“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter. Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger finds a woman. Always.”
This is one of the most profound lines in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. The statement is made by the grandmother of the protagonist, Mariam, as a way of preparing her for a life of patriarchy and abuse that characterised her own existence and that of millions of women in Afghanistan. I have been reflecting on it in light of the ongoing attacks on Unisa vice-chancellor, Prof Puleng LenkaBula.
LenkaBula was appointed vice-chancellor and principal of the biggest university in Africa a-year-and-a-half ago. The road to her appointment was filled with patriarchal venom that has since come to define her tenure at the university.
Shortly after she was short-listed for the position, Bantu Holomisa, a member of parliament, wrote a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa lamenting “interference” in the appointment process.
Holomisa went so far as to question LenkaBula’s qualifications and to state that she was a stooge of the minister of higher education.
None of these had any validity. LenkaBula is an internationally renowned professor of ethics who has served a number of universities in different capacities. Immediately prior to her appointment at Unisa, she was the vice-rector for institutional change, student affairs and community engagement at the University of Free State – a position she had held since 2018.
Prior to that, she was the dean of students at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a board member of local and international ecumenical and academic formations. There can be no doubt that she is vice-chancellor material.
Since joining Unisa, LenkaBula has been a subject of numerous attacks by those who, like Holomisa, do not believe that a black woman is capable of leading one of the world’s mega universities. Some of these have been downright criminal – such as the recent protest by students at her residence.
The unwillingness of our society to call out the constant regressive actions of students, for fear of being labelled “counter-revolutionary”, has led to a situation where students think it is okay to go and intimidate a woman who lives with her children, in her own home. This is not done to male vice-chancellors.
A few days ago, newspapers ran with the story about the cost of renovations to LenkaBula’s residence, which amounted to just over R2m. Dr Blade Nzimande was asked to account for this in parliament. That accountability is crucial [and] non-negotiable. But when accountability masks attack, it ceases to be ethical.
The reporting around the expenditure on the house present LenkaBula as someone extravagant who wasted the university’s money. The reality is that no vice-chancellor is ever involved in the renovation process – that is the work of the operations department since the VC’s residence is the property of the institution.
The budget for the renovations was approved by the Unisa council and while the renovations went over it, it was in no way her doing. In fact, the first person to raise alarm about these costs was LenkaBula upon going on a site visit of the residence, going as far as to demand that all quotations be stopped and reviewed. This was communicated by the university.
The attacks on LenkaBula are not innocent. Those fighting her are trying everything possible to discredit her and with each failed attempt, their actions have become more desperate. The intention is to paint a narrative of her as someone unfit to lead Unisa.
Women in this country dare not sit back and allow this to happen because this is not about her, it is about all of us.
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