Parliament, Friday, 6 November 2020 – The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology notes with appreciation the recent appointment of Professor Puleng LenkaBula as the first female Vice-Chancellor (VC) and Principal of the University of South Africa (Unisa) since its establishment.
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Mr Philly Mapulane said: “We celebrate this milestone as it moves us closer towards addressing gender transformation in the higher education and training sector. Indeed, it took the university 148 years to appoint a female as the VC. This shows that the pace of transformation in the sector, especially at senior management level, is very slow.
“Gender transformation is critical to the development of the country, the African continent and the global community in creating a sustainable world. We congratulate the Unisa Council for taking such a bold step in addressing the under-representation of women in the higher echelons of the university.
“We urge the university council to further expedite transformation in other sectors of the university. Unisa plays a very important role in expanding access to education and training through distance learning to the majority of people on the African continent. Recently, the university has been ranked in international rankings.”
Mr Mapulane added: “The committee looks forward to an engagement with Professor LenkaBula and her management team at its earliest convenience during its oversight responsibility over the university to ensure that the management, through her leadership, discharges its mandate in terms of section 27 of the Higher Education Act, 101 of 1997 as amended. We wish her the best in this formidable task and we urge all university stakeholders to work together with her to collectively take this African university to even greater heights.”
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, MR PHILLY MAPULANE.
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