PROFILE: Wits vice-chancellor Zeblon Vilakazi armed and battle ready
With all the right credentials, he seems well able to take Wits into the future, even though we’re in the middle of the Covid storm
Just looking at bright-eyed nuclear physicist Zeblon Vilakazi you’d likely never guess how much he is fascinated by war. When he’s not poring over atomic nuclei and waxing lyrical about quantum computing, he likes to unwind with a good book about armed conflict."I’m particularly fond of war history," says Vilakazi. "Diplomacy, and how it fails and causes wars, and how people go back to the table again. I’m fascinated by that. By war strategy as well."That fascination may serve him well as he prepares to take up the role of vice-chancellor (VC) at the University of the Witwatersrand. The institution itself resembled a war zone at the epicentre of the 2015 #FeesMustFall movement, which gave voice to the "missing middle" — students unable to keep up with university fee increases yet ineligible for financial aid.Though the now departing VC, Adam Habib, was in the hot seat at the time, Vilakazi formed part of the management team, having come into Wits as deputy VC for research & postgrad...
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