Professor Pamela Dube
On behalf of the Council, I wish to welcome you to this official function of the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Pamela Dube. This is a great day for CUT to introduce our VC to her management team. I express my profound appreciation for your presence at this welcome function. The invitation to this function has been extended to you as our media partners because we would like you to meet her. I want to thank each one of you for sacrificing your busy schedules to be with us here today.
For more than a year-and-a-half, it has been an arduous journey for the university to be without a VC, and I wish to commend Professor Alfred Ngowi for serving CUT as acting Vice-Chancellor during this period. We have witnessed remarkable strides towards the operational efficiency of this university despite the challenges we have experienced. We have seen progress in filling key positions, especially in the Registrar’s Division, with a shrewd eye on employment equity and representation.
When the university started the recruitment for the VC’s position, we committed to the Council to prioritise a female appointment. Our institutional values of equity and excellence inspired us to make this call. Without a doubt, we found her to be the most suitable leader who will take the university forward. With her appointment, we, as a collective, believe that CUT is in good hands. The university is in a better position than it has been. This is all because of our rigorous recruitment efforts. Rest assured; the new VC has the support of our Council, all statutory bodies within the university, and the university community. She will carry on where we have been doing well to drive our academic projects and Vision 2030 to become a leading university of technology in Africa through innovation.
For today’s session, it is important to share with you Professor Dube’s credentials that she brings into this portfolio. She will lead the university toward and beyond the CUT Vision 2030, using her vast knowledge and experience in the higher education sector. A solid foundation has been laid for our Vice-Chancellor to build partnerships and lead strategic engagements at various levels. She has also achieved outstanding academic excellence and has substantive experience at the university executive level. She has initiated effective relationship-building approaches with academic, governmental and business partners, as well as public communications skills. She also brings a wealth of experience and passion for working with students, who remain the number one priority at CUT.
Before joining the CUT, Professor Dube served as a Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Student Development and Support at the University of Western Cape. She is an accomplished leader in academia, having completed her MA and PhD studies in comparative Literature and Media at the University of Siegen in Germany, supported by the German Exchange Programme, DAAD. She is also a graduate of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Her career includes higher education and research management, comparative media/communication and literature, human resources development, institutional advancement, student affairs and international relations. She has worked as a senior employee of the National Department of Education, as an academic at the Universities of Siegen in Germany, Kathmandu University in Nepal, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg and worked at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, as a dean of students.
She served as a Special Advisor to the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Johannesburg, where she also took on the leadership of the Human Resources Division. She is also a past employee of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), where she established an International Relations office and managed the Learning and People Development Unit. Therefore, Professor Dube will be instrumental in driving sustainable partnerships at the CUT and supporting initiatives for internationalisation between the CUT and its international partners.
In closing, Professor Dube will continue to build on strength and excellence within the university’s core business — teaching and learning, research, innovation and community engagement, further strengthening our current university partner development initiatives with universities of repute across the globe, and forging new alliances that will be more significant to the communities we serve.
— Councillor Matthew Rantso, Chairperson of Council