The Faces and Phases of Resilience: A Memoire of a Special Kind

Keynote address by Dr Reuel J. Khoza   I  08 December 2025

Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, and fellow seekers of wisdom,

We gather today to reflect on a voice that has become both a mirror and a lamp for our nation - the voice of Professor Tinyiko Maluleke. His memoir, Faces and Phases of Resilience, is not merely a book; it is a living anthology of essays, tributes, and reflections that remind us of who we are, and who we might yet become.  But who is Prof Tinyiko Maluleke?

Professor Tinyiko Maluleke is Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), a role in which he exemplifies the rare blend of scholarly excellence and transformative leadership. Born in Soweto, his journey reflects the quintessential South African narrative: resilience, intellectual rigor, and a deep commitment to the upliftment of society.

 

Academic Eminence:  

• Maluleke is an NRF B1-rated researcher, recognised internationally for his scholarship in religion, politics, and African theologies.
• His intellectual footprint spans continents, having served as visiting professor at leading universities in Germany, Austria, Kenya, the USA, and Finland.
• He is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, affirming his stature among the nation’s foremost thinkers.

 

Leadership and Stewardship:  

• Over two decades, he has held senior roles across UNISA, University of Johannesburg, and University of Pretoria, shaping policy, research, and student advancement.
• He serves as Deputy Chairperson of the National Planning Commission, where his voice contributes to the strategic vision for South Africa’s development.
• His stewardship extends to the corporate and civic spheres as a non-executive director of the MTN Foundation and member of the Umalusi Council for education quality assurance.

 

Philosophical Depth:  

Maluleke’s scholarship is not mere abstraction; it is rooted in the lived realities of African spirituality, postcolonial identity, and the politics of liberation. Professor Tinyiko Maluleke is not merely an academic of distinction; he is a custodian of conscience, a steward of our collective destiny. His scholarship, steeped in African soil yet reaching global horizons, illuminates pathways of integrity and wisdom. In his leadership, we discern the rare alchemy of intellect and empathy, of vision and execution. He is, in truth, a son of Soweto who has become a sage of the nation, a voice of Africa in the councils of the world.

 

In my foreword to the book I try set out the tone: resilience is not passive endurance, it is active creativity, moral courage, and the refusal to surrender dignity. Maluleke takes this insight and breathes life into this through stories of mothers, grandmothers, leaders, and ordinary South Africans whose resilience has carried us through the darkest nights of apartheid and into the complex dawn of democracy.

 

In his essay The Mothers of Soweto, Maluleke reminds us that resilience is often feminine in form. It is the grandmother who stretches a meal to feed many mouths, the mother who insists on education as liberation, the aunt who teaches discipline and humour in equal measure. These women are the unsung architects of resistance, and Maluleke’s tribute to them is a reminder that resilience is not abstract - it is embodied in care, sacrifice, and love.

 

In Leadership and Loss, he confronts the failures of post-apartheid governance. Here resilience is not nostalgia but critique: the courage to name corruption, to mourn betrayed hopes, and to insist that resistance must continue even when freedom has been won.

 

In Language and Laughter, Maluleke shows us that resilience is cultural. It is the joke whispered under oppression, the story told in indigenous tongues, the laughter that refuses to be silenced. In this, he echoes Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s insistence that language is liberation, yet he adds his own twist: humour itself is resistance, a refusal to let despair have the last word.

 

Placed alongside Es’kia Mphahlele, Maluleke’s essays resonate with African humanism - ubuntu as lived in kitchens, classrooms and society. With Ngũgĩ, he shares the conviction that memory and language are weapons of survival. With Steve Biko, he insists that resilience is psychological liberation, the refusal to internalize oppression. Yet Maluleke’s distinctive voice lies in his storytelling: he persuades us that resilience is not only political or cultural, but deeply personal, woven into the fabric of everyday life.

 

Friends, the thrust of Maluleke’s narrative is clear: resilience is the heartbeat of our nation. It is feminist, communal, cultural, and critical. It is the grandmother’s wisdom, the child’s laughter, the leader’s integrity, and the citizen’s courage. It is resilience, yes - but resilience that affirms life, memory, and hope.

 

As we read Faces and Phases of Resilience, we are invited not only to admire resilience but to practice it. To carry forward the legacy of those who endured, resisted, and created. To ensure that resilience does not become mere survival, but the foundation of a flourishing, just, and humane society.

 

And so, let us honour Professor Maluleke’s gift to us - a memoir that is also a mirror. In its faces and phases, we see ourselves. In its resilience, we find our calling.

 

I Tinyiko
Tinyiko I Samiyele
Samiyele wa Mapfotlosa (Obed)
Mapfotlosa wa Munene
Munene wa Huhlwani
Huhlwani wa Mchomi
Muchomi wa Dlamani
Dlamani wa Maxakadzi
Maxakadzi wa Malenga
Malenga wa Gunyule
Gunyule wa Xixangaxivi
Munwanatiiii!
Lava ka Macimba ya tihuku lawa yo lema rihlelo

 

Pferetetee!
Xinyela babeni!
Maluleke!
Wena wo Luleka  milambu
Ni swinambyana.
Wena Xixangaxivi xo k’enda makxekxe
Vadyi va Bangu
N’wina va ka Mafula hi Xivuri va tshika Nyundzu
Betsa ra matsalatsalani
Mayeke!!! Nwanati!!