 Prof Hellicy Ngambi
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Fourth woman appointed as Executive Dean at Unisa
Prof Hellicy Ngambi has been appointed as Executive Dean of Unisa’s College of Economic and Management Sciences. Prof Ngambi is the fourth woman to be appointed as Executive Dean at Unisa. Other women include Dr Maggi Linington (College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences), Prof Rosemary Moeketsi (College of Human Sciences) and Prof Mamokgethi Setati (College of Science, Engineering and Technology). The odd man out, as it were, is Prof Nqosa Mahao of the College of Law.
In terms of race, Unisa’s permanent professional and non-professional staff has shown the greatest increase towards equity since the merger in 2004. In 2004, white professional staff represented 71,2% and African staff 22,4%, with Indians at 3,6% and Coloured staff at 2,8%. In 2008, whites were 60,2%, Indian 3,7%, Coloured still at 2,8% and African at 33,4%.
Instructional and/or research staff statistics show that between 2004 and 2008, African staff grew from 20% to 29%, while white staff in that category declined from 74% to 65%.
Senior instructional and research staff statistics show that between 2004 and 2008, African appointments increased from 7% to 24,4%.
Only 7% of the professors were African in 2004, while in 2008, this rose to 11,4%. African Associate Professors rose from 11% in 2004 to 22,2% in 2008, and Senior Lecturers from 15,5% to 24,4%.
In his speech to Senate earlier this year, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Barney Pityana said: "Employment Equity therefore should never be simply about compliance, important as that might be. Employment equity is designed to bring about the best possible skills, potential, knowledge and creativity, which racial bigotry and gender exploitation obscured for so long. It also speaks to the necessity for any university to be able to draw from the best minds that society can offer and thereby to mirror both the society we live in but also the world we seek to create. I am proud that Unisa has made great strides in this regard, at all levels. We have attracted some gifted members of staff. I am especially proud that we have a critical core of expatriate staff (about 2%) which speaks to the African and international pretensions of our university. I am conscious that there are certain levels where improvements must continue.
I am proud that we have exceeded our targets in affirmative procurement (although, some of these criteria are difficult to meet). We have encouraged the injection of younger black and female academics and professional staff… There is much that is happening for good at our university and there is no room for cynicism.
We have appointed nobody here to be simply a black or a woman member of staff. It is not enough that you are black or a woman. We are all here because we have a duty to advance the academic project of the university whether we are black or white. If we were to create a culture of entitlement or exceptionalism, I believe that we would be short-changing our young black and women academics who, we hope, will remain in academia as a career choice and one of these days, as scholars of repute." |
