Memorial Lecture at Rhodes University
The life and times of a giant such as Reverend Dr. Theocritus Simon Ndziweni Gqubule have much to teach us. Kuthiwa: iNyati ibuzwa kwabaphambili – wisdom is sought from the elders – those who have come before us. I am delighted to see that you as the SRC of Rhodes University, are seeking out the wisdom of your elders. Dr Gqubule’s wisdom is invaluable as the very first black PhD from this university, a feat accomplished in 1978. He has set a very high standard for you all to reach and exceed.
Dr Gqubule, like many of his peers born in the late 19th and early 20th century, sought education opportunities as the route out of poverty and humiliation under the colonial joke. Colonialism undermined African indigenous people’s rich heritage of spiritual, cultural and scientific knowledge. Missionaries were the soft power element of the colonial empire that used an iron fist to extract wealth from Africa. Missionaries’ task was to undermine the spiritual beliefs of indigenous people by preaching a gospel that justified white superiority and oppression of the majority by a minority.
Gqubule alongside his contemporaries such as Mandela, Sobukwe, Tambo, Govan Mbeki, William Nkomo, and many others, clawed their way out of systematic humiliation and socio-economic deprivation by embracing education. They developed the intellectual capabilities to imagine different futures and lead with purpose and integrity towards the liberation they yearned for.
Like many of his peers, Ndziweni Gqubule, rose from humble beginnings at Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape, leveraged his rich intellectual endowments to rise to his full potential. Discipline and perseverance were the hallmarks that got him bursaries and scholarships to gain access to the best institutions at home and abroad. He became an excellent teacher lifting others as he rose to the highest levels of academic achievements. He went abroad for a Masters degree at Edinburgh University but returned home to continue to lead. He never stopped expanding the horizons of his mind and spirit.
As young Black Consciousness Movement student activists in the late 1960s at the Natal University Black Section, we were both influenced by, as well as influenced the Federal Theological Seminary (FedSem), where Rev Gqubule had become the first black President in 1967. FedSem was established in 1963 admitting students from different denominations across the racial categories of the time, creating a rich context for broadening the horizons of all to learn to celebrate the richness of our diversity.
The apartheid regime set out to hound out FedSem from Fort Hare, where it was first established. The regime feared the impact of the influence of the BCM and Black Theology that set the students on fire as activists. Rev Gqubule the persistent and courageous leader, moved the FedSem to Umtata. KD Matanzima, the leader of the then so-called independent Transkei, hounded the FedSem out of Umtata at the behest of the apartheid regime. The untiring Rev Gqubule moved the FedSem to Endendale in Pietermaritzburg in 1980. Students and staff had to live in temporarily accommodation including caravans. It was only five years later that Gqubule and his colleagues managed to raise enough money to build a campus, that enabled FedSem to settle in Mbali, Pietermaritzburg.
The FedSem was a symbol of non-racialism and inter-denominational collaboration in a white racist male dominated society. It saw its mission as producing ministers of religion who developed an appreciation of both their own and other traditions, who were aware of the need for involvement in society with an interest in community development with a strong commitment to people in need. It produced excellent church and academic leaders. Notable amongst them being Dr KEM Mgojo, Rev Ngcobo, Rev Finca, Dr S Dwane, Dr Petersen, Most Rev DM Tutu, Bishop M Dandala, Prof. TS Maluleke, and Prof De Gruchy.
The FedSem became a victim of its own success. It was finally closed in 1993. Academic analysts such as Malinga writing a chapter in 1997 for a book by Lombard (1999:223) concluded that:
“The FedSem had become a problem for both the apartheid government and the leadership of the churches: it produced ministers (theologians) who were ungovernable. This was fine during apartheid years, but when it as clear that apartheid was crumbling, the leaders of the churches (most of them white) could not allow this presence in FedSem….. it is a matter of who has power in the churches. This is not to deny that there were some misunderstandings, sometimes quarrels within the FedSem community. But those were not big enough to close the seminary.”
Even after retiring to Uitenhage Dr Gqubule continued to be a shepherd of the communities amongst whom he lived, and a teacher at heart. He mobilised volunteer tutors to offer hundreds of young people after-school and weekend tutoring, thus raising the bar of education achievement in these communities. Schools for the poorest children were able to achieve 100% pass rates with higher grade maths, science and English setting matriculants on promising career paths. He inspired young people to believe in themselves, and to rise to their full potential as he had done in his own life.
What are the lessons to draw from Dr Gqubule and the FedSem for you as young leaders today?
First lesson is that leadership is about courage, resilience and a willingness to break new ground. The journey of leadership starts with leadership of self. Leadership is about the courage to travel into your inner self and face who you really are. What are your strengths? Your weaknesses? How do you make peace with who you are, and to love the inner person that is you? This is critically important because each one of us is a unique human being created to fulfil a purpose uniquely suited to our capabilities. The process of liberating the real you, is a painful and challenging one, but once you succeed to free your human spirit, you become an unstoppable empowered leader. Dr Gqubule liberated himself from the limitations of his humble beginnings, and through excellent teaching at school level, college and university, he enabled many to self-liberate.
Second, leadership is not only about professing ethical values, but practically living an exemplary Ubuntu infused life at the personal, professional, and political levels. Ubuntu is our rich African ancestral philosophy of life – an invaluable heritage. Gqubule’s values-based life was not just that of being a great teacher and a good pastor in the Methodist Church. He lived an ethical Ubuntu values-based life. You need only look at his children: Duma, Pumla, and Thandeka – all successful professionals contributing their enormous talents to enhance the lives of others. Gqubule’s leadership style was marked by ethics, integrity, discipline, excellence in all things, and dogged determination at the personal and professional levels. These characteristics were in full display wherever, and whenever he was involved.
Gqubule did not shy away from activism in politics. He was one of the early champions of Black Theology during the height of the BCM in the 1970s. As the Vice-President, and later President of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in the 1970s to 1980s, at the height of civic mobilisation against brutal racial oppression, he stood his ground and protected those he was leading. He was one of the most active faith-based leaders during the Mass Democratic Movement days, and in support of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the 1980s.
Third lesson stems from the demise of the FedSem under the leadership of his successor, Dr Mgojo. This was a painful occurrence for Dr Gqubule to watch. It was a precursor of things to come that undermined our ability to build on the foundations laid during the struggle for freedom. The dismantling of institutions that were mission critical in achieving our liberation from colonialism and apartheid partly explain many of our major failures to transform our society over the last 30 years.
One of the gravest errors was to interrupt the self-liberation process championed by the BCM, and the mass mobilisation by the UDF. The values of Ubuntu and the solidarity practised then at all levels, were abandoned at the behest of the returning exiles who were keen to seize control of the levers of power in the run-up to the 1994 elections. The dismantling of the UDF demobilised citizens, turning them into passive-aggressive ‘service delivery’ recipients, instead of being citizens with rights and responsibilities to contribute to the building of a strong democracy in which leaders are held accountable.
The healing of the divisions engineered by colonial conquerors, with the apartheid regime as the last act, has yet to be tackled systematically. Racism and sexism are alive and well. Inferiority complexes displayed by black people are in full display in the public, civil society and private sectors. White superiority is also alive and in full bloom. It is fuelled by the failure of successive governments post-1994 to restructure the socio-economic system designed to enrich a few at the expense of many. White privilege persists unabated with a growing sense of entitlement by many white people who believe that their privileges have been earned through their superior capabilities.
The shameful perpetuation of racial categories in the name of Black Economic Empowerment is the worst sign of a colonialised mindset. The structure of our socio-economic system was designed to create inequalities and to protect white privilege. The failure of BEE to transform our inequitable society is everywhere in evidence. More people living in poverty, worse performance of our education and health care systems, and appallingly undignified housing for the poor majority, than in 1994.
BEE has however created fabulously rich few black people who have become stewards of the socio-economic system that continues to exclude the majority from opportunities to become active contributors to their society. Ostentatious consumption of the few newly rich, and state capture that have corrupted every branch of government, civil society organisations, universities and schools, as well as religious institutions, are outcomes of the malaise of our socio-economic system.
Let me hasten to add that the ANC as a post-apartheid government leader since 1994 did not invent state capture. State capture is the invention of colonial governments across the globe. The problem for us is that post-1994 governments did not seek to undo the culture of state capture. Instead they embraced it in the Arms Deal of the 1990s and now it is a cancer across the governance system in our country.
HAVING has become more valued than BEING human living the values of Ubuntu. This is the only way one can explain how a banker could steal R2bn from the VBS Mutual Bank from the savings of the poorest and most vulnerable people – omakhulu. He wanted to be seen as the big shot, and was desperate to endear himself to the powerful recipients such as Jacob Zuma and EFF leaders.
Yours is the generation that can turn-around our fortunes as a nation. You have the numbers as citizens – the age group 15-45 years constitutes no less than 46m in our population of about 62m. If your generation was to self-liberate, educate yourselves as citizens with rights and responsibilities, mobilise a movement to revitalise our democracy, you would fulfil your generational mission. My generation fulfilled its mission to fight for freedom, yours is to ensure that freedom comes alive in everybody’s life by completing the unfinished agenda of socio-economic transformation.
South Africa has everything it needs to be a prosperous non-racial, non-sexist society, infused with the spirit of Ubuntu. What it doesn’t have is leadership of the caliber of Dr Ndziweni Gqubule – self-less and exuding ethical integrity, that is ready to step up.
Look around you. Rini used to be a small, neat town that was segregated. Freedom in 1994 brought down the walls of political segregation but left the socio-economic chasm between town and township intact. Too great a degree of inequality makes human community impossible. Inequality hurts not only poor people but everyone. Our country remains a poster child of things falling apart due to our failure to create a society that lives the values of Ubuntu that do not permit anyone being left behind.
Our ancient ancestors taught us that to be human is to be inextricably inter-connected and interdependent within the web of life. There is no I without the We. Your generation has the opportunity to recapture the spirit of our Constitution that is Ubuntu infused. You need to work together to self-liberate and heal the wounds of divisions of our ugly past and present. This would enable you to build a country where everyone enjoys dignity, and support to develop their talents to the highest levels, and to contribute to the wellbeing of all.
Are you Ready?
Mamphela Ramphele
Co-Founder of ReimagineSA
7/8/2024
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