Litnet

Malegapuru Makgoba wrote Leadership for transformation since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy: An insider's view.

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Professor Malegapuru Mampokoro (Poki) William Makgoba was born in the village of Schoonoord, Ga-Sekhukhune, in 1952. He is the eldest son of Morithi and Makgoadi.

He attended Makgane Primary School and matriculated at Hwiti High School in 1970, obtaining a first-class pass.

Makgoba received an MBChB degree from the University of Natal Medical School in 1976 with merit in medicine. In 1979, he was named the first African Nuffield Dominion Fellow of the University of Oxford, where he completed his DPhil degree in human immunogenetics in 1983 under Professor Sir Andrew McMichael. The title of his thesis was “Studies on the polymorphism of HLA class II antigens”. He obtained one of the first HLA DQ beta sequences (part of a human histocompatibility gene). Andrew McMichael said of Makgoba in the journal Science (1981), “A good scientist, but with a mission to do something special for his people”.

Working with doctors Martin Sanders and Stephen Shaw and others at the National Cancer Institute, USA, “were among the first to appreciate the importance of lymphocyte adhesion” in T-lymphocyte recognition, and these observations transformed and have helped shape the evolution of the field as follows:

• Appreciation of the importance of antigen-nonspecific adhesionto T cell antigen-specific recognition;
• Demonstration that changes in adhesion molecule expression and function are cardinal features of naïve to memory cell differentiation;
• Co-discovering the first two heterophilicdirect intercellular molecular adhesion pathways in biology. Makgoba was instrumental in demonstrating the importance of adhesion molecules in T cell function through a series of what are now regarded as classic publications; and
• Providing the first evidence that isoforms of the adhesion/signalling molecule (ICAM-1) circulate in plasma and the circulating levels of isoform patterns might vary with inflammation and in different pathological states.

Makgoba was appointed the first black deputy vice-chancellor at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1995.

Makgoba left Wits University to join the South African Medical Research Council. He was appointed the first African chairperson of the MRC Board (1995-1998). He thereafter served as the first African president of the South African Medical Research Council between 1999 and 2002 and led the transformation of the organisation. He was involved in developing South Africa’s AIDS strategy and the SA AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Makgoba was at the helm of the MRC at the height of state-sponsored HIV/AIDS denialism.

Makgoba joined the former University of Natal as its vice-chancellor and principal in 2002, and oversaw its merger with the University of Durban-Westville into the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He was the founding vice-chancellor and principal of UKZN. UKZN is one of the top five research-intensive universities in the country and ranks among the top 500 universities in the world.

Makgoba was appointed the founding Health Ombud of the Republic by Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in 2016. He completed his seven-year term on 31 May 2023. During this period, he investigated the Life Esidimeni tragedy that led to the death of 144 vulnerable mental health users as a consequence of precipitous, reckless, short-sighted and ill-informed political decisions. This tragedy is regarded as the worst example of politically driven human rights violations in post-apartheid South Africa, a country whose Constitution is human rights-based. Rob Behrens, ombudsman and chair of the UK’s Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman wrote, “Your handling of the Life Esidimeni case involving mental health patient safety failures in Gauteng was a brilliant piece of work and a model for all of us to follow. You spoke ‘truth unto power’ and got the key messages across with rigour, scholarship and textual clarity.”

Leadership for transformation since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy: An insider’s view is Makgoba’s second book, after Mokoko: The Makgoba affair – a reflection on transformation, 1997 (Vivlia Publishers).

This book is Makgoba’s reflection of transformation experience in South Africa over 29 years since his return. It was motivated by the downward spiral and crisis in national leadership that characterises South Africa today and the role politics and the media have played in the project. A country of so much hope in the 1994 Mandela era has fallen like a meteorite, rapidly regressing and being ruined through rudderless leadership, corruption, rampant crime and violence, poor governance and poor economic growth, all increasing inequality, unemployment and poverty.

Makgoba is married to the legendary actor, author and model Adv Nakedi Ribane.

• Makgoba was a member of the National Working Group, appointed by the late education minister Kader Asmal in 2000, that recommended mergers and incorporations in the restructuring and transformation of the higher education system in South Africa.
• In October 2005, Makgoba received the Golden Jubilee Award of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa in “recognition of his contribution in the field of immunology and research, and particularly also in transforming research in South Africa while president of the Medical Research Council, and for his role in the transformation of higher education in South Africa”.
• Makgoba was appointed chair of the Ministerial Oversight Committee on Transformation in South African Public Universities.
• Makgoba was appointed as member of the National Planning Commission of the Republic of South Africa.
• Makgoba was bestowed the highest honour by President Jacob Zuma with the National Order of Mapungubwe (Silver) “for his dedication and excellent contribution to the field of science and medicine, locally and internationally; and for his contribution to the building of democracy in South Africa. He is an outstanding academic and a pioneer of transformation in higher education.”

Fellowships and affiliations

Makgoba is:

• Fellow of the Royal College of Physiciansof London (1990);
• Founding member of the Academy of Science of South Africa;
• Foreign associate member of the United States National Academy of Medicine, formerly the “Institute of Medicine”(2002);
• Fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa ad eundem; and
• Fellow of Imperial College’s Faculty of Medicine (2007) in recognition of contributions to “medical research, international public health and university administration”.

In October 2011, he was elected as the new vice-president for Scientific Planning and Review in the prestigious Paris-based International Council for Science (ICSU).

Awards

• Makgoba received Science-for-Society Gold Medal from the Academy of Science South Africa in 2002.
• Makgoba received the Gold Medal for Outstanding Leadership in Medical Research in 2001 from the University of the Witwatersrand.
• In September 2011, Makgoba received the prestigious National Research Foundation of South Africa’s President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his “extraordinary contribution to the development of science”.
• Makgoba was the first recipient of the South African-German Science Award in the category of Top Researcher, “for having made outstanding extraordinary contributions of international standard and impact to the development of science, in and for South Africa, over an extended period of time” (2012).
• The eThekwini Living Legends Award was awarded to Makgoba for his critical contribution to the field of medicine. These awards acknowledge individuals with “outstanding achievements, and those who have demonstrated a sustained and extraordinary contribution in various categories of expertise”.
• Makgoba has been awarded the MRC President’s Award for Exceptional Contributions to Medical Research. The award was in recognition of his exceptional contributions to medical research and is among the highest honours bestowed by the MRC.

For more information on Makgoba’s biography and history, visit the following:

https://en.wikipedia.org>wiki>Malegapuru William Makgoba

www.makgoba.ukzn.ac.za

www.research.assaf.org.za

A century of achievement: South African contributions to global medicine 1890-1990, page 264. Authors: Rochelle Keene and Cedric G Bremner, 2022.