Malegapuru William Makgoba (born 1952 in Sekhukhune, South Africa) is a leading South African immunologist, physician, public health advocate, academic and former vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In 2013 he was recognised as "a pioneer in higher education transformation", by being awarded the Order of Mapungubwe in Silver.
Academic career 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 black Nuffield Dominion Fellow to 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 went on to become the first senior registrar to fellow expatriate South African and President of Royal College of Physicians of London, Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, in 1983.
He was Reader in Molecular Endocrinology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School London (1990–94) He was the first black South African to be selected to the prestigious National Institute of Health's Fogarty Visiting Programme in the late 1980s.
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 black Chairperson of the MRC Board(1995-1998). He thereafter served as President of the South African Medical Research Council between 1999 and 2002 and was involved in developing South Africa's AIDS strategy and the SA AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
Professor Makgoba joined the former University of Natal as its Vice-Chancellor in 2002, and oversaw its merger with the University of Durban-Westville into the University of KwaZulu-Natal. UKZN is one of the top five research-intensive universities in the country and ranked amongst the top 500 Universities in the World.
During 2007–2008, the university raised 577 million South African rands (about 57 million Euros) in total research funding. Prof. Makgoba has been closely involved with the funding in 2011 of a new 4,000 square metre HIV and tuberculosis research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for TB and HIV (KRITH) at the university's medical school.
Achievements Scientific contributions Working with Drs. Martin Sanders and Stephen Shaw and others at the National Cancer Institute, "were among the first to appreciate the importance of lymphocyte adhesion and these observations have helped shape the evolution of the field as follows:
appreciation of the importance of antigen-nonspecific adhesion to T cell antigen-specific recognition, demonstration that changes in adhesion molecule expression and function are cardinal features of naïve to memory cell differentiation and for co-discovering the first two heterophillic direct intercellular molecular adhesion pathways in biology ". He was instrumental in demonstrating the importance of adhesion molecules in T cell function through a series of what are now regarded as classic publications. Provided the first evidence that isoforms of the adhesion/ signaling molecule (ICAM-1) circulate in plasma and the circulating levels of isoform patterns might vary with inflammation and in different pathological states.
Fellowships and affiliations A former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Witwatersrand and ad hominem professor of molecular Immunology at the University of Witwatersrand's School of Pathology 1996–98, Professor Makgoba is Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London 1990; Founding Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa; Foreign Associate member of the United States National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine 2002; Fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa ad eundem Fellow of Imperial College's Faculty of Medicine 2007 in recognition of contributions to "medical research, international public health and university administration". Professor Makgoba was appointed as member of the National Planning Commission of the Republic of South Africa Professor Makgoba was a member of National Working Group appointed by the late Educational Minister Kadar Asmal in year 2000, that recommended mergers and incorporations in the restructuring of Higher Education system in South Africa. In October 2011 he was elected as the new vice-president for Scientific Planning and Review of the prestigious Paris-based International Council for Science (ICSU). Chosen as chair of the Ministerial Oversight Committee on Transformation in SA Public Universities"Appointment of Professor Malegapuru Makgoba as Chair of the Ministerial Oversight Committee on Transformation in SA Public Universities" , University of KwaZulu-Natal, 13 December 2012.
Awards Science-for-Society Gold Medal of the Academy of Science South Africa in 2002 Gold medal for Outstanding Leadership in Medical Research in 2001, University of the Witwatersrand 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 transformation of Higher Education in South Africa" 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 contribution(s) of international standard and impact to the development of science, in and for South Africa, over an extended period of time", 2012; Makgoba was honoured by President Jacob Zuma with the 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." The eThekwini Living Legends Award was awarded to Professor Malegapuru Makgoba for his critical contribution to the field of medicine. The 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 made in recognition of his exceptional contributions to medical research and is among the highest honours bestowed by the MRC.
Services to committees and boards Chairperson of the Medical Research Council of South Africa, 1994–98; (reappointed) First Secretary-General of the Academy of Science of South Africa, 1996–98; Chairperson of the National Science and Technology Forum, 1995–99; Member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), 1998-2001(reappointed); Member of the Council of Higher Education(CHE), 1998–2000; Member of the Council on Higher Education's Quality Control Council, 1999–2000; Member of the Presidential Advisory Panel on HIV/AIDS, 2000; Member of the founding Board of Directors of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, 1999–2001; Member of the UNAIDS/WHO Vaccine Committee and UNAIDS/WHO HIV/AIDS Prevention Group, 1999–2001; Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Mail and Guardian 2002 to March 2011; Member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation (1998-2000), reappointed 2002; Member of the Board of Directors of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, 1999–2004; Founder member and founding Chairperson of the UNAIDS/WHO African Aids Vaccine Programme (AAVP), 2000–04; Member of the Board of Directors of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (GATBD) 2000–04; Member of the National Working Group appointed by Prof. Kader Asmal; Chairperson of the Health Sciences Review Committee, since 2010-; Member of the National Planning Commission since May 2010; Chairperson of the Transformation Oversight Committee for Public Universities 2013. Chairperson of a 10-member Medical Task Team established to investigate "factors affecting the optimal functioning of the three military hospitals in South Africa" - 2014
Transformation-related debates and controversies Clashes with "inbred elite" at the University of the Witwatersrand Shortly after his appointment as deputy vice chancellor of Wits, Makgoba announced to The Times Higher Education Supplement that it was his intention to replace the university's "dominant eurocentrism", and called the university leadership a "small inbred elite" In response, 13 senior staff compiled a dossier contradicting claims made in his curriculum vitae. Makgoba responded with his own accusations, based on the personal files of the 13, of tax evasion, inconsistent salary scales, nepotism, lack of qualifications and misrepresentation of credentials. Makgoba was temporarily suspended by the university for abusing his position to access the academics' personal files.
Journalist and biographer Mark Gevisser commented that "No intellectual debate defines our times more than that which racked the University of Witwatersrand in 1995" Mahmood Mamdani stated that "Makogba was a victim of the 'racialised power' entrenched at Wits".
In 1997, Makgoba published a book about his experiences at Wits, entitled Mokoko – The Makgoba Affair. In it, he affirmed his commitment to the idea of an African Renaissance and to "transforming the higher education landscape". Guy Martin, professor at the School of Government of the University of the Western Cape, referred to the book as "a personal account of the recent process of transformation occurring at Wits." Martin noted that, while Makgoba was "justifiably proud of his considerable achievements as an African scientist", the force with which he defends his credentials in the book "leads him to sound intellectually pompous and arrogant and utterly self-centered, if not downright egocentric". Martin also questioned Makgoba's "resort to some unorthodox--and, possibly, unethical--methods of struggle", and noted his own "uneasiness in attempting to disentangle objective reality from opinion, and fact from fiction" while reading the book. Deputy President at the time, Thabo Mbeki, wrote: "The publication of this book demonstrates that it is possible to succeed in the struggle for change, despite the continuing exercise of power by powerful forces which owe their dominance to the very antithesis of "liberalism", however defined."
White males as "baboons and bonobos" In 2005, The Mail and Guardian newspaper published an opinion piece by Professor Makgoba entitled "The wrath of the dethroned white male" which compared the behaviour of white South African males in post-Apartheid South Africa to "baboons or bonobos" who had lost their alpha status, and were in need of "treatment and proper African rehabilitation". This article was debated heavily in the press, and provoked a response the following week from Robert Morrell, a professor in the Faculty of Education at UKZN under Makgoba. In that article, Morrell argued that Makgoba's article could rightfully be interpreted as "bullying managerial practice". Later that year, Morrell brought a defamation case against Makgoba, primarily citing claims made about Morrell in an email sent out to staff. Morrell dropped the case three years later, following the death of his wife, and citing concern for his "own health and well-being".
Accusations of stifling academic freedom at UKZN The Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa issued a statement in 2006 in protest against alleged infractions of academic freedom at the University of KwaZulu-Natal under Makgoba.