Prof Jonathan David Jansen is the Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State. The instution he leads is the one that gained added notoriety when white students forced black cleaners to eat urine-soaked food.
Back to Prof Jansen. He is often descibed as an internationally renown education academic. He boasts honorary doctorates from Cleveland State University (United States) and the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom). He has also published thoughtful books on a variety of subjects, and writes a regular column for an internet news portal.
Among crucial responsibilities he has been trusted with to date include chairing the Ministerial Committee on Further Education and Training, and School Evaluation and Teacher Appraisal.
Prof Jansen, I thought, was a serious person who had to be treated reciprocally. I lost my professor when I read and heard his strident views on the state of the nation - his indescriminate attacks on the Ministers of Higher Education and Basic Education.
It became clear that the Professor was set on the road of destruction.
I took this meander on Prof Jansen to come to his most recent theatrics when delivering a motivational talk to high school pupils in Uitenhage. During his talk he cautioned his audience of high school pupils against being like "President Jacob Zuma and incompetent government officials."
He went on to say: "Guys I know it is difficult being being you, because you live in a country where the most important people in the country do not know how to keep their zips up."
If this is the best our Professors like Jansen can produce, then the Almighty must just come down and redeem us from this academic idiocy - we surely deserve much better than this destructive vitriol.
I from time to time get my moments of greatness when I hit the high school motivational talk circuit ahead of final examinations. I have an obligation to my country to use the forthcoming platforms to caution learners against being like Prof Jansen - against being liquidators of our country and its leadership.
I agree with the Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba] when it says: "The professor does not only insult the president but goes further to belittle our glorious liberation movement, the African National Congress."
I guess we have to look elsewhere for the academic leadership that we so need to take this country to a higher level.
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