The appointment of three top-ranking women to the helm of Nelson Mandela University is an historic triumph for higher education in South Africa and a first for South African universities.
They are:
Dr Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi as Chancellor
Professor Sibongile Muthwa as Vice-Chancellor
Ambassador Nozipho January-Bardill as Chair of Council
They took up their posts in 2018, significantly the centenary year of the birth of Nelson Mandela after whom the University was named in 2017.
Mandela would certainly have celebrated his namesake university being steered by three women leaders as he was often referred to as a male feminist. At the opening of South Africa’s first democratic parliament in 1994, in his capacity as the country’s first democratic president, he pronounced: Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression… Our endeavours must be about the liberation of the woman, the emancipation of the man and the liberty of the child.
In this feature we showcase Dr Fraser-Moleketi and Professor Sibongile Muthwa:
Dr Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi
Chancellor
“It’s an honour to become Chancellor at Mandela’s namesake university in his home province, the Eastern Cape which is equally the birthplace of great women leaders like Albertina Sisulu,” says Dr Fraser-Moleketi.
“Nelson Mandela University is contributing a unique leadership role in what is a largely rural province, by ensuring that male and female students from every context are given the opportunity to succeed at university and to contribute to a new knowledge base and improved economy. I will be playing my part alongside my colleagues at the university to advance its achievements, reputation and goals, in the province, in South Africa, on the continent and globally.”
Dr Fraser-Moleketi holds a Master’s Degree in Administration from the University of Pretoria, is a fellow of the Institute of Politics, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and an honorary professorship at Stellenbosch University. In 2017 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Nelson Mandela University.
She has fought for democracy and equality for four decades. In 1980 at the age of 20, during her second year at the University of the Western Cape, she joined the ANC and left South Africa to go into exile where she received military training as a member of uMkhonto we Sizwe in Angola and the Soviet Union, alongside her husband, Jabulani Moleketi.
She returned to South Africa in 1990 and in 1993 she was appointed as National Deputy Elections Coordinator to assist the ANC in preparing for the first democratic elections. She subsequently served with Mandela in South Africa’s first democratic parliament and in his cabinet. Her ministerial posts included Deputy Minister of Welfare and Population Development (1995 – 1996), Minister of Welfare and Population Development (1996 – 1999), and, during Thabo Mbeki’s presidency she served as Minister of Public Service and Administration (1999 – 2008).
In her most recent position as the Special Envoy on Gender at the African Development Bank from 2013 to 2017, she significantly contributed to gender equality and woman empowerment in Africa. In 2014 the Board of the African Development Bank adopted a gender equality strategy premised on a number of factors, including legal and property rights for women in African, women’s education and economic empowerment.
Professor Sibongile Muthwa
Vice-Chancellor
“My journey has inspired my commitment to contribute to changing the trajectory of every young person whose life I have the privilege to touch,” says Professor Sibongile Muthwa.
She grew up in rural Umbumbulu Mission in southern KwaZulu-Natal, where, because of the sacrifices of her family and community leaders who believed in her ability from a young age, she was able to access good education, including schooling at Sacred Heart High School in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal.
“As a higher education institution we need to be acutely attuned to the issues of our country, including poverty and inequality, and to be committed to improving the lives and educational opportunities of the marginalised in particular.”
An experienced leader, strategist and internationalist, Prof Muthwa holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, an MSc in Development Policy and Planning from London School of Economics and Political Science, a BA (SW) Honours (Wits), and BA in Social Work (Fort Hare).
She has a distinguished career both in South Africa and the United Kingdom where she has worked in development and public sector institutions and academia. From 2010 to 2017 she was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Institutional Support at Nelson Mandela University.
Prior to joining Nelson Mandela University Prof Muthwa served as Director General of the Eastern Cape Provincial Government from 2014 to 2010, and before then she was Director of the Fort Hare Institute of Government, University of Fort Hare for five years. In 2014 she was appointed as a Commissioner of South Africa’s Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC), and in July 2017 she was appointed as its Deputy Chairperson.
She has been a proactive advocate of free education for those who cannot afford it and is unequivocal that every person with academic ability should have the opportunity to attend university. She is inspiring new generations of students, postgraduates and scholars to rise to the highest levels of achievement.
“Alongside our social justice agenda, we are securing our place in the global arena by driving innovations geared to solving current and future problems, including environmental degradation, food insecurity, rapid migration and global injustice. We see ourselves as a driver of change in Africa and the global south.”
