Statement by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation on the passing of Prof. Malusi Marcus Balintulo
I am deeply saddened by the news of the passing away of Professor Malusi Marcus Balintulo, former Vice Chancellor of Walter Sisulu University. I wish to express my condolences to the family, friends and the entire post school education and training sector.
I have known Prof Balintulo since the early 1990s, and he was part of the journey of transformation immediately after 1994, as we sought to destroy the apartheid and colonial legal and structural foundations of our higher education system. Prof Balintulo was the founding Vice-Chancellor of Walter Sisulu University, soon after a number of our universities were merged in the early 2000s. Prof Balintulo was amongst the trail blazers and part our cadre of educators and higher education administrators who contributed significantly towards the transformation of our education system.
Prof Balintulo was a distinguished author, writer, scholar and academic who had published a range of important articles in sociology and education. He studied at, amongst others, the University of Fort-Hare, UNISA and Durham and Warwick, and, in from the latter, he obtained his PhD in Sociology.
I first came across some of Prof Balintulo’s writings in the late 1980’s where I discovered that we also shared one common research area of interest - that of the evolution and role of black universities in our higher education system, including the heroic struggles that took place in those institutions during the apartheid era.
Prof Balintulo had also worked as a lecturer in the Departments of Sociology both in South Africa and internationally including at the University of Fort Hare, the University of the West Indies, the University of Nigeria-Nsukka, the University of Botswana, Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland.
He was an acting Vice Chancellor and Principal at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW), Cape Technikon, and later at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
Due to this illustrious leadership and skill, I had appointed him the chairperson of the Ministerial Review Committee on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in June 2009.
To his family, I offer my words of gratitude for having shared Prof Balintulo with the post school education and training community. I have personally felt privileged to have known and worked with him.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
Enquiries:
Ishmael Mnisi
Cell: 066 037 8859
