauded for having been in the forefront for admitting black students into many academic programmes and degrees where there was a scarcity of black graduates.
Wits is well-known for its production of good black law graduates, as well as in other areas of expertise. We praise them for this. BUT, it must be quickly pointed out that the serious pressure placed on South African universities on the admission of black students has played more of a role in transforming student body demographics at these universities than a conscious moral-position being taken by their leadership.
It was disappointing that Habib was recently quoted in the mass media as being uncomfortable with, or even being openly opposed to the setting of "quotas" for black African students in their medical school. Habib knows that there is a serious shortage of black African medical practitioners in South Africa; and that black Africans have the lowest "1000 members of the population: medical practitioner" statistics in the country; and that this affects the provision of health services in most black areas.
The mere suggestion that Habib has some reservations about the existence of these "black African quotas" indicates that he does not believe that Wits has to progressively be part of solving South African problems despite the vociferous agenda of the reactionary anti-transformation lobby.
One would have expected Wits to champion the opening of more areas where there still exists a serious shortage of black professionals, instead of encouraging resistance towards such transformation positions objectively taken by past Wits leaders who one would presume were less progressive than Habib.
Resisting the Transformation Agenda
I will never champion the appointment of and / or the promotion of unqualified people to the position of professor. Hence, I fully agree with Habib when he says "appointing unqualified people for the sake of transformation would be mere window dressing that would lower the quality of education for the very people who were denied it by the apartheid government".
In fact, I even go further and unapologetically state that I have a serious problem with the appointment of people without doctoral degrees to the position of professor. Hence, I also fully agree with Jimmy Manyi that "It will not help to have black professors if they have to ‘mimic' their white counterparts. We may as well have the white ones".
The problem with the non-appointment of black professors is that it has less to do with the issue of academic qualifications; it is mostly to do with the issue of the so-called "SAPSE-approved peer reviewed articles". People are expected to publish whatever journal article in such journals; and the main criteria for acceptance of articles in these journals is more about the research techniques used than about the relevance of these articles in addressing the real challenges of South Africa. Hence, it is much easier for a non-South African to get appointed to the position of professor in South Africa because there are more publishing opportunities outside South Africa than there are in South Africa.
The irony about these universities who religiously pursue the "publish or perish" agenda is that they do not actively put in place "grow your own timber" research productivity goals, on how they will empower their own staff in improving their own research capability. These universities would rather quickly appoint a foreigner with many "international research articles" without any relevance to South African economic development needs, instead of appointing or promoting to professorship South Africans with doctorates who are also part of the solution to many South African economic development needs.
I would have expected Habib and Wits to spent more time explaining to us what it is that they are specifically doing to "grow their own timber" in improving their black staff's research productivity. Unfortunately, one of the very first statements Habib made when he became the vice-chancellor at Wits was to say he would be recruiting more international "A rated" researchers in order to increase the research output at Wits, as a way of improving their international rankings. Habib went to an extent he would be prepared to pay "millions of rands" to each of these "A rated" researchers. This is typical of the South African university way of thinking that the focus of the university should be to "publish" and no focus whatsoever on making the university more relevant and responsive to its immediate surroundings.
Jimmy Manyi said that it was encouraging that the amendments to the Employment Equity Act are "going to start biting" on those institutions who are not transforming. Unfortunately, I do not share Jimmy Manyi's optimism on this issue, because, as a former academic, I know how most South African universities will simply continue "business as usual" by focusing on "international rankings" and use the issue of "research productivity" as a convenient excuse for justifying the non-appointment of black African professors.
Is it not time we start putting under the microscope the relevance of most of the research articles that have been used to keep black Africans from professorships?
We all know the relevance of Prof Tim Noakes' research articles in stimulating debates in the sports medicine field; many people have personally benefitted from such information, not just in South Africa, but all over the world. This is the relevant research productivity I am talking about. But, I know for a fact that this is not what most South African panel members have in mind when they decide whether a black African academic deserves to be a professor or not.
I am happy that Prof Adam Habib will objectively respond to the issues I raised here; and will not instead play the man instead of playing the ball. That is why I wrote this article in order to encourage this debate raised by Jimmy Manyi. Otherwise, the transformation situation is worse at most other South African universities; BUT the leaders there would not openly debate these issues as we saw in the engagement between Habib and Manyi.
A Serious Need to Check The Commitment to the Transformation Agenda by those who want to lead South African universities
It is said the fish rots from the head. If the head of the university is not personally committed to the national and institutional transformation agenda, it is doubtful if the university headed by such a person can genuinely transform other than by pure default. It is thus important that those who want to become leaders of our South African universities should be seriously put under the microscope if they are committed to genuine transformation of our tertiary education sector.
The genuine transformation of South African universities can only be achieved if the type of people who serve on South African university councils are people who know what happens at the universities where they serve on the council. The university cannot transform if the people who serve on its council are themselves anti-transformation.
Dr Bonke Dumisa, formerly known as Prof Bonke Dumisa when he was still a full-time academic, is an Advocate of the High Courts of South Africa and Lesotho.
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