Former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, is the latest of the recent renowned and respected thought leaders that chose Stellenbosch University as the place to continue their life’s work.
“I chose Stellenbosch University because it allows me to focus on my first love namely Social Justice; the institution also allows me to focus on something less administrative. I had received many offers, but at this stage of my life, I thought with all the knowledge I have gained over the years it's best that I plough that back," said Professor Thuli Madonsela.
South Africa's former Public Protector, Prof Madonsela, officially took up her new position as Chair in Social Justice in the Law Faculty of Stellenbosch University (SU) in January this year. Madonsela will mainly engage in teaching and research at SU's Law Faculty, but will also be involved in civil society initiatives.
The former Naledi High School teacher says teaching is one of the greatest tools to transform people's minds and to empower them to realise their full potential, and “being in a space where I can use teaching to transform people's minds is a privilege."
She adds that some of the teachings she will attempt to pass on to her students during her time at Stellenbosch is to activate them to think of themselves firstly as creators of jobs, and secondarily as seekers of jobs. She explains: “Some of us will have to work for other people, but we have to change the paradigm that says 'I am a job seeker' because even if you look at primitive societies, the average person is not a job seeker, and that goes for the animal kingdom too."
She concluded: “The average person is developed and educated to be functional in terms of creating opportunities to generate food and other advances for the community. That is what we need to inculcate among young people right from grade R, namely that, yes, you can create a job, you can impact the world.
When she was diagnosed as being HIV positive in 2001, Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola (39) thought she'd be dead within a few months. Today – almost 17 years later – she is the new director of Stellenbosch University's Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management, a PhD candidate, a wife and the mother of two HIV negative children.
She has also been included in the book A to Z of Amazing South African women, a publication that honours the contribution of women to South Africa's past, present and future. Other names in this book include Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Fatima Meer, Caster Semenya, Natalie du Toit, Mrs Ples and Thuli Madonsela.
In the book they refer to her as a “heroine for our times" – someone who has beaten all the odds and is still working actively to improve the situation.
Dubula-Majola is a Stellenbosch University (SU) alumna, having completed two of her postgraduate qualifications – a Postgraduate Diploma and an MPhil in HIV/AIDS Management – through the Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management. She has also been a lecturer at the Centre for two years.
“We can't become complacent. Even one infection is too many," she says.
Dubula-Majola's journey as an activist began in a Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) centre in Khayelitsha. She believes the focus should now move to prevention and behavioural interventions. Gender inequality, poverty and other social and structural issues still leave many people, especially young women, at risk.
The Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management was established in January 2003 by the outgoing director, Prof Jan du Toit, who is retiring at the end of the year after joining SU's Department of Industrial Psychology in 1972.
The Centre focuses on education, research and community service related to HIV and AIDS management in the workplace. Dubula-Majola is looking forward to her new role as director. “I welcome challenges. That is how we grow.
The public intellectual and former vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, Prof Jonathan Jansen, has accepted a position at Stellenbosch University (SU).
Jansen (61), an A-rated scientist with the National Research Foundation, will take up the position of distinguished professor in the Faculty of Education, where he will be teaching and conducting research on school governance, management, leadership and policy. He will also serve as a mentor to postgraduate students.
Announcing the appointment, Prof Wim de Villiers, SU Rector and Vice-Chancellor, said the institution would greatly benefit from Jansen's expertise as foremost author, thought leader and education specialist. “Prof Jansen is arguably one of the leading pedagogues of our time, but also the proverbial voice in the wilderness, addressing not only the state of the nation, but – equally important – the state of education in our beloved country."
Prof Nico Koopman, Vice-Rector: Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel, added: “Prof Jansen is a scholar at heart. We are confident that his research expertise will have a meaningful social impact on all levels of the education system in South Africa."
Equally pleased at the prospect of welcoming Prof Jansen to SU's Faculty of Education, Prof Yusef Waghid, acting dean of the Faculty, said: “Prof Jansen's appointment offers tremendous opportunities for colleagues to engage with him in deliberative, responsible and courageous conversations – dialogues relating to what a university is and ought to do. I am optimistic that Prof Jansen's intellectual voice and passion for education will have a positive impact on the scholarly work with which the Faculty is associated. This is another opportunity to enhance our quest for our quest for a meaningful and just schooling system"
Commented Jansen: “I am very excited about this opportunity to work at one of the best universities on the continent and with some of the leading educational researchers in the field. I do hope to make a small contribution with my colleagues to making research count in the transformation of schools and in preparing the next generation of scholars."
Jansen, a recipient of three honorary doctorates and a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in 2016/17, took up the position at SU as from 1 November.
Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela , award-winning author and eminent scholar, known internationally for her work in the field of trauma and reconciliation, holds the Research Chair in Social Change and Transformation at Stellenbosch University (SU).
Gobodo-Madikizela has also been rated by the National Research Foundation as a researcher who enjoys considerable international recognition by her peers. She was a member of the former Truth and Reconciliation Committee, after which she conducted research particularly on the elements that lead to healing when victims and transgressors enter into dialogue after mass trauma and violence. Thereafter, while she was a fellow at Harvard University, she wrote the award-winning book A human being died that night: A South African story of forgiveness.
She says of her work: “After completing my Ph.D., my research was focused on questions around themes of remorse, empathy and forgiveness. This work has led me to exploring the role of dialogue when victims, perpetrators and beneficiaries of gross human rights abuses have to live together in one country, and sometimes as neighbours.”
Gobodo-Madikizela has recently expanded this work to explore the concept of empathy more deeply by engaging a perspective that takes as its starting point the embodied African phenomenon of inimba ̶ a Xhosa word that loosely translated means “umbilical cord" ̶ and integrating it with the relational and psychoanalytic concept of intersubjectivity. The goal is to find a richer, deeper and more complex understanding of empathy that takes into account an African knowledge archive.
