Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation remarks on the occasion of the farewell function of Professor Tshilidzi Marwala held at the Wanderers Club Illovo
Our guest of honour, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal and Wife: Prof Tshilidzi Marwala & Dr Jabulile Manana, Family and Friends;
Former President Kgalema Motlanthe & Mrs Gugu Motlanthe; UJ Chancellor, Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka;
Minister of Human Settlements, Ms Mmamoloko Kubayi; Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Dr Mpho Phalatse;
Director General and Secretary of Cabinet, Mrs Phindile and Mr Frans Baleni; Chairperson of Council, Ms Xoliswa Kakana;
Vice-Chancellor and Principal (Designate) and wife, Prof Letlhokwa Mpedi and Ms Bessy Mpedi;
Former Chairperson of Council: Mr Mike and Ms Sandy Teke;
Former Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Ihron & Dr Sizeka Rensburg; Vice-Chancellors of other Tertiary Institutions;
Unisa – Prof Puleng Lenkabula & Prof M Maserumele TUT – Prof Tinyiko Maluleke & Mrs Danisa Maluleke Wits – Prof Zeblon Vilakazi
Northwest – Prof Bismark Tyobeka & Mrs Ngeniswa Tyobeka Univen – Dr Bernard Nthambeleni & Mrs Rudzani Nthambeleni
We are here tonight to bid farewell to Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, a leading scientist, scholar, communicator, advocate for the role of science and society and son of South Africa as he embarks on the next journey of his illustrious career.
Prof Marwala, I am glad to be here as the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation to acknowledge your role in our higher education and innovation system, to honour your achievements, and to wish you well in your new leadership role in the United Nations system, as an ambassador for our country and Under-Secretary General of the UN, and as the Vice-Chancellor of the United Nations University.
We are so proud of you for this magnificent achievement and look forward to the role that you will continue to play in global knowledge development.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a country we should be proud to have a black accomplished scholar, an academic administrator and a dedicated researcher who continues to fly the South Africa flag high in the nations of the world. I am confident and hope that Prof Marwala will not completely lose touch with South Africa’s higher education system in his new role.
Prof Marwala has distinguished himself amongst his peers and attained what many, particularly within our black communities, would have thought is insurmountable to a black child, given the South African apartheid history.
He is amongst the most authoritative voices of the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies as a means to grow the South African economy and create jobs for the youth.
Prof Marwala is a leading scientist. he has published 19 books on AI (one was translated into Chinese) and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge and Nanjing Tech University.
He has received more than 45 awards, including the Order of Mapungubwe, and is a board member of Nedbank, a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Deputy Chair of the Presidential Commission on the 4IR.
He has hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and papers, five (5) patents, extensive public writings and inputs, a supervisor of many masters and PhD students, and a leadership pedigree that is somewhat astonishing for such a young person of 51 years.
He is a member of many professional societies and academies, including the Academy of Science of South Africa, the African Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He has worked as a senior professor, a Dean, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor and a Vice- Chancellor. He is an alumnus of Mbilwi Secondary School in Thohoyandou, Case Western University in the USA, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Pretoria. He is globally renowned as an engineer, expert in Artificial Intelligence, and an academic leader.
I would like to highlight some of the areas where I believe his impact has been felt and which have added enormous value to our society and higher education system.
Prof Marwala has written in many areas as an academic, but he has also written in many areas to make a general understanding of complex scientific topics accessible to the broader public and community.
This is really important for a public understanding of science as well as for policy makers and has added significant value to our scientific community.
This output includes a co-authored children’s book, on Artificial Intelligence! This role in making complex scientific topics understandable to society more broadly, including children, is a critical role to be playing in scientific development and understanding.
In addition to this role, his role nationally and continentally in encouraging innovation in South Africa and Africa is so important in encouraging us to do things that we have not thought about doing before, and positioning us so that we can be competitive in this rapidly changing world.
His writings and debates cover such a broad range of issues from language application to industrial and systems design. This has helped to make technology relevant and important to all of us.
The COVID 19 pandemic shocked our education system in many ways, and we saw how much we have to learn and develop. However, with the positive contribution of people like Prof Marwala, we have been able to identify areas where we are able to lead here in South Africa, understand how important technology is to all sectors of society and economy, but particularly in education.
As a scholar and scholarly leader, Prof Marwala’s talents are well recognised. His legacy is continued through his many postgraduate students, and through the impact he has made at the University of Johannesburg as a Dean, DVC and Vice Chancellor.
He has provided strong leadership at the University, bringing stability and growth, significant international partnerships, and teaching excellence.
Prof Marwala continues to impact scientific and other committees and boards beyond higher education. He manages to balance these roles in his very busy life.
As the Rector of the United Nations University and a scholar-diplomat, he is taking on an international leadership role based in Japan, but will be managing an institution which has a presence in 13 institutes across the world. The UNU is a large postgraduate institution, with significant research and teaching activities in carrying out its mission:
“to contribute, through collaborative research and education, to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems of human survival, development, and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations, its Peoples, and Member States”.
The UNU works with leading universities and research institutes across member states and links the UN system with the international community. It also plays a significant role in capacity building, particularly in developing countries.
I know that his experience at the University of Johannesburg in developing thinking around higher education and sustainability, will stand him in good stead in developing this role internationally.
In Prof Marwala’s book ”Leading in the 21st Century: The Call for a New Type of African Leader”, published in 2021, he distilled eleven attributes of leading:
- Understand society, economy, politics and technology;
- Understand leading countries such as the United States and China;
- Read and read widely;
- Be hyper-passionate about the development of society;
- Be educated and be passionate about education;
- Fourth Industrial Revolution Thinking;
- Effective communication: written, spoken and technologic;
- Mathematical thinking;
- Computational thinking;
- Engineering thinking; and
- Understand the grand challenges facing the world.
Prof Marwala has assisted us as South Africans and Africans to understand that: “technology is a driving force for change” (quote from the above book).
Now, as a social scientist, when you look at this list you think, hmm- mathematical, computational and engineering thinking…really?
But what is so compelling about this is the links that he creates between the world of science and the world of the social/the political/the economic.
As we rely more and more on knowledge development, developing our own solutions to global national and continental problems, the importance of linking the worlds of science and policy becomes even more critical.
As he has also said:
“Education, in its entirety, means understanding science and technology as well as human and social sciences”.
This is something very close to my own heart- and I salute you Prof Marwala for the work that you have done and will continue to do to bridge these important leadership skills at a time where scientific knowledge competes with fake news and destructive forces to work against social development and progress.
You emphasise mathematical, computational and engineering thinking as a key component of leadership: that analytical, rational and systems thinking is fundamentally important in dealing with our local and global challenges, and you continue to provide us with practical examples across the spectrum of knowledge in how this is possible.
We will look to you for leadership in this area as you combine diplomacy and knowledge in bringing scholarly work to bear on sustainable policy making across the globe.
I have no doubt that in your role within the UN, your continued role as an academic leader and scholar and writer, we will see you developing more linkages with Africa and South Africa and showing us how we can draw on international networks and support systems to improve our own critical role in global knowledge development here, for local and continental benefit.
I wish you all the best in your new role and be rest assured of our continued support.
Thank you
