In 1994, South Africa was a thoroughly untransformed country, run by a white minority government, who created a little paradise for their own while the black majority had to languish in poverty, poor education and crime. Fact.
South Africa needed transformation at all levels of society – from the state and business down through sporting associations, universities, schools and churches. It was unthinkable that the country could progress with the same white appointees heading these institutions.
Two recent examples show us how transformation was understood, implemented and executed at two institutions, with vastly different results: the Springboks and UCT.
At the former, diversity was used as a strength. "Stronger together" is the war cry Siya Kolisi and his team gifted the nation with. At UCT, according to a report into mismanagement and poor governance released last week, the former management saw diversity as a threat and championed monocultural superiority instead.
It cost the university almost two years, millions of rands and significant emotional trauma before the institution could correct the error of its ways.
Let's start with the positive. In 2018, Rassie Erasmus, a white Afrikaner from the Eastern Cape, was brought back from Ireland to coach the Springboks after the national team's disastrous run. Erasmus had the emotional intelligence and insight to appoint Siya Kolisi, a Xhosa man from the Eastern Cape, as Bok captain.
The story of Rassie and Siya should become a Hollywood movie. This wasn't the first time their paths had crossed. Erasmus spotted the youngster at the Stormers while coaching there and immediately recognised his leadership abilities.
Kolisi is not a demand-and-control type of leader. He truly believes in collective leadership and often speaks about how he relied on other senior players in the team to lead with him at different stages of the game.
Rugby, and particularly the Springbok brand, was closely aligned to the apartheid state's kragdadigheid (heavy-handed) when the ANC came to power in 1994. It would have been the easiest thing for the ANC to let go of the symbol, but former president Nelson Mandela knew better.
Today, the Springboks are a multiracial team that preaches strength through diversity all over the globe. Last week's pictures of the World Cup victory tour would have made Madiba smile.
"We come from different backgrounds with different challenges, and we see life very differently, but we share the same strength and diversity, and we work for South Africa," was Kolisi's message to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
"Everything that I do is focused on South Africa, which is what we also do as Springbok players, and we deliver by playing rugby. I believe you can use that amongst the country and everybody that you work with at Parliament… We hope to see this unity continuing going forward. We appreciate and we see you."
I believe Ramaphosa was blushing a bit as Kolisi lectured him on the power of diversity as the head of a Cabinet that only includes four people who are not African.
At the same time as Erasmus and Kolisi's appointment, UCT appointed Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng as vice-chancellor. Phakeng joined UCT in 2017 as deputy vice-chancellor for research and internationalisation.
According to the report by eminent panellists Judges Lex Mpati and Azhar Cachalia (former Supreme Court of Appeal judges), Dr Bernadette Johnson (head of transformation at Wits) and governance expert Dr Trish Hanekom, problems with Phakeng's leadership style arose soon.
She was hostile to any criticism and had poor relationships with her colleagues.
"She appeared to believe that the criticism was aimed at undermining and victimising her because she was a 'small black woman', as she frequently described herself. She often mentioned that she was the only black woman at Bremner (UCT's administrative headquarters), which alienated her colleagues."
She congratulated a black colleague for "taking on a white man". She told colleagues who identified as black that she (Phakeng) was the "only real black person in the executive" because of her kinky hair.
"People who weren't African were made to feel that they were tramping on toes all the time," former deputy chair of council, Debbie Budlender, told the panel.
Phakeng was obsessed with race. She asked a coloured colleague to "protect her from the coloured cabal at UCT". She told the colleague she was a "different black". She shouted at a colleague in a meeting and left her in tears.
Phakeng told the panel, "black women don't cry and that white and coloured women are taught to cry to evoke sympathy". The panel was "taken aback".
Another black colleague was humiliated in front of colleagues and junior staff by Phakeng. Former vice-chancellor Max Price said she displayed traits of narcissism.
Every suggestion was viewed as a personal attack; every piece of criticism was construed as a conspiracy to remove her. And this was only in year one.
Yet, she was appointed vice-chancellor in 2018. By this time, her "poor teamwork and interpersonal relations had become manifest". Price repeatedly warned UCT council chairperson Sipho Pityana against appointing her. But Pityana wanted her.
He had just supported the appointment of a white deputy vice-chancellor in Professor Lis Lange and was attacked for this by another deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, and the Black Academic Caucus.
"This would have played on his mind with the VC's application, as she was the only African candidate, and a female," the panel found. And so, Phakeng was appointed against all logic, not for who she was, but because of what she was.
Even with her appointment, Phakeng had to agree to undergo coaching for her "personality issues", lead the executive team collegially, and for Pityana to "manage her closely".
None of this happened. Phakeng told the council exco she didn't believe in non-racialism. Her racialised comments were experienced "across racial lines". White colleagues feared to contradict her. She told a black colleague the VC "always wins" in power games.
"The most troubling aspect of her leadership was the divisive way she used race and racial difference as a weapon in her interaction with almost everyone in UCT, regardless of their position," the report found.
"Her 'crass' obsession with race, as Pityana described it, became worse, not better, with time. It became increasingly difficult for leaders and staff to attend meetings with her as she brooked no disagreement and caused distress to those affected."
Five years later, having lost numerous senior academics because of Phakeng's abuse and bullying, UCT had to pay her out with a R12-million golden handshake, with severe damage caused to the institution and individuals.
The university is picking up the pieces of a horrible mistake that should have resulted in transformation, but instead brought tragedy.
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