Writer finds he can ease ‘ache’ for SA part-time
UNIVERSITY of the Witwatersrand vice-chancellor Professor Adam Habib’s multimillionrand plan to hire the best academic talent in the world suffered a blow after one of its distinguished professors pulled out of a full-time contract.
South African scholar and author Professor Jonny Steinberg, who joined the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research last month, will now only spend three months of the year as a visiting professor at Wits, over three years.
Steinberg — twice a winner of the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award and whose latest book, A Man of Good Hope, is shortlisted this year — was an associate professor in African criminology at Oxford University in the UK when he was approached to join Wits last year.
He said in an e-mailed response to the Sunday Times that he and his partner “need to maintain a home and a working life in Oxford” and that he came to an arrangement where he could split his time between Wits and Oxford.
“I will be spending three months a year at Wiser as a visiting professor. I had hoped to spend a much longer initial period at Wits full-time, but, sadly, this did not work out,” he said.
This will come as a surprise to those who read Steinberg’s de- tailed account of why he wanted to return to live in South Africa.
In a piece he wrote on the website BuzzFeed in February, Steinberg said: “I have just resigned from this job and am giving up this life. In a couple of months, my partner and I will be moving to Johannesburg, South Africa, where I was born.”
He spoke of his longing for South Africa: “There is . . . something for which I know I ache, and it is only to be found in my native land.”
Habib said the Wits Distinguished Professors Programme had already attracted 14 leading scholars who had signed contracts, and “there are six in the pipeline, so this programme is way ahead of its target. We are confident that this programme will continue to grow in the coming years.”