By Edwin Naidu
South Africa’s complex education system owes a debt of gratitude to former Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu, the country’s first education chief under democratic rule.
When interviewed on the Durban beachfront in December 1993, Prof. Bengu excitedly shared his vision for an education that served all citizens equally.
Soft-spoken and mild-mannered, he spoke about how, under one banner, education would be the foundation on which the new South Africa would be built.
As a young reporter, I was thrilled to have the first interview with the man President Nelson Mandela chose in 1994 to lead our country’s post-apartheid education transformation. Excitedly, I wrote the story echoing his vision. Prof. Bengu was photographed on the beach.
Sadly, my story made it as a filler in the Sunday Tribune because newspapers in Durban in the early nineties had people who didn’t bother about transformation. They pretended to care but perpetuated the old white boys and girls club. Anyway, media transformation is a story for another day when one can name and shame those white men who, to this day, pat each other on the back as heroes, yet few can truly say they passed the muster.
Despite not delivering on an interview that would have set the country’s education agenda, Bengu was always receptive to me. Through special advisor Thami Mseleku and spokesperson Lincoln Mali, I enjoyed access to the professor while writing for The Star when it was a serious paper of record after leaving the Durban rag where I admit I learned much despite having some myopic souls who were part of my development.
I grew closer to education transformation by writing for the inspiring Karen MacGregor, who edited Higher Education Review, published in the New Nation and The Mercury. She was clear in her commission and understood education, something sorely lacking in education coverage today. I found writing for her a joy. Although it was to be short-lived when the Higher Education Review was discontinued, I was happy to re-engage with MacGregor later at University World News. She gave me a great platform to tell the story of higher education and it brought me into contact often with the minister and officials in the department.
When Prof. Bengu retired in 1999, in Parliament, he did not have to but praised the work of journalists, such as Cornia Pretorius, Primarashni Pillay (Gower) and I, for objectively contributing to telling the story of a transforming system with its many challenges.
Prof. Bengu never got the credit he deserved. But the many men and women he led, along with him, undoubtedly helped lay the foundation for a system still in transition to serve society.
“Today, I woke up to the news of the passing of one of the giants of our education and political history, Professor Sibusiso Bengu. Lincoln Mali conveyed the news to me. Lincoln & I, together with Sis Sheila Sisulu, worked closely with the Prof. as he navigated the challenges of moving the education system from a racially divided apartheid system of 17 different departments of education, racially designated and divided higher education system, & offensive apartheid curricula, to a single non-racial, non-sexist, and rights-based education system,” wrote Mseleku.
Sometime last year, I managed to obtain a phone number for the professor, as I knew he was feeling poorly and I wanted to wish him well. I got through and spoke to Mrs Bengu. She passed the phone to him and said he was able to listen to what I had said.
It was not the ideal conversation, but it was good to acknowledge his contribution to creating a single education system. He once told me that creating a single education system was like turning around a plane from its intended course without crashing.
Hamba Kahle, Prof. Bengu!
Edwin Naidu is the Editor for Inside Education.
INSIDE EDUCATION
