A Response to my Inauguration as Chancellor of University of Kwa-Zulu Natal

4TH MAY 2022

DR REUEL J KHOZA

Mr MC, Minister of Higher Education, Dr Blade Nzimande
MEC: Education in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Kwazi Mshengu
Chair of the UKZN Council, Dr Leticia Moja;
Vice Chancellor and Principal, Professor Nana Poku
Members of the Provincial Executive Management
Members of Council Past and Present
Members of University Senate;
Members of the University Executive Management;
Members of the Convocation Executive Past and Present;
Members of the Student Representative Council;
Distinguished Guests;
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

May I at the outset express my deepest sense of gratitude to the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, for deeming it fit and appropriate to invite me to be Chancellor of this esteemed institution. I consider it a singular honour and exceptional privilege.

I accept this privilege to serve at a painful conjuncture in the history of our nation. The pain is occasioned by a variety of malpractices and manifest malfeasance inter alia. As we look around what do we see?

• A once promising state, now a manifest prebendalism gravitating towards a kleptocracy. Politicians and government officials embezzle with gay abandon.
• A state captured by a foreign family that is a non-entity in the country of their birth.
• Corruption so rampant the citizenry has lost trust in political leadership.
• Abnormally high, debilitating unemployment that renders the nation, particularly educated youth, despondent.
• Moral decadence characterised by crime against women and children and utter neglect of the sick and infirm.
• A gini-coefficient infamous for being the worst in the world.
• A political leadership which is long at churning out plans and short on implementation.
• A political economy languishing in junk status with its leadership behaving as if this does not matter.
• A nation ravaged and plagued by natural disasters in the form of floods and droughts, battling to cope, let alone earnestly attempting to devise ways of effectively handling these calamities in future.
• A leadership whose questionable conscience fails to urge it to condemn the act of one nation waging war on another, killing women, children and the infirm; and exiling millions from the country of their birth.

To mention but a few.

Mahatma Gandhi admonishes sagaciously on an imperative set of values as follows:

“The things that will destroy us are: politics without principles, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice”.

Against this bleak background and wise counsel the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, as an institution of higher learning, has its obligation cut out: our institutional leadership must be imbued with a compelling vision well articulated and pursued in exemplary manner. Our administration should have clear policies, be strict in their application particularly where budgetary and financial matters are concerned. Our academic staff must perforce be dedicated to a culture of diligence and excellence – unrelenting in its pursuit. Our students must deeply appreciate that appropriate education is the key to addressing their own personal challenges, those of the country, the region and the continent. Our research and development, be it in infrastructure, tropical diseases, healthcare, law, science and technology, commerce and the social sciences, must doggedly chase innovation having regard to its practical relevance.

Unless the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Council and Senate as administrative and academic governance bodies, insist without compromise on the strict adherence to policies, diligent and dedicated pursuit of world class academic and research standards; our noble quest to serve our beloved country will be an illusion turned existential nightmare for this and future generations, nationally and continentally. A consequence we dare not contemplate.

We live in a democracy in which academic excellence could very well thrive.

Just as freedoms are considered indivisible, excellence is also indivisible. It cannot be expected that our students can produce academic excellence when the lecturers and other resources accorded to them are sub-standard; it cannot be expected that students will produce academic excellence if they are ill-prepared and fail to apply themselves; it cannot be expected that lecturers will produce academic excellence if they are not oriented and dedicated towards academic excellence; it cannot be expected that the academic staff can produce academic excellence if the support from the administration is absent or at best shambolic; it cannot be expected that academic institutions will produce excellence if they operate in an environment hostile to all the freedoms associated with democracy; it cannot be expected that institutions can produce academic excellence where they cannot master adequate resources.

We are therefore duty bound to maintain the academic and other freedoms we currently enjoy in South Africa. We are obliged to conserve and judiciously apply the available resources that are dedicated towards academic pursuit. We have a duty to ensure an efficient and effective administration and organisational support to enable academia to focus on academic pursuit. It behoves us to encourage and insist on application by academic staff and students towards world class performance and delivery.

We have a duty to reinvent and redefine ourselves into an African University of reference, to reposition ourselves as an institution of higher learning deserving of unconditional respect, continentally and globally. We need to be a quintessential centre of excellence. Quintessential centre of excellence because our administration and financial management are beyond reproach. A University of reference because our standards are world class and aspirant students view us as their University of first choice and not one of last resort. A desirable centre of scholarship excellence because our research and development in particular disciplines is at the cutting edge. The mere mention of University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN) should conjure up images of excellence akin to those of the Ivy League Universities in the USA. We should stop at nothing in realising this.

In conclusion, I end with a call to action. Here within the hallowed precincts of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal I call on students, on their lecturers, on the honourable body of academia that is the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal: Be audacious, be diligent, be dogged, be daring in your pursuit of excellence. As your Chancellor I pledge to do the same as and when duty calls.