‘Dr’ Pallo exposed: he’s no doctor at all
ANC veteran makes mysterious reference to a ’deal with the devil’ but offers no explanation
PALLO Jordan, widely acclaimed for his intellectual writings and contribution to debates, appears never to have earned the title of “Dr” routinely attached to his name.
Moreover Jordan, a former minister of arts and culture and regarded as one of South Africa’s foremost intellectuals, appears to have never finished university — in stark contrast to a CV that suggests he graduated from both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the London School of Economics.
For almost three weeks Sunday Times reporter Gareth van Onselen attempted to get to the truth — asking the veteran ANC member to provide proof of his academic qualifications. Jordan offered nothing but excuses.
The two universities in question were far more forthcoming with their responses — no person by the name of Zweledinga Pallo Jordan had ever graduated from either institution. He had studied at Wisconsin-Madison, leaving in 1964 with 97 credits but no degree.
Read the remarkable account of Jordan’s SMS conversation with Van Onselen, his references to a “Faustian deal” made 30 years ago, and a generous offer to make our reporter his official biographer in exchange for dropping today’s story.
PALLO Jordan, regarded as one of South Africa’s foremost intellectuals and an ANC stalwart, has no formal academic qualifications — in spite of numerous mentions of a doctorate from a UK university.
A Sunday Times investigation could find no evidence that Jordan — who goes by the title “Dr” — has ever earned a PhD or even had an honorary doctorate bestowed on him.
After two weeks of promising to provide the Sunday Times with answers to questions about his qualifications, Jordan has failed to do so.
Jordan has no degrees or diplomas from the University of Wisconsin-Madison or the London School of Economics (LSE), the two institutions cited on his CV.
As far as the Sunday Times could ascertain, he has no formal tertiary academic qualifications whatsoever.
Jordan’s official CV, as it appears on the Government Communications and Information System’s website and elsewhere, is titled, “Zweledinga Pallo Jordan, Dr”.
Under “academic qualifications”, it states: “Dr Jordan studied at the University of Wisconsin in the United States of America in 1962 and he acquired a postgraduate degree from the London School of Economics.”
However, the office of the registrar at the LSE has told the Sunday Times: “We can find no record of Zweledinga Pallo Jordan having been awarded a PhD from the school.”
No evidence could be found of him being awarded an honorary doctorate and he cites no other qualifications on his CV.
Asked whether Jordan had obtained any degree or diploma from the LSE, the registrar’s office replied that there existed “no record for Zweledinga Pallo Jordan at the LSE”.
The office of the student services registrar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison con-
I had hoped that my chosen biographer wud b the one who collects on the Faustian bargain I made 30 years ago
firmed that Jordan did study there, making this claim on his CV technically true.
But he obtained only 97 credits between September 16 1963 and February 24 1964 and never completed his degree.
The university’s records for degrees under Jordan’s name returned “none”.
Jordan is a senior ANC member, a former minister of arts and culture, a current member of parliament and a representative to the Pan-African Parliament.
He is widely regarded inside and outside academic circles as a leading intellectual.
In his official capacity as the minister of arts and culture (2004-2009) he has delivered many speeches as either “Dr Pallo Jordan”, “Dr PZ Jordan” or “Dr Z Pallo Jordan”. The site www.gov.za returns 347 hits for the search “Dr ZP Jordan”.
As “Dr Jordan” he has written for the ANC’s weekly newsletter ANC Today, for journals — such as issue 45 of South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy — and has appeared at international conferences under that title.
In countless interviews on radio, television and in print he has been referred to as “Dr Jordan”.
In Lady Grey, in the Eastern Cape, there even exists a “Dr Pallo Jordan Primary School”.
For two weeks the Sunday Times has sought comment from Jordan to no avail.
The three questions, first put to him on July 16, were:
What are your formal academic qualifications?
On what basis do you use the title “Dr”?
Can you help explain the LSE’s response?
Despite numerous e-mails and SMS requests — see the full SMS exchange in the accompanying story — Jordan failed to provide substantive answers. Among other undertakings, he said he would phone, provide a preliminary account via e-mail, meet face-to-face on his return from a trip abroad, and provide “supplementary documentation” (but, significantly, no degree certificates). He reneged
In countless interviews he has been referred to as ‘Dr Jordan’. there even exists a Dr Pallo Jordan Primary School
on all these commitments.
On Monday this week Jordan sent the following SMS: “I had hoped that my chosen biographer wud b the one who collects on the Faustian bargain I made 30 years ago. U have taken that role with no invitation. So, here’s the deal. U can wait for me to get home, and I give u a full biography of a key player in SA politics over the past thirty odd years. It cud rival Gevisser’s Dream Deferred. Or you could go for a Profumo [sic] story that burns out in month or less. I am still en route home and haven’t read your e-mail.”
Jordan did not explain what he meant by “Faustian bargain”. Dream Deferred is the title of Mark Gevisser’s biography of Thabo Mbeki.
The message represented an attempt to defer or abort the potential story in exchange for exclusive access to Jordan’s life history, for the purposes of a book. The Sunday Times declined.
Jordan first made the suggestion of a biography on July 19, texting: “I had hoped that my selected biographer would be the one who writes up the twisted narrative of my life. But, it appears that a would-be detractor will be the person to do so.”
On July 23, he first made an offer of collaborating on his biography in exchange for killing the story, texting: “Refer my SMS, 19:7? Hold whatever u r doing, and u cud b that biographer.”
After the Sunday Times informed Jordan it intended to go to print, having afforded him a reasonable time to respond, he sent a message on Tuesday this week saying he was now in England: “In London regarding your queries . . . expect correspondence from here in the next day or two responding to your queries.”
The promised correspondence never arrived. Finally, on Thursday, Jordan sent a message threatening court action: “I’ll take you to the cleaners, the dry cleaners plus the laundry!! So do what you wanna!!” However, he still provided no answer to the questions put to him.
Although he has never officially claimed them, third party biographical profiles have attributed other academic qualifications to Jordan over the years.
They include a bachelor’s degree at Wisconsin, a doctorate in economics at the LSE, a history degree from the University of Michigan and a history degree from the University of Cape Town.
According to the registrar’s office at UCT, their records do not show Jordan ever having studied there. The certification department at University of Michigan could find no evidence of Jordan having been at that institution but its older records are kept on microfilm and it would take more than a week to verify that fact. Apart from the LSE, there are no other references to a doctorate.
Jordan is the son of AC Jordan, an eminent writer and the first black professor at UCT. He died in 1968.
His mother Phyllis Ntantala is also an eminent academic and writer, who has lectured at the University of Michigan.
Some of the complexities involved in studying as a South African exile are captured in Ntantala’s book, A Life’s Mo- saic, in which she describes how her son was “endorsed out” of the New School for Social Research in New York, where he was enrolled for a master’s degree.
She wrote of Jordan: “Then about the middle of November [1966], he received a letter from Immigration telling him to be out of the country by the end of the month, as the purpose for which he had entered the US had been accomplished and he was prolonging his stay unnecessarily.” Despite the request being unreasonable, Ntantala writes that Jordan eventually agreed to leave for England, or risk imprisonment.
I’ll take you to the cleaners, the dry cleaners plus the laundry!! So do what you wanna!