PROFILE: Fulu Netswera’s tough task at NWU business school
Delicate tasks that face the new business school head include dealing with differing approaches and implementing transformation while keeping standards high
When Fulu Netswera was first approached to become director of North West University’s (NWU) Graduate School of Business & Government Leadership, he hesitated. The school is based in Potchefstroom, which, like the university, is sometimes perceived as a bastion of Afrikanerdom. "I thought: ‘I’m not going there, it’s a white town’," he recalls. But the university’s headhunters persisted and he was persuaded to take the job in January. "I said I would see how things pan out." As it happens, they’ve panned out quite well. "There’s been no hostility to my presence," he says. "People across the school and university have been very welcoming." That’s just as well, because Netswera has some delicate decisions to make in coming months. One involves transformation. Of the school’s 26 full-time faculty, only two are black. Most of the others are Afrikaners. There’s a similar imbalance among part-time lecturers. Most MBA students are black. He wants to appoint more black full-time academics, bu...
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