Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele is an academic and writer of fiction who is the former vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Cape Town.
12 Facts About Njabulo Ndebele
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Njabulo Ndebele married Mpho Kathleen Malebo on 30 July 1971.
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Njabulo Ndebele studied at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, where he was the first recipient of the South African Bursary.
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Njabulo Ndebele was vice-chancellor and principal at the University of Cape Town from July 2000 to June 2008, following tenure as a scholar in residence at the Ford Foundation's headquarters in New York.
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Njabulo Ndebele joined the foundation in September 1998, immediately after a five-year term of office as vice-chancellor and principal of the University of the North in Sovenga, in the then Northern Province.
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An established novelist, Njabulo Ndebele published The Cry of Winnie Mandela in 2004 to critical acclaim.
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Njabulo Ndebele served as president of the Congress of South African Writers for many years.
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Njabulo Ndebele is a key figure in South African higher education.
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Njabulo Ndebele has served as chair of the South African Universities Vice-Chancellors Association from 2002 to 2005, and served on the executive board of the Association of African Universities since 2001.
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Njabulo Ndebele has done public service in South Africa in the areas of broadcasting policy, school curriculum in history, and more recently as chair of a government commission on the development and use of African languages as media of instruction in South African higher education.
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Njabulo Ndebele served as president of the AAU from 2005 to 2009 and was chair of the Southern African Regional Universities Association.
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Njabulo Ndebele holds honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Japan, South Africa and the United States.