Changing the course of history
Professor Puleng Lenkabula is no stranger to taking on roles that change the course of history. In 1993, at only 22 years, she was invited to join the global board of the United Church of Canada, which was advocating for South Africa’s liberation, as a youth representative for Africa. It was her activism in the student Christian movement that had caught their attention.
Lenkabula graduated with a doctorate in ethics (theology and philosophy) at Unisa. Her work with the board introduced her to the International Coalition of Africa, which supported issues around freedom, development and democracy in South Africa and the continent. She was busy with her doctoral degree when in 2007 she became executive consultant on Africa for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches of the World (now the World Communion of Reformed Churches), taking over the role from the late Prof Russel Botman, who was joining Stellenbosch University as vice-chancellor.
“This is the organisation that declared apartheid a heresy … when some people were using religious texts to justify apartheid and oppression,” she said
From 2011 to 2016, she worked with her predecessor, Prof Mandla Makhanya, to spearhead the professionalising of student affairs at Unisa, a model that many other universities have adopted.
In 2016, she joined Wits as executive dean of student affairs, expanding access to student residences from 18 to 23. She negotiated an agreement with the Gauteng provincial government, which resulted in varsities in the province being given buildings that were underutilised or land to support academic needs.
Lenkabula said it was such a gamechanger that the then Wits vice-chancellor Prof Adam Habib appointed her acting vice-chancellor so that she could sign off the agreement she had worked so hard to negotiate.
Before returning to head Unisa, Lenkabula was the deputy vice-chancellor for institutional change, student affairs and community engagement at the University of the Free State. She championed a collaboration of the province’s universities and TVET colleges to optimise resources from talent to technologies.