What was your first year in office like?
Professor Irene Moutlana vice-chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) pauses fleetingly.
“My first year was accompanied by excitement — finally I reached what I had wanted. But I was aware that I was in an environment riddled with turbulence and had to address issues without causing too much resistance. As a new person I knew I would be faced with decision-making traps. It was a humbling experience,” she says.
On January 15 last year Moutlana walked into an office bordering on ostentatious for the vice-chancellor of a mid-sized university of technology.
But then, it was previously occupied by Aubrey Mokadi, a man who compared himself to Christ and whose fraud and abuse of power turned the institution into what one insider described as an “ashtray”.
What will happen today?
During her first year Moutlana says she asked herself this same question every day as she walked into a workplace where trust and loyalty was violated.
She said to herself: ” I want to do something positive. I want to make people feel they belong.”
A few months later Moutlana delivered her inauguration speech — a paper that was crafted with intent.
As she spoke passionately on ethics in education, the message was un-equivocal — the Mokadi-era was over.
This is what she had to say: “Beneath the progressive rhetorics espoused by our universities lie both hidden and overt agendas of conflict, greed, self interest, fraudulent practices and other acts of fiscal irresponsibility. Sadly enough, the professional ethics of teachers in institutions of higher education, which is where the most talented people are trained, seem to become on occasion the breeding grounds for the most unethical practices.”
What she called for was that the VUT community finds its soul again.
Since then Moutlana believes the soul searching has yielded some of the outcomes she was hoping for. Among these was a greater sense of collegiality between the institution’s diverse people.
Moutlana has a secret advantage in trying to heal relationships. Her own roots go a long way in representing the diversity of South Africa.
“My grandmother was Damara/Afrikaans, my grandfather was Xhosa and English, my aunt was Zulu, my mother was Xhosa and I grew up in a Tswana environment [at a missionary station in Douglas in the Northern Cape].”
In school she saw the rivalry between Tswana and Xhosa speakers underpinning struggles for retaining culture and she realised if she could speak someone’s language she could get into that person’s mind.
Despite the strides made in the past 12 months to repair relationships, Moutlana is not claiming success yet.
“I think I have sensitised them to the depth of a mindset that was detrimental to the institution,” she says.
Part of this mindset, Moutlana adds, has been a “laxity” because of the leadership vacuum and the struggles of the acting vice-chancellors — who had to step into the mess after Mokadi left in 2006 — of operating without a full complement of managers.
The institution simply took too long to make decisions, impacting on its responsiveness to national and regional education needs.
This is evident from the Council on Higher Education quality audit — among others — which was done in 2006 and found that the institution’s pass rates were lower than the national benchmark and that some of its programmes “were not sufficiently attuned to the technological and knowledge requirements of industry”.
But it is here that Moutlana’s teaching background kicked in forcefully. She describes her management style as “gentle persuasion”, saying she is fair and open, but one can sense the unmistakeable firmness of someone who knows and respects discipline as a leader, a former school teacher, a university lecturer and a mother.
“Universities are places of contestation, conflict and praise. Like any household you have to lay down the rules for everyone otherwise you will be in Neverland,” she says.
Moutlana’s educational and leadership track record, in particular her credentials as a pioneer, serves her well to lay down the law at VUT.
In some ways, she revels in this.
“Pressure has always been my greatest source of inspiration,” she says.
Her journey to the top is packed with adventures and achievements.
Irene Nomhle Ntombikayise Zulu was kicked out of the University of Fort Hare for her politics. She was not allowed to attend another South African university for three years.
But she beat the system.
She got married, took the surname Moutlana and moved over to the University of the North for her BA degree.
In 1976 she was teaching in Atteridgeville, on the outskirts of Pretoria, trying to be a mentor as learners took on the system.
During the 1980s Moutlana became one of the first black South Africans to win a Fulbright scholarship to the United States. She went on to obtain her PhD from Harvard.
As an academic she had stints at the former Vista University before moving to Port Elizabeth Technikon, where she became vice-rector: academic — the first black woman to take this position at the former technikons.
After the technikon’s merger with the University of Port Elizabeth she became an interim vice-chancellor.
When she became VUT’s first woman vice-chancellor last year she swelled the ranks of women heading up universities in South Africa to three.
One year after taking office students recognise Moutlana on campus. In the banks and the shops people acknowledge her. She is no longer just a name, she is now a person in the VUT community.
What lies ahead
Moutlana is set on building on the highlights of 2007, which included students winning top awards in fashion design, photography and music, VUT receiving an award from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme for the Best Compliance in 2006, and stronger relationships with industry.
Now she has the benefit of a brand-new management team and a new dean of engineering who will be the custodian of far-reaching interventions to build up the institution’s engineering education against the backdrop of national skills needs.
Moutlana wants VUT to become stronger in teaching, in research, to sustain student numbers, to instil in students the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation and be involved in the community.
She wants to rebuild the VUT brand, strengthen the base with industry and surrounding municipalities, work with further education and training colleges to plug skills needs.
She wants to celebrate staff achievements and create an affirming environment for students of all races. “I feel a sense of urgency. I have built a case for change, but an institution cannot be run by one person alone.”
Indeed. The Mokadi era is over.