Wits deputy vice-chancellor Professor MW Makgoba, in=20 The Mark Gevisser Profile
Two things happened on the day Professor Malegapuru=20 William Makgoba went to the Wits University Senate for=20 the first time: he dressed as an Arab sheikh, and his=20 boss, vice-chancellor Robert Charlton, forgot to=20 introduce him.=20
The outfit was given to him by a cousin of the Sheikh=20 of Kuwait, who Makgoba supervised in Britain, where he=20 was a research head at the Royal Postgraduate Medical=20 School in London. Now Wits University's new deputy=20 vice-chancellor for academic affairs, he swears that,=20 "I had not worn the outfit intentionally. In fact I had=20 quite forgotten that I was to be introduced to the=20 Senate that day."=20
Makgoba, a stellar Oxford-trained medical scientist in=20 his early forties, may be vain, but he has both humour=20 and self-reflectivity. He is prepared to admit that his=20 subconscious might have been at work. One way or the=20 other, those were the flowing robes of both difference=20 and flamboyance, sartorial reminders of how exotic a=20 black man in power still is at Wits and of his=20 alienation from it (signified too by his lack of=20 introduction), and his dogged desire to shake it up.=20
Makgoba must be the dons' worst nightmare come true. He=20 was chosen, according to insiders, because he was "the=20 right kind" of black man: scholarly, academic,=20 seemingly unpolitical (he lived in England, but was not=20 in exile), and impeccably credentialed. The university=20 had, in fact, been wooing him since 1987 and, once he=20 was appointed, several faculty-members were to be found=20 crowing that they had found a "black Charlton" –=20 another highly-decorated doctor who believed above all=20 in keeping the ivory tower burnished.=20
What they got instead is a man who has declared war on=20 the hypocrisy of white liberals who, he tells me, are=20 "arrogant, sluggish, and cannot accept the fact that=20 they no longer run things". This is the man who=20 believes that the university must discard the "pursuit=20 of knowledge and truth for its own sake" along with its=20 "English-speaking and liberal images". This is the man=20 who, from a position of scholarly superiority, seems to=20 take immense pleasure upbraiding his faculty for how=20 parochial it is — one of his most oft-repeated swipes=20 is about how few of them have foreign qualifications.
Vice-chancellor Charlton admits that there are problems=20 — "we haven't melded into a senior adminstrative team=20 as fully as I'd like" — but says that Makgoba has=20 played "an important role in helping transform the=20 institution". He volunteers two examples: that=20 Makgoba's presence "lent credibility" to the=20 administration during the negotiations with black=20 workers and students, and that he "has credibility with=20 the government, which some of us don't seem to have".
This, bluntly, is the affirmative action appointment=20 who bit back. And it hurts. These days, the letters=20 pages of the Wits Reporter read like an extract from a=20 Malcolm Bradbury or David Lodge novel: "The racist=20 vapourings" of Professor Makgoba, writes Henry Kenney=20 of Business Economics, are "arrogant, offensive, and=20 symptomatic of where Wits is going". Eminent historian=20 Charles van Onselen — Makgoba's most formidable foe in=20 Senate — weighs in with an acerbic refutation of some=20 of the deputy vice-chancellor's more provocative=20
Makgoba replies, replete with sarcasm: Van Onselen is=20 "the dear professor" who has his facts wrong; all his=20 detractors are doing is issuing "a direct challenge to=20 my authority", and believe that "any constructive=20 criticism of the institution is a criticism to them or=20 all white people", and cannot accept that "a competent=20 African can be in authority". In a rhetorical flourish,=20 he charges: "I hope all of them will remember the fate=20 of the great Procrustes!"=20
I'm afraid I don't remember the fate of the great P:=20 I've done some research, and it appears that he was a=20 robber who made travellers lie on his bed and either=20 shortened them or lengthened them to fit it. The=20 Athenian duke, Theseus, accorded him the same treatment=20 and killed him. I do remember that Theseus killed the=20 Minotaur and conquered the Amazons; that he was a=20 national hero of epic proportion. I am sure that=20 Makgoba — who is also the chair of the parastatal=20 Medical Research Council and of the National Science=20 and Technology Forum — chose his allusion carefully.=20
Certainly, he has become the champion of black people=20 on campus, but, says a black academic who is certainly=20 no Uncle Tom, "if he were to take a walk around this=20 place and check it out, he would be shocked at how=20 unpopular he is among the majority of faculties here.=20 He has not taken the time to get to know this=20 institution. He doesn't have a clue about how the=20 university works."
Now that there is a reaction to Makgoba's sweeping=20 statements, he continues, "rather than slowing down, he=20 interprets them as typical of a group of racists who=20 don't want to change. It reinforces his attitude that=20 this place is beset with racism, and it provokes him to=20 push harder."
In the arcane workings of the insitution, things only=20 change at Wits by committee. But, notes a progressive=20 white academic, "Makgoba has now gone and alienated the=20 very people he needs to help change things."=20 Furthermore, "I find myself lumped into a category of=20 retrogrades simply because I'm white. If I criticise=20 his ideas, I'm automatically a racist."=20
The public rage over Mokgoba's pronouncements on the=20 future of Wits have provoked an outburst of indignation=20 which, like the furore over "black" voices and accents=20 on the new SAfm, only goes to prove that there is more=20 than a little substance to allegations of rooinek=20 chauvinism: English-speaking South Africans really do=20 often believe that they hold the copyright on=20 civilisation. =20
And Makgoba's diagnosis of white South African=20 liberalism is acute: "It is a mixture of guilt and=20 arrogance. Black people at this university feel=20 alienated here, as if they are just passing through, as=20 if they might be the noble project of Wits, but they=20 don't belong, and their input is not required."=20
Certainly, this bastion of free thought has been=20 notoriously slow to transform: the number of black=20 academics is unacceptably low, and those few black=20 academics who have passed through its portals have been=20 shabbily treated. But, while his diagnosis might be=20 correct, the treatment Mokgoba has publicly prescribed=20 — the "Africanisation" of the university — is=20 inexplicably fuzzy for so precise a scientist.=20
He wrote in the Mail & Guardian, for example, that,=20 "When Europeans decide about their institutions, be=20 they French, German or British, the first principle is=20 to capture the essence of France, Germany and Britain.=20 The primary principle of a South African university=20 should be to capture and encapsulate the essence of=20
So limited a description of universities is all the=20 more remarkable for the different standards it applies=20 to Europe and Africa: there, universities may be=20 "French", "German" or ""British"; here, they must=20 simply be "African", as if there were one "essence of=20 Africa" that pulses through the veins of this vast,=20 complicated, heterogeneous continent.=20
It is, of course, precisely this reparative nationalism=20 that is at the heart of the political philosophy of=20 Africanism, which Makgoba embraces. He was present at=20 the birth of the South African Black Consciousness=20 Movement, in Steve Biko's very class at the Natal=20 University Medical School's Non-European Section, and=20 some of his statements come almost verbatim out of=20 Biko's writings. "The time for whites to determine or=20 articulate what they presume are the wishes and destiny=20 of blacks is over", he writes.=20
His harsher detractors accuse him of articulating the=20 primitive politics of another era: "He has been away=20 for the past 20 years and so has missed out on the=20 sophistication of the ANC's non-racialism," says one=20 don. But, Makgoba shoots back, "nothing has changed.=20 Whites still presume to talk for black people."=20
Makgoba comes from a prominent Sekhukhune family: his=20 great grandfather was Chief Makgoba, defeated by the=20 Afrikaners at Magoebaskloof, and his father, a=20 schoolmaster, was a secretary to the local chief:=20 "Being a country boy from a relatively well-off=20 family," he says, "I grew up relatively free." He=20 became aware, from an early age, of the inherent=20 democracy in his home-society: though he denies that he=20 romanticises "the African way", it is difficult to get=20 him to articulate a critique of the customary society=20 he grew up in.
He gives one cogent example of how the institution=20 should "Africanise": "We have not brought traditional=20 healers into the system … If we Western doctors were=20 to interact more with traditional healers, we might=20 learn a lot, and we might be able to teach them too.=20 The point is that without the participation of these=20 people, we'll never be able to institute the primary=20 health care system we need."
Note the way Makgoba says "we" when speaking about=20 Western doctors. What Makgoba's critics don't get is=20 that he is, in so many ways, one of them. He is an=20 unashamed "elitist" who is in the business of "creating=20 elites" — he just wants them to be black. When pressed=20 on what transforming the institution means, apart from=20 the above example and some elementary multiculturalism,=20 what he speaks about is changing its complexion. He=20 wishes it to be a black-led institution where black=20 people can finally be comfortable. But he, as much as=20 any of his critics, believes incontrovertibly in=20 "standards" and "excellence".
Listen to his plans, and you'll hear the workings of a=20 mind that feels that white South Africa has betrayed=20 the essential ideals of liberalism; ideals which he=20 locates in his father, an iconic figure in his life:=20 "He always took the middle road. He was not an=20 extremist. He imparted knowledge in a very democratic=20 way. We were brought up to question."
Perhaps that is why he never became a South African=20 Students' Organisation heavy: "I perceived the=20 beginnings of mob psychology at work. They were missing=20 Steve's message, which was, 'Learn to think for=20 yourselves and work out who you are.' Rather, they were=20 saying, 'He has thought for us! Let's just do as he=20 says!' That might work for mobilising masses, but it=20 doesn't work for mobilising intellectuals."
It's not just that Tony Blair — that liberal, middle- class saviour of the British Labour Party — is the=20 political leader to whom he feels closest. It is, notes=20 a Wits insider quite close to him, "his belief in the=20 Great Man theory of history; that individuals can=20 change institutions. His major weakness is that he,=20 being such a traditional intellectual and also being an=20 academic luminary, hasn't had experience in progressive=20 and collective politics."=20
So here's the dirt on William Makgoba: he is a great=20 liberal himself.