My bit in starting SA’s Catholic university

On January 18, 1993, I found myself at the University of Fort Hare as deputy vice-chancellor. I was in the unusual position of holding three jobs at the same time. I had taken leave of absence for three years from the University of Zimbabwe; and, by agreement with Fort Hare, the University of Natal was expecting me to take up the post of professor of English from 1994.

St Augustine College, South Africas only Catholic university.

By the time I arrived at Fort Hare, I had this strong feeling that there was a need to have a Catholic university in Southern Africa. So in May 1993 I circulated limited copies of a document entitled Proposal for the Establishment of a Catholic University in Southern Africa.

I sent the document to a number of Catholic individuals in South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe. A number of South African Catholics whom I contacted responded positively to the concept.

With me as convenor, they held two meetings in East London, and constituted what was then called The Planning Group on the Establishment of a Catholic University in Southern Africa (CUSA).

The group included the likes of Professors Derek Henderson and Brian Gaybba from Rhodes University, Professor Sr Edith Raidt from Wits University, Fr (now Archbishop) Buti Tlhagale and a number of others.

Convinced about the importance of the project, the planning group felt that the concept needed to be discussed by a larger group. The result of this was the CUSA symposium held in Johannesburg on January 29, 1994.

The symposium was a turning point for the CUSA project. One of the issues discussed was whether to pursue the idea of a regional university or whether South Africa should go it alone.

The decision was made in a dramatic way. The chairman of the particular session asked those who wanted South Africa to go it alone to leave the room, whereupon everybody briskly walked out, leaving only three participants in the room: two representatives from Zimbabwe and myself. That was the end of CUSA as a regional university.

The next step was for me as convenor of the planning group to address the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC). The bishops were meeting at what was St Peter’s Seminary in Pretoria, and I was driven there by Fr Tlhagale.

The late Archbishop Denis Hurley was then chancellor of the University of Natal, and it seemed to me that the other bishops respected his opinion on the matter; and so the project got the SACBC’s blessing.

Funding was obviously a critical issue with regard to whether the project was going to take off or not. It was in this regard that one day Professor Raidt, a Schoenstatt nun, asked to meet me. She informed me that her bishop had told her that he would secure financial support for the project, provided that she was the leader.

I felt Church politics was at play here. As things developed I found myself eventually resigning from the reconstituted planning committee. At one point I was appointed a member of the International Advisory Committee, but my membership was subsequently withdrawn. To my best knowledge, my name does not feature anywhere in the annals of what came to be called St Augustine College of South Africa.

Of the lessons I have learned from this experience I wish to highlight the following: First and foremost, God calls some of us to be only planters. We should be satisfied that in situations like this, other people will get the glory, while ours is simply to do the will of God by planting the seed, doing the donkey work, and getting the project going.

Second, difficult as it may be at times, we must learn to forgive. It is in this spirit that, as deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Natal, I successfully nominated Prof Raidt for an honorary doctorate of the university.

Third, it seems to me that Church leaders should listen to what Pope Francis calls mercying, referring to Matthew 9:13 where Jesus emphasises the importance of showing mercy.

As we drive good projects like St Augustine College, we should be sensitive to how much we can hurt others by insensitively pushing aside those who have made important contributions to the development of such projects.