Mungo Soggot
DR MAKI Mandela, the state president’s daughter who led the affirmative action drive at the University of the Witwatersrand, has quietly quit the university for a top human resources post at parastatal Transnet.
Wits and Transnet confirmed this week that Mandela had secured a post at Spoornet, the parastatal’s railway division. Transnet human resources executive director Joe Ndhlela said Mandela, who is currently abroad, would have a “senior human resources post” in the organisation. Her appointment would be subject to a probation period, to ensure it made commercial sense.
Her departure represents a blow to Wits. She headed the university’s affirmative action drive – seen as a major component in its attempts to meet growing demands for its transformation. Mandela, who was in the job for more than two years, was requested by the university council last month to compile a progress report on her work, due to be handed in next month.
Her resignation is the latest in a string of high-profile losses which is threatening to denude the campus of its best administrative brains.
Among the other recent departures from Wits are applied mathematics professor Michael Sears and zoology professor Robin Crewe.
Leading historian Professor Charles van Onselen was recently interviewed for a top post at Oxford.
Mandela’s relationship with her father became strained when in 1994 she publicly called on people not to vote for the ANC, declaring her support for the Democratic Party.
She is his daughter from his first marriage.