Puleng Lenkabula
On 1 January 2021, Professor Puleng LenkaBula assumed office as the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa). She is the first woman Academic, the first black woman and only the third black person to be appointed as the leader of Unisa in the post-apartheid and democratic South Africa.
An African to the core, and of South Africa and Lesotho descent.
Professor LenkaBula holds a Doctorate in Ethics (Theology and Philosophy) with specialisation in Ethics of the Economy, Ecology and Politics (Social Ethics) from the University of South Africa.
Not only is Professor LenkaBula a highly qualified and respected scholar locally and internationally. She is a published scholar of books and numerous articles in refereed journal articles. She has supervised and continues to supervise graduate students Masters and Doctoral students. She brings to the role extensive and diverse local and international executive management experience in the education, ecumenical, private and civic society sectors, which will pivot in her new role at Unisa.
No stranger to the Unisa family, Professor LenkaBula previously served as Dean of Students and Director in the office of her predecessor. Prior to her current appointment, Professor LenkaBula was Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Student Affairs, and Community Engagement at the University of the Free State, and a Member of the Vice Chancellor’s office and the Dean of Student Affairs at the University of the Witwatersrand and an Academic at Unisa and the University of Toronto, Emmanuel College.
Academic excellence and Unisa’s success as a leading global knowledge, innovative and transformational player are non-negotiable to Professor LenkaBula. She brings with her the competencies of an advanced multidisciplinary academic who excels in engaging with diverse knowledge systems and, leading from that, professions across the range.
Although her forte is leadership in the knowledge of ethics as a discipline, Professor LenkaBula has full recognition of how disciplines, faculties, colleges and knowledge systems intersect in the local, continental and global arena.
Professor LenkaBula’s vision is to ensure that Unisa does not only become a centre of academic excellence, success and opportunities globally, but a lever of, of optimum and impactful knowledge transformations in the global knowledge arena. She is committed to the deployment of knowledge humanity and ecology flourish through knowledge systems.