Malegapuru William Makgoba (born 1952 in Sekhukhune, South Africa) is a South African immunologist, physician, public health advocate, academic and vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
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Makgoba received an MBChB degree from the University of Natal Medical School in 1976 and a DPhil degree in human immunogenetics from the University of Oxford in 1983.
In 1999 he edited African Renaissance, a book recording the September 1998 Johannesburg conference on the African Renaissance.
He has received many awards and distinctions including the 2002 Science for Society gold medal of the Academy of Science.[1]
Makgoba is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and the Royal Society of South Africa. He is also a foreign associate member of the United States National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine and a fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa.[1]
He is widely respected for publicly opposing South African President Thabo Mbeki's Aids denialism. However his tenure as vice-chancellor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal has been widely seen as a disaster. According to the London Review of Books the University "is in vertiginous decline"[2] The institution has been rocked by a long series of scandals most of which have played out in the media fundamentally damaging the institution's credibility.
Makgoba was appointed the first black deputy (afropolitan) vice-chancellor at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1995 before being suspended for alleged administrative incompetence and falsifying his résumé. He later acknowledged various failings and agreed to step down from his position as Deputy Vice Chancellor in return for a Professorial Research position.
Makgoba left Wits University to join the South African Medical Research Council. He headed the South African Medical Research Council between 1999 and 2002 and was involved in developing South Africa's AIDS strategy and the SA AIDS Vaccine Initiative.[1] While at the Medical Research Council he received strong media and civil society support for publicly opposing the AIDS denialism of the South African President Thabo Mbeki.
He was appointed the principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Natal on 1 September 2002, months after it was announced that the university would merge with the University of Durban-Westville in the future. Many argued that the appointment was not made in accordance with the university regulations. This statement needs supporting evidence as this seems subjective. (afropolitan)
Makgoba continued with his position on the interim council during the merger, which was official on 1 January 2004. His position was confirmed upon the creation of the founding council of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Makgoba immediately began introducing World Bank style reforms [3] to the University. The Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa issued a statement in protest against alleged infractions of academic freedom. He then tried to evict shack dwellers living on the campus. [4]
In 2005 the Mail and Guardian newspaper published an article [5] by Professor Makgoba which compared middle-aged white academics to apes who had lost their alpha status. Later that year the Mercury newspaper reported that Makgoba had threatened to, at the request of the mayor of Durban, bring evidence from the National Intelligence Agency to the Council and to charge academics who had been working with the shack dweller's movement Abahlali baseMjondolo with 'incitement'.[6]
A number of staff members claimed that they had been widely slandered by Makgoba in emails sent to staff and to the media.
Staff were also banned from speaking to the media during a two week strike in February 2006. Strikers wore T-shirts that read 'We Demand Academic Freedom'. [7] Later that year he charged activist academic Fazel Khan, who has worked closely with the shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo and is a key trade union activist on the campus, for 'bringing the university into disrepute' after Khan answered questions put to him by the media after he was airbrushed out of a picture and removed from the text of an article on a film he had made that was printed in the University newsletter.[8]
In late 2006 an exhaustive study commissioned by the University's senate concluded that there was an atmosphere of intimidation and fear on the campus and that there was particular lack of respect for and trust in the integrity of the University's PRO Prof. Dasarath Chetty. Chetty was formally and severely censured by his peers in the South African Sociology Association and in a special editorial in the journal African Sociological Review. Makgoba has stood by Prof. Chetty despite this.
During November 2006, Makgoba defended himself against an attack by the Freedom of Expression Institute that alleged that the freedom of expression of academics at the University was being "eroded."[9]
In the same year he made it clear that UKZN supported Jacob Zuma's bid for the presidency of South Africa. However, Makgoba cannot speak on behalf of hundreds of members of staff and thousands of students who are each entitled to their own political opinions and who were not canvassed before he made this statement.
Makgoba, along with the council chairman, stepped aside from their positions on 28 November 2006, after a scandal emerged involving claims of sexual harassment and victimisation levelled by the dean of the Faculty of Management Studies. Makgoba denied these claims and relinquished his post pending the outcome of an enquiry.[9] As the scandal unfolded staff were again issued an instruction not to speak to the media. Makgoba was subsequently found not guilty and resumed his position as Vice-Chancellor. This verdict was widely accepted as fair.