Adam Habib

Adam Mahomed Habib (born 1965) is a South African academic administrator serving as Vice-Chancellor of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London since 1 January 2021. Previously, he served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa, between 1 June 2013, when the term of his predecessor Loyiso Nongxa ended, and 1 January 2021. He is also a former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Johannesburg. Quotes FeesMustFall was one of the toughest periods of his tenure. It went against the grain of everything in my life. I had to make a really hard choice. I think the choice was perfectly correct. But it was my most difficult choice. Because I am aware that it could have gone wrong so easily. But you know, when you take a hard job, when a difficult choice lands up, you don’t duck it. You must have the courage to make hard choices. Otherwise, don’t take the job. And that was my moment of reckoning in a sense. I’ll be honest with you, if I was confronted with the same choices and the same challenges, I’d do it again. We do not agree with some of the decisions he took during FeesMustFall, and even when we entered office in 2020 we made it very clear that we will not agree with the tendencies of militarising the university and of him calling the police to shoot at us. That is why in 2020 you never had the university being in the news for wrong reasons as it has been for the past few years. Our term has generally been a quiet one with the vice-chancellor. We have fought at times and we have disagreed at times, but we always found common ground. When I see these students cross that stage having achieved the outcome, some under very difficult circumstances, it’s really a butterfly moment. When I hear the ululations from grannies and mothers and fathers when they see the first person in the family cross the stage … and when they get jobs, they earn a salary, when they earn a salary they lift their families out of poverty, you create social mobility, and you create a completely new society. External links Adam Mahomed Habib Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:Philosophers from South Africa Category:Socialists from Africa Category:Revolutionaries Category:Pan-Africanists Category:Academics from South Africa Category:Political scientists from South Africa