in January 2017, the mood around the institution and the sector at the time was quite gloomy. Fort Hare was a hopeless institution.
Academics were making personal earnings from research subsidies that were meant to be reinvested back into the institution. For example, when a student completes a master’s degree at Fort Hare, the supervisor received R20 000. For a doctorate — R60 000. These amounts did not get paid to their research accounts. They were being paid straight to their personal bank accounts.
This is an institution that Buhlungu inherited in January 2017, and believe me, Fort Hare is but just one example of many rural universities in our country that are also undergoing the exact same predicament today. He intended to make Fort Hare become an institution that houses the most excellent class of students and professors who can compete with anyone around the globe and produce science that will serve our region and the world. This world-class science, he said, must be rooted in our unique African philosophies, languages, histories and innovations.
But many people close to him and his staff at Fort Hare, those who are fully committed to the project, have commented countless times that the work of fixing an institution like Fort Hare is not easy. It is tiring, toxic, depressing and life-threatening.