SHARPENING WITS
Be better, says new chancellor Judy Dlamini
● The interior of Sifiso Nxasana House in Illovo, Johannesburg, is a cool, tranquil space decorated by someone with an eye for form and function. “Oh, Dr Judy chose everything,” an assistant says of the art that dots the walls.
Dr Judy, as almost everyone calls her, combines the same poise and practicality as her corporate headquarters. Crossing the carpet in understated, peep-toe Jimmy Choos, the new chancellor of Wits University, medical doctor, business leader, author, PhD graduate and corporate legend, exudes the calm confidence of a woman who is the walking embodiment of success.
Not that she’d accept this label. Speaking of her lifelong commitment to better education, for herself and others, Judy Dlamini is quick to share the fact that she had to repeat two courses before qualifying as a doctor at the then University of Natal in 1985.
“When I started at medical school I was free, I was a child,” she says.
“I failed along the way, got married when I was in fourth year, had our son when I was in fifth year, so by the time I got my certificate to be a doctor I already had a marriage certificate and a birth certificate. It was hard, but nothing worth anything is easy.”
The daughter of an entrepreneur father who died when she was in matric and a primary-school teacher mother who struggled to put her through university, Dlamini, 59, wanted to be a doctor since she was a small child. Becoming one did not satisfy her ambition, however. She worked as a family GP for several years before specialising in occupational health, a course she could do by distance learning while running her private practice by day and being with her family by night. That led to consulting on workplace health issues for various large companies.
“I always wanted to be a doctor but when I became one it wasn’t the same thing I thought it would be. It wasn’t ‘Wow’, it was ‘Oh, OK, what’s next?’ Later when I got the MBA [through Wits, majoring in corporate finance, which became her second career], I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m getting closer to the PhD now’. And then when I got my doctorate it was an out-of-body experience. Like being in a cloud. That was a milestone.”
A picture of her in red robes, receiving her PhD in business leadership from Unisa, hangs behind her desk. Around it are many photographs of her near and dear ones, including her late son Sifiso, who died in 2012 and in whose honour this building is named.
The pain of losing him is evident even in the positive light Dlamini tries to cast on everything.
“My family is my world,” she says. “Everything else is an add-on or an enhancer. The birth of my two kids was the most precious gift — human life that is assigned to you for as long as the assignment is allowed. That is the biggest thing that has happened in my life. Next was when they graduated. Those are the moments that have been ‘wow’ and it makes me grateful.”
Her daughter, Nkanyezi Makhari, who recently gave birth to her second child (Dlamini’s fourth grandchild — the first two are her stepdaughter’s) is a chartered accountant and head of capital investments at Sifiso Learning Group, the education business
When I got my doctorate it was an out-of-body experience … being in a cloud. That was a milestone
started by Dlamini and her husband Sizwe Nxasana, former CEO of FirstRand and former chair of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.
“Education is very important to us,” Dlamini says of the high-school sweetheart she married more than 35 years ago.
“We’ve been involved in education for decades. Initially it was supporting schools, offering bursaries in different disciplines, and then we started Future Nation schools about two years ago, after doing a lot of research as to what model we should pursue and why. We both feel that the current education system doesn’t prepare students for identifying problems and coming up with solutions, for creating jobs as opposed to looking for jobs. We looked at all models and came up with one we believe will empower our children with the thinking tools to be able to tackle life in the 21st century.”
Nxasana runs the Future Nation schools initiative and the Mkhiwa Trust, which focuses on rural development, health and education projects, while Dlamini concentrates on the business she started 22 years ago, the Mbekani Group, which has interests in investment, property, health, facilities management and fashion retail (those Jimmy Choos are not just favoured accessories; she owns the brand store in SA).
Dlamini admits that though she honours all her commitments to existing projects, part of her constant drive to do new things springs from a tendency to get bored easily. “I love new challenges,” she says. “Initially I thought I lost interest in medicine because I was mugged outside my practice, but I’ve since realised that’s just me. Every five to 10 years I say, ‘OK, what’s next? Surely there’s something else?’ I’ve always fought against what the mould decided I should be. I’ve always said, ‘You cannot define me’. I love stretching myself. I do get bored easily, but also I always feel that this life is given to you to do everything humanly possible.”
Dlamini describes herself as a shy introvert who does not take easily to public speaking. She seldom raises her voice, but now she claps her elegant hands together
I love stretching myself. I always feel that this life is given to you to do everything humanly possible
three times to emphasise the intensity of each point: “Life is given to you to invest in yourself. To be better than you were yesterday. And to try new things.”
Despite the euphoria she felt when getting her PhD, the topic she researched — “the intersection of race, gender and social class in women CEOs’ career progression and strategies for gender transformation at leadership level” — became much more important to her than the degree itself. It led her to write her first book, Equal But Different, the stories of 14 women from diverse backgrounds in top leadership positions.
“I don’t think there has been less resistance in SA to women leaders than in other places,” she says.
“If in 2018 we are talking about the first woman chancellor in a university with a 96year history, go figure. And look at the JSE — how many woman CEOs do we have? Because we talk about it a lot, and we’ve started to show off those women, they seem like they are higher in number than they actually are, but it’s still very hard for women. So we’re not there yet, and we have to consistently do something about it, because it’s not right. We should never settle for less. You can’t tire of fighting for what is right, or tire from talking about what it should be, what needs to happen for it to be right. Men and women need to keep doing everything they can to change the status quo for the better, because we owe it to ourselves and our kids to do that.”
Her next book, which will be published early this year, is called The Other Story.
“I have discovered that one of the things I love doing is telling positive stories,” she says.
“When I grew up I had to block the negative images and the negative messages about people who look like me. I don’t want my grandchildren to grow up like that. I want them to live in a world where the images they see of themselves are beautiful, where the stories they learn about people who look like them are beautiful. I am telling the story of successful African leaders who don’t just succeed in their own personal space but succeed and make a difference to their families, succeed and make a difference to their communities.
“This is why I say to young people: dream, and continue to dream, don’t stop, don’t reach one dream and think that’s it. When you reach your first dream, have the second one, and the third one, till your days here are over, so there is no time when you say, ‘Oh I’ve done so much, I can rest’. No, no, no, you still have life. Other people are not here, their life was taken from them. You still have it, make use of it and make it count. Not just for you, not just for your family, but for the community that nurtured you.
“That’s what I would say to my grandchildren and that’s what I would say to any student. As an African you are not just a mother to your biological kids, you are not a mother figure or chancellor figure only to the students at the university that has chosen you; you are a leader right across the board, so the message goes to everyone.”
There is, she says, often a misunderstanding about the role of a chancellor, which does not involve the hands-on administrative tasks performed by the vice-chancellor of a university.
“The best way for me to explain it, because I come from the business side, is to compare it to a company chairman as opposed to a chief executive officer. The role of chancellor is not executive, it’s more like a ceremonial position, an ambassadorial position where you represent the university’s values, so it’s very important that there is alignment between what the university stands for and what you stand for.”
Dlamini does not hesitate for a second when asked what she stands for.
“I stand for integrity. I cannot, in any position
I find myself, condone something that compromises integrity. I stand for social justice. There is no way I can agree with a position that discriminates against any group because of their social identity. Those basic values — self-respect, respect and dignity for others — not in any position or under any hat can I be part of something that flouts those.”
For the next six years, graduates on the Wits podium will be capped by chancellor Nobuhle Judith Dlamini. If that small tap on the head is able to confer more than a degree on them, if it is also able to impart some small measure of her optimism and determination, then the next generation of South African leaders will indeed be impressive.