I was invited to a dinner with UNISA's
Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Puleng LenkaBula. This was, I suppose, one of the
stakeholder engagement processes she had embarked upon to introduce
herself-in-the-office to various establishments that may or will be critical to
the success or otherwise of her tenure at UNISA. The line-up of guests that
were 'physically' at the dinner represented a cohort of business leaders who,
and I was amongst them, dubbed as being captains of industry.
Stakeholder engagement theory wisens that
a coterie of individuals found at such dinners define the approval networks
that a leadership tenure or cause enjoys in society. The 'physical' absence of
the 'strategic' in the 'governance' architecture of UNISA, and those that have natural proximity to South Africa's political-economic establishment was to
me notably worrisome. The stature that UNISA projects as an African University
would have, or should have, attracted to the dinner the core substrate of South
Africa's industrialists and financial services moguls.
The node of influence it has as social
capital in the person of its Chancellor, the alumni that include former
Justice Dikgang Moseneke and a sitting President of the Republic, Cyril
Ramaphosa should have defined the inaugural business dinner as a Social
Cohesion event without which the future of UNISA would have a doubtful
relationship with posterity. The absence of 'Stellenbosch's', 'Dube Port
Complex' as well as the 'Sandton Network' physical representation at the
dinner, and if they were not in the virtual, is an echo of sound in chambers
the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and her office team need to found ways of quietening
or listening to.
Without pronouncing the merits or
otherwise of the Afrikaans case with Solidarity, there is an Afrikaans concept
called 'swaai gat om' that might be at play in the relationship of UNISA with
the Afrikaans establishment. This requires strategies to 're-swaai certain
gats' without succumbing to the 'anti-transformation' sub-texts the Afri-Forum language
Court victory might be carrying along. The cultural battle is primal to any
ideational transformation of society, contestations in that space is a sure
indicator of how stable and cohesive society’s imagination of itself is, the
new UNISA VC is a key player to ignore sounds interior to this.
In her speech, the new VC could not have
vindicated the decision of UNISA's Council in making a choice to appoint her.
She came across as an institution of leadership herself. Her strategic and
ideological vision of what UNISA is to Africa, and South Africa, was presented
in a way that you could only be worried about who else should have heard her
beyond those that were tuned in. It was interesting to note her silence to the
shenanigans that are making rounds about UNISA, but rather to hear her loudness
on what the 'institution' was knitted for as a platform upon which she has
chosen to navigate recommendations of reports whence from negative reporting
originates.
Overall, the dinner was a refreshing experience,
the speeches that were made represented a shift from 'diatribes' of
transformation, and the ushering in of what should be done. In the parlance of
Mandla Letlape in his book 'Dream Delivered', the speech of the Vice-Chancellor
represented the arrival of leadership in UNISA that understands the truism of a
'dream delivered' by the institutional frameworks created in our political of
South Africa.
The Thinc Foundation expresses its
appreciation for being invited to be interior to the unfolding stakeholder
engagement process. Within what we can muster, and in support of our common
vision as a society to build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state.
We commit to being a stakeholder in this
journey. Again, congratulations to UNISA for the VC they have found for
themselves. As Meta Mhlari said, 'she is a she that will take UNISA to new
levels'.
Cut!!!
🤷🏽♂️A ndzo ti vulavulela
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