The letters by Messrs Dube and Mange (filled with populist half truths and assumptions) invite a response.
The whole truth is administrators of every South African university will give their front teeth to appoint qualified black academics.
Many departments at universities in desperation even have launched capacity-building posts, in which promising but under-qualified black academics are appointed in senior positions and are encouraged to gain the necessary credentials and experience.
So why then, after 20 years, are there still so few black professors?
First it must be acknowledged that qualified black academics are highly sought-after. As soon as they obtain a doctorate, and show competency, they are offered lucrative posts in politics, administration or on the boards of state institutions and companies. Contrary to belief, professors do not earn a huge salary.
Secondly, painful as it may be, we should recognise that many South Africans do not have a culture of learning. Our educational standards (maths and sciences) are among the lowest in the world, and it seems some people still rather would plunder and burn down schools, libraries and clinics than cherish and utilise them. It may be that many South Africans are still poisoned by the false ideology of Communist Socialism, which advocates that after the revolution all will be equal and everything will be for mahala.
This ideology has failed the world over and succeeded only in creating poverty, despair and a new (corrupt) elite. The simple biblical truth is that those who do not work, should not eat (2 Thess 3:10). If you want to achieve anything worthwhile in academics or in life, it will take many years of dedication and hard work.
Finally, in some instances, there should be doubt about an individual’s academic capacity. When I see and read how people simultaneously protest racism and whiteness, I wonder if we are not squandering taxpayers’ money by sending idiots to university. Isn’t a protest against whiteness (or blackness!) in itself racist?
However, the challenge to Messrs Dube and Mange is to stop polarising South Africans and do something constructive by obtaining an education. Who knows, with all the opportunities available to them, in seven years’ time both could be professors. May I suggest history as one of the major subjects? In that way we all will be spared any further letters portraying biased historical ignorance and bigotry.
