New UKZN chancellor calls for university to respond to SA’s challenges
NEWLY appointed UKZN Chancellor Dr Reuel Khoza has decried the country’s political leadership, saying it has turned what was a promising state into a fiefdom of politicians and government officials who embezzle public funds without any care.
Speaking during his inauguration yesterday, Khoza spoke against malpractices and malfeasance in the public service, warning that corruption had reached such rampant levels that the citizenry has lost trust in the political leadership.
According to Khoza, some of the challenges facing the country include:
♦ A leadership whose questionable conscience fails to urge it to condemn the act of one nation waging war on another, killing women, children and the infirm; and exiling millions from the country of their birth.
♦ Moral decline characterised by crimes against women and children and utter neglect of the sick and infirm.
♦ And a political leadership which is long at churning out plans and short on implementation, while the political economy languishes in junk status with its leadership behaving as if that does not matter.
Khoza said that despite this barrage of challenges, UKZN leadership needed to pursue a clear vision supported by the administration’s clear policies, which are strictly applied especially when it came to budgeting and financing. He added that such an effort would go a long way towards dealing with the country’s problems.
“Our academic staff must be dedicated to a culture of diligence and excellence – unrelenting in its pursuit.
Our students must deeply appreciate that appropriate education is the key to addressing their own personal challenges, those of the country, the region and the continent. Our research and development, be it in infrastructure, tropical diseases, health care, law, science and technology, commerce and the social sciences, must doggedly chase innovation having regard to its practical relevance,” said the chancellor.
He warned that without the commitment from administrative and academic governance bodies, to adhere to policies and dedicated pursuit of world class academic and research standards, the noble quest to serve South Africa would be an illusion. He called for the pursuit of academic excellence, but stressed the importance of each structure playing its role.
He added that the UKZN community was duty bound to ensure it lived up to its ambition of being a centre of excellence. “We have a duty to reinvent and redefine ourselves into an African University of reference, to reposition ourselves as an institution of higher learning deserving of unconditional respect, continentally and globally. We need to be a quintessential centre of excellence,” he stressed.
According to Khoza, the UKZN community should work exceptionally so that the mere mention of the institution conjures up images of excellence akin to those of the Ivy League Universities in the US.
He concluded by calling on students, lecturers, and the body of academia to be audacious, diligent, dogged, and daring in their pursuit of excellence.
Khoza becomes the fourth UKZN chancellor after Dr Frene Ginwala, Dr Zweli Mkhize and former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. Although appointed last year, his inauguration could not take place owing to Covid-19 restrictions, and he now begins what will be a four-year term as chancellor which will end in 2025.