Professor Zide appointed new VUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal

Vaal University of Technology's community is honoured to announce the appointment of renowned academic and social scientist, Professor Gordon Ndodomzi Zide, as Vice-Chancellor and Principal, with effect from 1 May 2017.

Prof Zide is an esteemed social transformation scholar who is respected in academia worldwide. He brings with him a wealth of experience and an academic career spanning more than three decades in higher education administration and management.

Prof Zide is not new to VUT, as he previously served there as Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for Governance and Organisational Transformation. In 2015, he joined UNISA as Registrar, a position he held for just more than a year. To cement his academic journey, the University of South Africa (UNISA), at which Prof Zide served as its Registrar, appointed him as Professor Emeritus in Anthropology, a discipline that Prof Zide speaks highly of.

Prof Zide matriculated at the Freemantle Boys' High School in Lady Frere and thereon proceeded to Fort Hare University, where he completed BA, BA Hons and an MA Degree in Anthropology. In 1999, the then University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) conferred on him a PhD in Anthropology. Currently, Professor Gordon Ndodomzi Zide is one of a few public anthropologists South Africa has.

His senior management career kicked off when he became the first black Registrar of the Fort Hare University, then as Advisor to the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of NMMU.

Given the breadth and depth of his higher education knowledge, he surely will make an invaluable contribution not only to the Vaal University of Technology, but to the higher education sector as a whole.

A man of many talents, it is clear that Prof Zide will bring in new ideas to the institution, and the VUT community is looking forward to his leadership and direction. The community is also pledging its support to working with him in positioning the institution as well as in driving its transformation agenda.