As time runs out to find a successor to take the reins at Wits, the most popular candidate, Njabulo Ndebele, has still not been approached. Philippa Garson reports
NJABULO Ndebele is being tipped as the most likely contender in the search for a new leader for the University of the Witwatersrand. But whether he will take the job is the question.
Ndebele, acclaimed writer and vice-chancellor of the University of the North, is the popular choice among academics and administrators at Wits to take the reins from vice-chancellor Robert Charlton who retires at the end of next year.
The major management shake-up Wits is poised for cannot take place until a new leader is found. Three new deputy vice-chancellors must be appointed by the beginning of next year, but the vice-chancellor, who has some influence over the appointment of his or her management team, must be found first. Advertising for the post has already begun and the closing date for applications is May 31.
Although students are dissatisfied with new selection procedures — three students, three non-academic staff and two representatives of historically disadvantaged communities on the selection panel — time is running out.
However, students are holding out for equal representation with academics on the selection committee and the Forum for Further Accelerated Change and Transformation (Ffact) has been unable to reach consensus on the issue.
Charlton said it was unlikely the senate or council would appoint a leader any of the university constituencies were “violently opposed to”, but some sources said few people would want to enter a race where the rules were not deemed acceptable to all.
Wits has a history of appointing vice- chancellors from inside the ranks, but natural successor and second to Charlton, June Sinclair, is unpopular with students and is seen as too adverserial for the job. She was not unscathed by the Makgoba saga, however, by backing the “hardliners” who wanted to oust him.
Some point to taking in an outsider — not necessarily an academic — with high standing, as is common in British and American universities.
But recently dismissed broadcasting minister Pallo Jordan scotched rumours with some amusement that he had been approached for the job. “I’m not interested in academia or heading an academic institution. I’m a backbencher in Parliament and I’ll stay there for the foreseeable future,” he said.
There is nothing to stop deputy vice- chancellor and research medic William Makgoba from applying for the post, but the feathers have hardly settled from his vicious fight with senior academics.
As a black academic of standing, with significant administrative experience and political independence, Ndebele is seen as the man most able to take Wits into a new era.
However, whether he will take the job is up for question. His application for the post of vice-chancellor at the University of Cape Town last year triggered stormy outrage from students at the University of the North, who virtually dragged him into a sports stadium, asking him to explain why he was forsaking them.
President Nelson Mandela and chairman of the council at Turfloop, Kader Asmal, reportedly intervened to ask Ndebele to stay where he was. Ndebele is likely to take up the helm at Wits only if nominated to do so in the first place and in the second, if Mandela wants him to.
Ndebele said he had not been approached by Wits and was “too busy trying to do the best I can for Turfloop to consider the issue”.
Although Turfloop occupies a symbolic place for the African National Congress, the academic and political training ground of several of its leaders, Ndebele is known to be frustrated by the lack of resources to revive the university.
Although Ndebele has refrained from publicly criticising the Wits administration over the Makgoba affair, it is well known that he experienced similar frustrations in attempting to implement change when he headed Wits’ African Literature Department.
While he expressed the desire to pursue his academic career at Wits, sources said his willingness to help devise policy around affirmative action were slated as a plan to introduce racial quotas, and he was not nurtured for a top job.
Ndebele’s subsequent involvement in administration at universities elsewhere and his previous experience as vice-rector at the University of Lesotho, show that he would most likely have taken up the challenge if he had been encouraged to do so. But the Wits administration did not have the foresight to entice him.