“Even the most innovative leaders recognise that their success is dependent on an extensive understanding of global politics, and they strive to continually nourish leadership aspirations through self-empowerment.”
This is how the 2022 Abe Bailey Travel Bursary recipient at the University of Limpopo (UL) captured the essence of the travel bursary, describing it as a life-changing excursion. Sekedi Mabatha, a Master of Agricultural Economics student at UL, says she has always sought to challenge how she perceived her own world. “Applying for this bursary was me tapping into my potential.”
The bursary is awarded to full-time registered students at any South African university, as well as academic staff members with junior lecturer status. The Abe Bailey Bursary is awarded to students who are academically strong and have demonstrated exceptional qualities of leadership and service, with a good track record – not only at a campus level but also in a broader social context.
Juggling both academics and student politics, Mabatha became the first female to lead the University’s Student Representative Council (SRC) in its 63-year history, in 2020. She was recently elected Deputy Chairperson of the South Africa-Sweden University Forum (SASUF), a strategic internationalisation project with 38 partner universities that aims to strengthen research, education, and innovation ties between Sweden and South Africa. The travel bursary is, therefore, according to Mabatha, an excellent opportunity to broaden her leadership skills and potential.
Mabatha asserts that her success in applying for the travel bursary is due not only to her mercurial genius but also to her fervent desire to influence change in every space she is given the opportunity to serve. “I hope that receiving this bursary will inspire others to take that baby step and consider the impact they, too, should be making,” Mabatha says. “I think it’s also important for a South African female from a disadvantaged background to show she can do something so impactful amid drastic changes in the world’s dynamics,” she adds.
She is confident that the trip will provide her with the much-needed multidimensional leadership approaches that will enable her to help South Africa accelerate its development agenda.
She also expressed gratitude for the opportunity and a desire for more women, particularly women from historically disadvantaged universities, to take up space.
“I have noticed that women leaders are frequently expected to be both sweet and muscular, weak and commanding, and as a result of these contradictory expectations, society tends to judge female leaders based on their personal characteristics rather than the quality of their work,” she says.
Founded in 1951, the travel bursary provides an opportunity for selected university students and staff to visit the United Kingdom, with the programme focusing on personal leadership and career development, as well as gaining a new perspective on South Africa’s place in the world, among other objectives.
ABE BAILEY TRAVEL’S SENTIMENTAL VALUE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO
In his congratulatory message to Mabatha, UL’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Mahlo Mokgalong, went down memory lane four decades ago, in 1981, when he became the first UL student to receive the same travel bursary. He reflected on how the trip had been such a bon voyage, setting him off on a leadership journey that culminated in a chief executive role at a historic university with the audacious vision of “Finding solutions for Africa”.
At the time, he was a research assistant in the Department of Zoology and Biology and an MSc (Zoology) student at the then the University of the North (now UL). He credits the Abe Bailey Travel Bursary for instilling a broad sense of leadership in its bursars.
A quick glance at Prof Mokgalong’s profile suggests that there isn’t much he hasn’t achieved in leadership, having risen through the ranks of academia from research assistantship to lectureship, deanship and vice-chancellorship. He was appointed to the vice-chancellorship at UL in 2003, making him the longest-serving vice-chancellor in the country.
He says the travel bursary exposed him to innumerable worldviews and has since developed a leadership style of investing in innovation and empowering the next generation of leaders.
“A leader is an explorer, cutting a path through the jungle in pursuit of bringing about real, lasting change. The Abe Bailey Travel Bursary is one of such initiatives,” Prof Mokgalong added.
When you meet Prof Mokgalong in person, not only his open-door policy changes your mindset of governance but also lets creative thinking and problem-solving thrive within the institution.
The breadth of his experience is also reflected in the string of accolades he has earned in the world of academia, transposing the university from a historically-disadvantaged institution status to a fully comprehensive, research-intensive university aspiring to find solutions to African challenges while lasting as a globally competitive.
By Moses Moreroa