Some audience members were left disappointed as they did not get time to ask questions after Former Public Protector, Professor Thuli Madonsela, facilitated a Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert (FVZ) discourse café on Monday.
At the talk, Madonsela stressed that leadership should be based on South Africa’s constitution. “Lead to ensure that nobody is left behind but lastly, lead in such a way that the unethical life we had, that brought us to darkness last year, almost bringing us to the brink of despair, is never part of our life going forward,” she said.
Professor Thuli Madonsela addresses audience at LLL Village. PHOTO: Alundrah Sibanda
Before the formal proceedings ended, the discourse cafe allowed a thirty minute question and answer slot in which three audience members got to engage with the reflections Madonsela shared on leadership in the Stellenbosch University context.
Bantu (who did not want to give his surname), an attendee of the event, from the International Office said “Real questions around accountable leadership, real questions around how we address the issue relating to #feesmustfall and the criminalisation and problematising of students who only really have legitimate cause to fight for. She hasn’t really dealt sufficiently with those questions.” He believes that the question and answer session shielded Madonsela from engaging deeply with the audience.
A third year Bsc Forestry student, Maxwell Mlangeni, said that the discourse café was a great opportunity and acknowledged that the aspects left out by the 1994 constitution would have made interesting discursive points at the café. “The constitution was supposed to address such injustices when it was first drafted, not just to talk about the injustices,” he said citing the unlawful taking of land from the Khoisan.
Other attendees, however, said that Madonsela did a great job and made valid, thought provoking points.
Professor Thuli Madonsela delivers talk at the FVZS discourse café. PHOTO: Alundrah Sibamnda
“It was an amazing opportunity, we had a great speaker kicking off our first discourse café and we look forward to more events like this where we bring students and great speakers together so that we can enrich our understanding from different perspectives,” Tonia Overmeyer, Dean of students
“She said some very challenging things about not being a victim and being a leader. I’m not sure how well received that was, but I think we need to take more responsibility for our situations,” Lilian Notayi, student course coordinator at the Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert Institute.
Previous discourse cafes with speakers such as previous Rector of Stellenbosch University, Russell Botman and activist, Lovelyn Nwadeyi allowed ample interaction between the audience and the speaker during the formal proceedings. Madonsela did, however, stay to speak to and take pictures with the audience members who approached her after the event.