Newly elected chancellor of Nelson Mandela University Naledi Pandor called on society to “make good trouble” as she officially assumed the role during an installation ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.
Pandor joins a line of chancellors that includes Judge Nambitha Dambuza appointed in 2024, Sibongile Muthwa appointed in 2017 and Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi who recently served until 2026.
Opening her address Pandor reflected on her return to academia saying: “It is a welcome pleasure to return to the education sector and to have the opportunity to emerse myself in what I call the sane cooling embrace of intellectual rigor.”
She also reflected on the institution’s origins noting the history which bestows the university’s legacy.
“This university came into being in the period in which I served as minister of education in 2004 to 2009. The university bears the name of the humble but yet iconic President Nelson Mandela,” said Pandor.
Drawing on the legacy of Nelson Mandela, Pandor emphasised the importance of principled activism.
“President Mandela is renowned by many for being a leader who called on all people to make every effort to be people who make good trouble. He was referring to us to activate our good conscious to make good trouble by contributing to changing the negative conditions of millions across the world,” said Pandor.
Pandor said Mandela believed in “good trouble” for change.
“He believed that the condition of harm experienced by many should persuade us to make good trouble for change. There is a distinction between good trouble and bad trouble . Good trouble is to shake up for good outcomes and bad trouble is to cause a nuisance. President Mandela wanted people who make good trouble,” said Pandor.
Pandor linked this idea to global solidarity efforts, particularly during apartheid.
“It was this commitment to making good trouble that caused so many across the world to actively contribute to international solidarity by joining our struggle against apartheid. People acted not because it was of benefit to them but due to their concern for humanity and the innocent who suffer harm from autocratic states that seek to oppress or dominate other nations or communities. We are happy that today the catastrophe that we were warned about yesterday has not occurred, and at least today the guns are silent, so it’s great that we celebrate that,” said Pandor.
Turning to current global tensions, she warned against instability and conflict.
“We want the guns to be silent forever. Mandela would surely have agreed with all of us here that we are living in a deeply troubled geopolitical environment full of confused leaders who seek to make bad trouble and impose malevolent unipolarity on a weakened global community,” said Pandor.
She raised concerns about threats to higher education globally.
“The ideological dominance of might is right, illustrated primarily by the United States of America, is a worrying and significant threat to us in higher education. All of you are aware that in the genocide against Gaza, all universities in Gaza were bombed, and in the current Israel-American war, which has a temporary ceasefire, against Iran, universities are getting bombed,” said Pandor.
Pandor warned that developments in the United States threaten academic freedom and urged collective action to “make good trouble” in defense of institutional integrity and core academic values.
“In addition, an America that seeks to erase equality, to erase efforts in gender equality to erase initiative to respond to the legacies of slavery and erase discrimination. Universities are being denied research findings, are being told what to teach, are being told who they may admit. All of these are anti-ethical to the essence of a university. If we live in the notion that whatever happens in global affairs will not harm us, I believe we need to be wary. That is why I believe we must join together and make good trouble to protect our institutions and to protect our ideals,” said Pandor.
“This increasingly worrying threat to academic freedom and free expression is a development that should cause us at Nelson Mandela University to set our perspectives on these fast evolving developments and to assert our abiding commitment to freedom, justice and the development of knowledge through untrammeled scientific enquiry,” she said.
Pandor also highlighted what she described as Africa’s diminished global voice.
“One of the most worrying observations of the ‘poly-crisis’ of the current period is the near silence and invisibility of the south and of Africa in particular. The seeming absence of the south in articulating a progressive humane global agenda must encourage our university to increase efforts at achieving Africa-wide academic excellence and enhance African investment in leadership, research and innovation,” she said.
Pandor said progress in key sectors would give Africa the confidence to assert its voice globally while failure would leave it sidelined in intellectual discourse.
“If we do well in these sectors we will develop the confidence to speak up, if we do not proceed in them we will always hide our views or hide our perspectives because we do not enjoy dominance in any aspect of intellectual life,” she said.
She said our efforts should be in creating a prosperous Africa.
She warned that failure to create opportunities on the continent could result in a loss of talent.
“We should not be complacent about Africa lagging behind. The talent we nurture in these great walls is going to be wasted if we fail to develop our continent into an effective participant in all international affairs. All young, bright minds we have here, if we do not create sufficient challenging opportunities for them in Africa, they will desert us and create progress elsewhere. We want them to contribute here, and so we must change our continent so that they know there is opportunity for excellence and quality right here,” she said.
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