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Dr Matteo Grilli achieves top NRF rating

08 January 2021 | Story Charlene Stanley | Photo Charlene Stanley

Dr Matteo Grilli with his first book in front of the North Block on the Bloemfontein Campus. — Dr Matteo Grilli from the International Studies Group (ISG) became the second ISG scholar in just four years to receive a coveted P-rating from the NRF.

A P-rating (Prestigious Awards) by the National Research Foundation (NRF) is the holy grail for all young researchers at all South African universities and across all disciplines. It is a valuable tool for benchmarking local researchers against the best in the world. But it is hard to come by. Only one or two researchers are normally granted this sought-after standing each year.

Dr Matteo Grilli, a young Italian historian from the International Studies Group (ISG), says he was “pleasantly surprised” when he recently got the nod from the NRF, attributing his P-rating to the “excellent training and support” that he received from the UFS, and specifically the ISG and its head, Prof Ian Phimister.

Unique achievement for ISG

What makes this achievement even more significant, is that the ISG produced another P-rated scholar a mere four years ago (Dr Daniel Spence in 2016).

“For Prof Phimister to produce two P-rated researchers in such a short time is really an unbelievable achievement. I am not aware of any other department at any South African university that could achieve this,” says Dr Glen Taylor, Senior Director: Research Development.

P-rating requirements

The NRF’s P category honours young researchers (normally younger than 35 years) who have held a doctorate or equivalent qualification for less than five years. Researchers in this group are recognised by all or the vast majority of reviewers as having demonstrated the potential to become future international leaders in their field based on exceptional research performance and output from their doctoral and/or early postdoctoral research careers.

UFS becoming a mecca for African studies

Dr Grilli produced his first book, Nkrumaism and African Nationalism: Ghana's Pan-African Foreign Policy in the Age of Decolonisation around two years ago, after being accepted as a postdoc scholar by the ISG in 2015.

This unique research centre was established towards the end of 2012, with the aim of attracting and recruiting high-calibre postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows from all over the world to the UFS.

“Working at the ISG has undoubtedly been the best experience of my life and made me the solid scholar I am today. At the ISG, I found the best working environment you could possibly have in an academic setting, even compared to the Northern Hemisphere,” Dr Grilli says.

He believes the centre’s strength lies in the “exceptional exchange” that researchers have with their peers, allowing them to not only master their research subject but also to learn from other members’ research and methodologies.

“In my view, the ISG is concretely contributing to bringing the centre of African studies back to the African continent,” he enthuses.

Passion for Southern African politics

Dr Grilli specialises in the political history of Ghana and Southern Africa, focusing on transnational histories of African liberation movements, the history of Pan-Africanism, the Cold War and decolonisation in Africa, and the history of European migrations in sub-Saharan Africa (particularly Italian communities in Ghana and the Congo DRC).

He is currently working on a book project about the history of Pan-Africanism, Socialism, and Nationalism in Southern Africa, particularly in Lesotho, eSwatini, and Botswana.

Asked what advice he had for young researchers, he echoes the counsel he received from Prof Phimister at the start of his tenure at the ISG:

“Always aim high. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that there is a lot of competition in the academia, nor that you might be disadvantaged because you work in the Global South. If you work hard, your research will speak for itself and you will be able to publish solid works even in the most prestigious journals of the Northern Hemisphere.”

News Archive

ANC is not a party of the people - Mbeki

2010-08-30

“The unions in this country do not understand the political economy of South Africa. They think that the ANC is the party of the people. The ANC is the party of the black middle class. The fact that the masses vote for it does not mean they control it. The policies of the ANC favour the black middle class and the established businesses. They do not favour the working class.”

This was said by renowned economic and political commentator Mr Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former president Thabo Mbeki, during a guest lecture he recently presented to Economics students of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein.

“You just have to look at the types of houses that the ANC government builds for ordinary South Africans,” he said.

“If you had a party that was a pro-working class party it would not have built these so-called RDP houses that are being built by the ANC government. The unions have all along been under the illusion that the ANC is the government of the working class and (Zwelinzima) Vavi and them are now beginning to realise that this is not the case.

“The public-sector workers are in a special dilemma. They think the ANC is their ally but at the same time they feel they are not getting any benefits out of this alliance. Therefore you are beginning to get a very acrimonious environment emerging between the public-sector unions and the government.”

Regarding the current issue of the Protection of Information Bill and the proposed media tribunal that have brought the media and the government onto a collision course, Mbeki said the ANC government was trying to muzzle the media because it wanted to safeguard corruption within government.

“The question of freedom of information is very closely linked to the rise in corruption in the government,” he said.

“What the politicians are doing is that they are trying to hide that corruption. The media in this country have been playing a very critical role in exposing cases of corruption. That is why Vavi now has bodyguards.”

He said he recently met Vavi, the General Secretary of Cosatu, surrounded by four bodyguards. He said Vavi told him that he was getting death threats because he was opposing corruption in government.

Mbeki said the economic policies of South Africa were the “worst in the world” because they benefited people who were already rich and militated against the emergence of entrepreneurs.

“In fact, one of the serious downsides of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is that it takes people who should normally be entrepreneurs and who should be creating new companies and new jobs, out of that space and just makes them wealthy. BEE has been a disaster because it created this massive economic inequality; it created this class of idle rich who have tons of money but do nothing,” he added.

He said the under-investment in the economy was having dire consequences in terms of unemployment and poverty. He said this, coupled with the growth of consumption that Black Nationalism was driving, was actually driving down the ability of the economy to absorb labour.

“What really lies at the bottom of our economic problems in South Africa is that we have too much of a one-party dominance of our political system. We need more competition in our political system and until we realise the policies of the ANC are not going to change,” he said.

Mbeki’s guest lecture was on the topic: Architects of Poverty: Why African capitalism needs changing.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
30 August 2010

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