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Speech by Premier: Eastern Cape response and Human Resource Strategy Seminar on shape and size
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 EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
SPEECH BY PREMIER STOFILE:
 EASTERN CAPE RESPONSE AND HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY SEMINAR ON SHAPE AND SIZE
 AT RHODES UNIVERSITY  EAST LONDON
ON 17 NOVEMBER 2000



As I understand it, a principle objective of this meeting is to begin to formulate a coherent and creative response to the shape and size 
report. I assume that all of us present have had an opportunity to study the report so I am going to dispense with the formality of 
providing an overview of its origins and objectives. However I will like to begin by stressing that a coherent and creative response to 
effectively transforming the shape and size of higher education in our province will remain illusive and indeed meaningless without a 
reconciliation of very real individual institutional concerns and anxieties with more general current and emergent growth and development 
priorities as we move into the 21st century. This, in a nutshell, constitutes our challenge and collective point of departure at this 
meeting.

Some time ago I read a paper by Julius Nyerere on the philosophy of education in post colonial Africa. In it he drew a distinction or 
tension between educational systems essentially geared to transform people into tools and systems that enable people to become skillful 
users of tools.

In many respects this tension is implicit in the shape and size report. It will seem that the tension also promises to inform our 
experience and ongoing struggle, not simply to transform the institutional landscape, complexion and objective determinations of higher 
education, but also; to infuse within it a subjective propensity that efficiently responds to conjunctural imperatives of the market in an 
increasingly competitive world order. In addition, it must effectively create an institutional culture and climate that enables a 
realization of the artistic, aesthetic and intellectual potential of current and emerging generations of students, citizens and leaders.

We have all come a long way, from different directions, from different intellectual traditions, from poverty and affluence. We have all 
come from institutions that continue to grapple with inherited weaknesses and nurture hard earned competencies. But now I will like to 
believe that we have all converged around a commitment to assist each other overcome our weaknesses and consolidate our strengths.

Everything I have said thus far might sound rather idealistic. But I insist on arguing that to collapse into debates on academic freedom 
and independence versus the ethics of teaching and research that concretely responds to existing and emerging development challenges in the 
province, country and world, has within it an inherent danger of becoming a theatrical distraction. The problems we confront cannot simply 
be resolved by thinking and theorization and, of course, sensuous action without thought is indeed costly and dangerous. The key debates 
are in fact around institutional restructuring, in terms of spatial and financial considerations primarily.

At this stage I will like us all to step back and undertake a calm and dispassionate analysis of some of the key implications of the shape 
and size report for institutions of higher learning in the province. Without any intention of pre-empting specific responses to the 
document or unilaterally prescribing a way forward, I will like to share my understanding of some of the concrete challenges that confront 
the transformation of the sector in the province. In my view the challenges are usefully systematized in terms of principle challenges, 
structural and functional challenges, specific institutional challenges and of course, the fundamental challenge of crafting an overarching 
provincial framework and mechanism to guide and support collectively agreed development trajectories of particular institutions of higher 
education in the province. I will now attempt to draw attention to critical issues in each of the above categories.

Principal Challenges

In my view the principal challenge is best understood in terms of the tension between the objective, inherited institutional landscape and 
configuration of institutions of higher education and their physical and financial resource endowments on the one hand, and, the separated 
but related subjective ideological, theoretical and intellectual competencies on the other. We are all well aware that the general picture 
is one of uneven development that is a function of our historical legacy. The question that confronts us as individuals, institutions and a 
province is whether we continue to remain hostages of a historical legacy or do we consciously and collectively choose to become agents of 
historical currency, growth and development. Do we continue to hold the view of universities as castles of academic excellence divorced 
from the disquieting noise of poverty and underdevelopment in our towns and countryside or do we earnestly begin to collectively arm our 
people both theoretically and practically to improve the quality of life. In addition to the need for a fundamental change of mindset that 
begins to sincerely speak to these challenges, what is required is a collectively agreed to vision for the higher education sector that 
concretely addresses the requirements of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy. Furthermore, this requires to be complemented by a 
commitment to merge and if necessary, re-deploy existing competencies and capacities in a manner that more effectively and efficiently 
respond to concrete spatial, demographic and socio-economic realities in the province.

Structural and Functional Challenges

A useful starting point for an analysis of structural and functional challenges is a simple acknowledgement that the existing configuration 
of higher education institutions is neither effective, efficient nor sustainable (especially in the spatial sense). At the same time a 
sensitivity is needed toward the response from Eastern Cape Universities to the Size and Shape Report, which has been rejected by many 
quarters.

In my view, to support a Darwinian approach to institutional restructuring is simply an abdication of historical responsibility, a symptom 
of academic mediocrity and devoid of any defensible ethical basis. Furthermore, the emerging configuration can not be allowed to be 
dictated to simply by the imperatives of the market, or government or the subjective interests of single institutions.

Even in the absence of a provincially agreed architecture for higher education in the Eastern Cape, few will disagree that what is required 
is a more efficient system that arrives at an effective resolution of tensions between:-

* Core and peripheral competencies.
* Access and Cost,
* Massification and Quality,
* Spatial Location and Spatial relevance,
* Teaching and Research,
* Financial capacity, System maintenance and Innovation, and,
* Labour market requirements and Institutional capacity.

I have been advised that all of the above and other relevant variables can be weighted and ranked with a view to arrive at a more rational 
projection of the institutional architecture of higher education in the province.

Institutional Challenges

I am aware that a number of institutions represented here are in a state of distress. This distress, not uncommon to historically 
disadvantaged higher education institutions in the country more generally, has a tendency to express itself in the form of financial 
crisis. However, in many respects, the distress has deeper roots and can be located in disjunctures between university councils, top 
management, administration and competition between faculties. These problems are further compounded in both the wealthier and the less 
resourced universities by a lack of commitment, vision, direction and myopic planning. What is required as a matter of urgency are 
transparent stabilization strategies and time frames within a more supportive and cooperative provincial and national environment. This 
point cannot be over emphasized. At risk is the entire transformation process that can potentially be derailed by a domino effect of 
student and worker unrest spilling over and destabilizing currently stable institutions. As such we all have a responsibility of assisting 
each other and creating inclusive and effective environments for conflict resolution and problem solving. Looking forward, the challenge of 
institution restructuring not only requires a collectively agreed provincial strategy but also a high level humility, commitment and 
discipline.

A Provincial Framework and Mechanism for Institutional Restructuring

Implicit in much I have said thus far are basic building blocs for a provincial framework and mechanism to reach agreement on and craft an 
appropriate architecture for higher education in the province.

In a nutshell the framework requires to be guided by the principles of democracy, inclusiveness and transparency. Without a subscription to 
these basic principles, neither the objective of stabilizing existing institutions in distress nor formulating a provincially agreed vision 
for institutional restructuring is likely to be successful.

Furthermore the framework and vision will remain illusive in the absence of clearly defined development trajectories for individual 
institutions in the Eastern Cape. This calls for the rapid formulation of a provincial strategy based on a concrete empirical analysis of 
concrete conditions in the Eastern Cape. It also calls for a clear set of incentives and sanctions to drive forward the process.

To conclude, and without any intention of preempting decision-making on a mechanism to drive forward the restructuring, I suggest that 
ideas in this regard be assembled and submitted to our provincial equivalent of NEDLAC, the Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative 
Council for consideration and feedback.

Thank You.

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