UFH Vice-Chancellor and Principal Prof Sakhela Buhlungu; AngloGold Ashanti Vice-President of Sustainability & Closure Business, Kgomotso Tshaka; UFH Deputy VC of Research, Partnerships & Innovation Dr Nthabi Taole-Mjimba; UFH Deputy VC of Teaching & Learning Prof Renuka Vithal; and Senior Vice-President of Group Sustainability at AngloGold Ashanti, Ambassador Baso Sangqu.

The chair is part of UFH’s larger plan to be socially and contextually relevant

A new and innovative research chair for the dairy industry has been established at the University of Fort Hare (UFH), thanks to a generous R12.5 million endowment from AngloGold Ashanti. The plans and future of the project are filled with promises of creating new knowledge and developing needed human capacity.

The chair will be hosted by the university’s Department of Livestock and Pasture Science in the Faculty of Science and Agriculture, and a leader for the chair will soon be appointed. This will oversee the rollout of a new BSc degree in Dairy Science and Technology, and a variety of research projects in the field. In addition, the work will hopefully open the door of opportunity to the establishment of a Faculty of Veterinary Science at the university.

The launch event of the chair was a lavish occasion that highlighted the importance of such a research entity, not only for the university but the dairy industry at large. As Dr Unathi Heshula said during the opening of the event: “There’s a beginning of a snowball effect that’s going to touch not only what we are doing today and generations to come, but also in terms of the institution itself.”

The origins of the chair stem from the work that the university is already doing in the dairy industry, particularly in its partnership with Amadlelo dairy farm. Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Fort Hare, Prof Sakhela Buhlungu, said that the interaction between the dairy farm and students is currently minimal, but holds much potential.

“The chair is a professorship that will then become the hub for research, training and for all sorts of other things will be based at this university,” he said. “After all, we’ve got the track record in science and agriculture, and then we’ve got the dairy farm. It’s a brilliant idea.”

This realisation then led the team to the need for an academic qualification in the country that focuses particularly on dairy science and technology. Beyond this, the university’s location in a key area for dairy farming nationally makes it perfectly suited for great impact in this field of expertise.

Prof Buhlungu said this led the team to seek funding for the chair, challenging themselves and potential partners to come up with R25 million in total. The university put R2.5 million towards this goal, and AngloGold Ashanti joined in with R12.5 million, making the establishment and launch possible.

“It’s here and now, at Fort Hare, and nowhere else in the country,” he said. “This is an idea whose time actually is now and we’re very grateful to all of you.”

Ambassador Baso Sangqu, Senior Vice President for Group Sustainability at AngloGold Ashanti, lauded the university for pioneering this project. “This endowment represents a new dawn for knowledge production to support industrial growth, food security, shared prosperity, inclusivity, socio-economic development, and the upliftment of stakeholders in the dairy sector, including the whole value chain and the rural development of our communities.”

He explained that even though the company no longer runs mining operations in the country, it honours its long legacy of supporting the communities it has historically drawn its workforce from, particularly the Eastern Cape. Sangqu said the university and AngloGold Ashanti shared the purpose of having a positive social impact. “We’re both driven by a societal purpose larger than our own institutions, and we’re underpinned by enduring universal values.”

Simpiwe Somdyala, Chief Executive Officer of Amadlelo Agri, echoed the excitement of what the chair will mean for the industry and province. He joked at the launch that he had considered wearing gumboots with his suit for the occasion to show that the partnership embodied practical as well as academic excellence.

“In countries like Canada, we’ve seen how research chairs have transformed societies and how through breakthrough technologies; we’ve seen new products being developed and new ways of doing things being initiated,” he said. “We’re hoping out of what we’re launching today, we will see that progress.”

Dr Nthabi Taole-Mjimba, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research Partnerships and Innovation at UFH, said the launch is a dream come true. “We are saying, as the University of Fort Hare, we want to remain relevant, especially here in the Eastern Cape, where most people rely on livestock.”

She emphasised that the chair is part of the institution’s larger plan to be a distinctively African university that is socially and contextually relevant. “We at the University of Fort Hare strive to be that African university that looks and tries to bring solutions through whatever we do. Through teaching and learning, research and community engagement, we want to be relevant to the communities that we serve.”

He explained that the industry faces a number of challenges, such as a dearth of products catering to lower-income groups. “We’re very glad to know that such a facility has been established now, and that we can work together with them to overcome all these challenges.”

Group Executive of Digital Transformation and Acting Deputy CEO of Research, Innovation, Impact Support and Advancement at the National Research Foundation (NRF), Dr Gugu Moche, called the chair a well-thought-through initiative. She said it embodies ideals of transformation, impact, excellence and sustainability.

She praised UFH’s innovative way of looking at funding opportunities, offering uniquely African solutions and advancing excellence.  “At the end of the day, we will have not only research outputs, students graduating, and strengthened research capacities, but also a story that begins to talk about impact and transformation.”

The more immediate future of the chair is to appoint a team, solidify the BSc degree offering, and then develop further research and teaching. Sanqu said that he hopes the chair’s research outputs will be applied to communities far beyond the university and that a variety of stakeholders will play a part. “We look forward to seeing the fruits of these collaborations in the years to come, and we can assure you that we will accompany this process. “

Dr Taole-Mjimba emphasised that the future is long and bright, and that the chair is expected to last for many years. ”At the end of the day, we want to see this province changed for the better and to have the impact that one day, when we look back, we’ll see that this is what the University of Fort Hare did, and it has done it in a very meaningful way.”