/ 12 June 2007

Where did all the whities go?

Only four South African higher education institutions are led by whites.

They are Professor Calie Pistorius (University of Pretoria), Professor Frederick Fourie (University of the Free State), Dr Theuns Eloff (North-West University) and Dr Rolf Stumpf (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University).

Pistorius is in his second five-year term after a tense re-election battle at the end of 2005. The council of the University of the Free State will decide soon whether it wants to extend Fourie’s term, which expires late this year; Stumpf is retiring at the end of the year; while Eloff will be in office until May 2009.

These changes mean that the racial demographics of South African vice-chancellors are a far cry from a decade ago.

At that point there were 36 higher education institutions, at least half of which were headed by whites.

Should all vice-chancellors be black? Responding to this, Eloff says: ”I believe most vice-chancellors will agree with me that it will be a sad day for non-racialism and diversity in higher education if all vice-chancellors were black.”

Higher education researcher Ndinannyi Malada says that while the changes at leadership level are a positive move towards achieving the transformational goals of equity and redress, ”the powerhouse of institutional transformation remains the senate, council, deans’ forums and heads of departments. There is a need for a black agenda to be entrenched in these structures in order to realise serious institutional transformation.”

All the vice-chancellors are South African-born. Professor Norma Reid Birley, formerly of Wits, was the only foreigner appointed at a South African institution.