Three decades of democratic higher education: progress, challenges and possibilities

Professor Sizwe Mabizela is Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University in Makhanda, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, and a distinguished mathematician. His own life exemplifies the transformative power of education: after studying at the University of Fort Hare during the turbulent final years of apartheid, he received a scholarship through an initiative associated with Archbishop Desmond Tutu to undertake his doctorate at Pennsylvania State University. He subsequently pursued an academic career in mathematics at the University of Cape Town before becoming Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes in 2014. He now leads a university serving one of South Africa’s most disadvantaged regions. Unemployment in the wider Makana municipality has been estimated at approximately 38%, while serious failures in water, electricity and other municipal infrastructure mean that his responsibilities frequently extend well beyond those normally associated with leading a university. He has sought to make Rhodes not simply a university located in Makhanda, but a university genuinely ‘in and of’ its community. Under initiatives he has championed, including the GADRA ‘second-chance’ Matric School and associated mentoring and bridging programmes, the number of learners from local, historically disadvantaged schools gaining entry to Rhodes reportedly rose from only nine in 2012 to 138 in 2022. His commitment is also personal: for many years he has sacrificed part of his own salary to support academically talented students who could not otherwise afford university education.