By Professor Mandla Makhanya
This year's celebration of Nelson Mandela International Day were depressingly preceded by the passing on of his youngest child and an activist in her own right, ambassador Zindziswa Mandela, followed by the death of fellow Rivonia Trialist Ntate Andrew Mlangeni. Sadly, Zindzi succumbed to Covid-19.
Against this background, what may we learn from Madiba’s life as we travel through this dark tunnel of Covid-19?
A study of Madiba’s life, particularly his move from the Eastern Cape to Johannesburg in 1941, and joining the liberation struggle in 1942, shows an ability to adapt to new realities. The young Mandela adapted to a life of hard work, and witnessed the hardships of the emerging black working class in the city.
Similarly, like all other sectors of our society, universities have had to adapt to new ways of teaching and learning, research and community engagement. As a colleague at Unisa, Dr Genevieve James, puts it: “With the devastation of the economy, strain on an already weak health-care system, the colossal rise in unemployment, food insecurity, chronic poverty and gender violence among other critical issues, universities are having to deepen their commitment to working with communities to solve local, national and international development challenges exacerbated by Covid-19.”
The second lesson from Madiba’s life is unarguably related to his co-founding of the ANC Youth League in 1944, through to the banning of the liberation movement in 1960. As the late Ntongela Masilela points out in his study of the evolution of the intellectual tradition in the liberation movement, a crisis emerged in the ANC during the early 1940s due to two factors.
First, the emergence of class analysis, challenging the perceived “unreflective nationalist ideology” upheld by some elders of the movement at the time. Second, “the conflict between regionalism and centralisation within the organisation”.
The result was the emergence of “the ideology of African nationalism”, leading to a “renewed enthusiasm for nationalist ideas”, led by Anton Lembede, Oliver Tambo, Mandela and close comrades. They founded the ANC Youth League which, in turn, radicalised the ANC.
Here we learn from Madiba the value of “rising to the occasion” when the situation demands of us to do so, defying age and social class.
As the higher education sector we must, therefore, “rise to the occasion” and answer the crisis of our times, just like Madiba answered that of his time.
Madiba adopted the same attitude to deal with the crisis following the banning of the liberation movement after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre.
The movement did not expect the murderous response of the regime to unarmed protesters. This unpreparedness did not paralyse Madiba and his comrades. They went underground, established an international anti-apartheid network and campaigned to pressure and isolate the apartheid regime.
What we take from this, and the responses of Madiba and his comrades to the crisis, is how not to be paralysed by an unexpected development.We must, like Madiba, respond to the pandemic by exploring approaches and methods we would have never thought about before. In the higher education sector this includes managing our academic, research and community engagement programmes and projects under testing circumstances.
The third lesson from Madiba corresponds with the period 1964 up to 1990. This is when he was in prison, cut off from his family. He took his incarceration alongside his comrades with unparalleled courage. He was single-minded from the first day of the Rivonia Trial until sentencing and uncaring dispatch to Robben Island.
Not only was he single-minded, Madiba was also consistent and resolute in his mission. Once again, these are lessons we ought to take from his book - courage, single-mindedness, resoluteness and consistency in our mission - for our fight against Covid-19 and efforts to keep the mission of universities alive in these trying times.
It is equally important not to lose sight of how this team of freedom fighters exploited the time of isolation to advance their education. Many emerged from “The Island” with qualifications in higher education. From this we learn the lesson that isolation and the lockdown are not a holiday time.
The fourth lesson from Madiba’s life relates to his delicate journey after release from prison in 1990. Faced with a country on the brink of collapse and its recalcitrant rulers on the one hand, and an oppressed and impatient majority on the other, Madiba had to perform a distinguished balancing act that remains rare in history.
The situation presented by Covid-19 requires the “nerves of steel” that Madiba had. The leadership of the country is faced with tough choices of not letting systems collapse, yet on the other hand they must save lives.
As university leaders we have to manage a balance between “saving the academic year” and saving lives. What we learn from Madiba is that we should be resilient during times of stress. We cannot abdicate our roles. Yet we must also accept we will make mistakes, simply because we have never been in this situation before.
As we navigate the storm of Covid-19, we take lessons from the life of Madiba by being adaptive and agile, responsive to the crises in our lives, courageous, remaining single-minded, resolute, consistent in our mission, and balancing competing interests.
Professor Makhanya is the vice-chancellor and principal of the University of South Africa.