As sure as the sun rising in the East, a race row has erupted over the candidates to take over as Vice-Chancellor from Adam Habib at the University of the Witwatersrand according to City Press.
The three candidates to succeed Habib – who is off to the United Kingdom – are Professor Saurabh Sinha, the University of Johannesburg’s deputy vice-chancellor for research and internationalisation; Professor Ruksana Osman, Wits’s deputy vice-chancellor; and deputy vice-chancellor for research and postgraduate affairs Professor Zeblon Vilakazi. Madhi is already set to replace Professor Martin Veller as the Dean of Health Services at the university. The three candidates are due to be interviewed on Thursday this week.
However, the chairperson of the Students’ Representative Council, Thuto Gabaphete, has said that students will not be involved in ‘anti-black’ and ‘anti-progressive’ recruitment processes. He also claimed that Indian men dominated executive positions at Wits.
City Press also said that sources at Wits claimed that Indian people were preferred over black academics under Habib.
Shirona Patel, a spokesperson for the university said Habib was not on the 20-member panel which would select the new vice-chancellor. Habib himself also dismissed the claims saying that he would not respond to ‘crude racism by nativists and others who parade as progressives’.