First Things First: Summoning History to the Mission of Healing South African Higher Education

First Things First: Summoning History to the Mission of Healing South African Higher Education

Motlalepula Grace Phalwane & Moagisi Edwin Kagiso Seleka

Issue: Vol.6 No.7 Article 16 pp.1145 – 1159
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20256716 | Published online 19th June, 2025

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ABSTRACT

The South African Higher Education landscape is fraught with incidents that require urgent attention, if Higher Education is to be restored to its rightful place in the reinvention and preservation of Africa’s last country to obtain liberation. This study, therefore, provides a bird’s eye view on the history pertinent to diagnosis and healing of this pivotal sector of the country’s educational system. Data for the study were generated through the library and search engines for literature on this field of study. While describing the reality about this sector of education, the authors are of the firm belief that the study will contribute to a deeper understanding of the aetiology necessary to ameliorating the effectiveness and relevance of the country’s higher education system. The findings revealed, among others, the disjuncture between the medieval origins of the modern university and the current state of the South African University with its inevitable neocolonial stage of social change, which is compounded by the historical and current societal problems. The study recommends a more existential and corporate solution to the ills of this education sector, with a renewed sense of patriotism and a conscious existential pursuit of knowledge. It proposes an altered perception and a deliberate reversal of the mental destruction that was cultivated to promote the socially stratified society, as well as a balance between neoliberalism and the love of knowledge for its sake. It is also hoped that the study will raise awareness towards the neglected aspects of social reconstruction caused by long-lasting social conflict.

Keywords: Neoliberalism, state ideological apparatus, imperialism, higher education

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ABOUT AUTHOR(S)

Motlalepula Grace Phalwane, is a Dentist and an Educationalist at the Community Dentistry Department of the School of Dentistry at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University from 2010 to date. Her qualifications include Comprehensive Nursing Diploma at Baragwanath Nursing College and a PG Dip in Community Dentistry in 2011 both at the University of Limpopo, a PG Dip in Health Professions Education at UCT, FAIMER-SAFRI Fellowship in HPE at Keele University (UK), a Certificate in HPE at SMU, an MPhil degree at the University of Stellenbosch. Her work experience includes professional Nursing at Paul Kruger memorial hospital, and a Nursing tutor at the Healthnicon Nursing College in Pretoria, Community Service as a Dentist at the South African Military Health Services. She has presented and co-presented her research work at several conferences, both nationally and internationally.

Moagisi Edwin Seleka, is the Head of Department-Academy Literacy and Science Communication at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (2016 to date). He obtained his Honour’s and Master’s degrees, BA in Education and Ph.D. in English at the University of the Northwest -Mafikeng Campus), a certificate in Advanced Academic Literacy from the University of Syracuse (New York) and another Master’s in TESOL at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and will be completing a mini dissertation for a Master’s degree in Higher education with the University of KwaZulu Natal. His experience with the teaching environment dates to 1989 when he started teaching as a private teacher until 2008 when he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship upon which he obtained the two overseas qualifications mentioned above. He taught among others, Literature, English Didactics and Academic Literacy from 2006 to date, He currently teach Academic Skills in Oral Health and MBChB programs.

TO CITE ARTICLE

Phalwane, Motlalepula Grace, and Moagisi Edwin Kagiso Seleka. “The Role Played by Nicknames and Totems in the Development of Tshivenḓa Surnames,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 6, no.7 (2025): 1145 – 1159. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20256716