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Planting seeds of hope – Dr Busi Ntsele’s journey of building a just society

11 December 2024 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Dr Busisiwe Ntsele, a first-generation interdisciplinary scholar with a rich background in law, sociology, and human rights, returned to South Africa this year after completing a joint PhD degree between the University of the Free State (UFS) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA) in the Netherlands. Her mission is clear: to plant seeds of hope and drive transformative change in her community.

“My purpose is to share transformative narratives of change by spreading pockets of hope for young black girls who are often perceived to be at the bottom of the barrel in any given society,” says Dr Ntsele.

Her encounter with gender-based violence and involvement in advocacy and mobilisation of communities to stop gender-based violence sparked her passion for human rights and social justice.

Recognised for her contributions to building a just society, Dr Ntsele was awarded the prestigious Desmond Tutu Fellowship by the National Research Foundation, which supported her in pursuing this dual-degree opportunity. The title of her PhD thesis is A Critical Study of Community Engagement at a South African University.

Walking across the stage on Monday 9 December 2024 to receive her PhD during the UFS December Graduation Ceremonies on the Bloemfontein Campus marked the second time Dr Ntsele has celebrated this achievement in 2024. Earlier this year, in June, she defended her PhD in Amsterdam. In addition to her PhD, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Law (UNESWA), a BA Honours in Industrial Sociology (UJ), and an MA in International Human Rights Law (Wits).

A double-barrel PhD

Speaking about her PhD, Dr Ntsele says the focus of her work was to critically study community engagement in South African universities using the UFS as a case study. “This case study equips us to understand community engagement (CE) and engaged scholarship (ES) within South Africa's higher education context,” she adds.

Her research explored how CE aligns with the UFS vision of supporting social justice, while addressing its broader role in post-apartheid South Africa. Through document analysis, interviews, and observations, she investigated the experiences of community members, students, staff, and policy makers involved in CE programmes.

Completing a joint PhD with four supervisors across two institutions not only exposed her to different skills, experiences, and varying personalities, but also offered a range of benefits. “In my case, it provided access to diverse expertise, research facilities, and methodologies, enriching the academic experience and strengthening innovative, interdisciplinary thinking.” The collaboration expanded her professional networks and connected her with global academic communities.

“As a first-generation student, I was never confident about my capabilities, but such exposure to varied academic systems and cultural perspectives improved my adaptability,” she explained.

“For the first time I saw myself as black, and I was not ashamed of my blackness. Instead, I was determined to put my community on the map by telling stories of hope. This hope inspired me to showcase the rich narratives of communities, highlighting how co-creating solutions alongside them can lead to epistemic justice, decolonisation, and the breaking down of knowledge hierarchy,” she reflects.

Decolonising education

Central to her study is the Meraka community, which beautifully tells the story of students, teachers, and community members who came together to build an indigenous cultural village using traditional methods combined with academic and scientific knowledge. “Meraka is not just a construction project; it’s about building relationships and valuing humility. The Meraka project is a typical example of how we can decolonise education by centring indigenous knowledge and supporting it with scientific research and lived experiences of the community,” she notes.

“By hearing the voices of the people in the community and treating them as equal contributors, my study contributed to an understanding of CE and its potential for co-creative and socially just outcomes in a rapidly evolving South African higher education context,” she states.

In the future, Dr Ntsele plans to pursue postdoctoral research, publish her findings, and advocate for the importance of integrating different forms of knowledge. Her goal is to educate graduates on the value of conducting research that addresses community needs with the community and by the community, emphasising the mutual benefits of such collaborative efforts.

Engaging with communities from start to finish of the project, Dr Ntsele found that universities must recognise the critical role academics play in addressing the invisible power dynamics that hinder engaged scholarship from reaching its full potential. “If universities are to break down institutional cultures, they need to confront normalised power structures and embrace partnerships that are mutually beneficial. They must also start treating communities as equal partners who have their own voice, rather than as blank slates or vulnerable groups in need of empowerment,” says Dr Ntsele.

Also read and listen

Click to view document Meraka Blog

Click to view document Narratives of Change Podcast

Click to view document Common Good Digital story

News Archive

The failure of the law

2004-06-04

Written by Lacea Loader

- Call for the protection of consumers’ and tax payers rights against corporate companies

An expert in commercial law has called for reforms to the Companies Act to protect the rights of consumers and investors.

“Consumers and tax payers are lulled into thinking the law protects them when it definitely does not,” said Prof Dines Gihwala this week during his inaugural lecture at the University of the Free State’s (UFS).

Prof Gihwala, vice-chairperson of the UFS Council, was inaugurated as extraordinary professor in commercial law at the UFS’s Faculty of Law.

He said that consumers, tax payers and shareholders think they can look to the law for an effective curb on the enormous power for ill that big business wields.

“Once the public is involved, the activities of big business must be controlled and regulated. It is the responsibility of the law to oversee and supervise such control and regulation,” said Prof Gihwala.

He said that, when undesirable consequences occur despite laws enacted specifically to prevent such results, it must be fair to suggest that the law has failed.

“The actual perpetrators of the undesirable behaviour seldom pay for it in any sense, not even when criminal conduct is involved. If directors of companies are criminally charged and convicted, the penalty is invariably a fine imposed on the company. So, ironically, it is the money of tax payers that is spent on investigating criminal conduct, formulating charges and ultimately prosecuting the culprits involved in corporate malpractice,” said Prof Gihwala.

According to Prof Gihwala the law continuously fails to hold companies meaningfully accountable to good and honest business values.

“Insider trading is a crime and, although legislation was introduced in 1998 to curb it, not a single successful criminal prosecution has taken place. While the law appears to be offering the public protection against unacceptable business behaviour, it does no such thing – the law cannot act as a deterrent if it is inadequate or not being enforced,” he said.

The government believed it was important to facilitate access to the country’s economic resources by those who had been denied it in the past. The Broad Based Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 (BBEE), is legislation to do just that. “We should be asking ourselves whether it is really possible for an individual, handicapped by the inequities of the past, to compete in the real business world even though the BBEE Act is now part of the law?,” said Prof Gihwala.

Prof Gihwala said that judges prefer to follow precedent instead of taking bold initiative. “Following precedent is safe at a personal level. To do so will elicit no outcry of disapproval and one’s professional reputation is protected. The law needs to evolve and it is the responsibility of the judiciary to see that it happens in an orderly fashion. Courts often take the easy way out, and when the opportunity to be bold and creative presents itself, it is ignored,” he said.

“Perhaps we are expecting too much from the courts. If changes are to be made to the level of protection to the investing public by the law, Parliament must play its proper role. It is desirable for Parliament to be proactive. Those tasked with the responsibility of rewriting our Companies Act should be bold and imaginative. They should remove once and for all those parts of our common law which frustrate the ideals of our Constitution, and in particular those which conflict with the principles of the BBEE Act,” said Prof Gihwala.

According to Prof Gihwala, the following reforms are necessary:

• establishing a unit that is part of the office of the Registrar of Companies to bolster a whole inspectorate in regard to companies’ affairs;
• companies who are liable to pay a fine or fines, should have the right to take action to recover that fine from those responsible for the conduct;
• and serious transgression of the law should allow for imprisonment only – there should be no room for the payment of fines.

Prof Gihwala ended the lecture by saying: “If the opportunity to re-work the Companies Act is not grabbed with both hands, we will witness yet another failure in the law. Even more people will come to believe that the law is stupid and that it has made fools of them. And that would be the worst possible news in our developing democracy, where we are struggling to ensure that the Rule of Law prevails and that every one of us has respect for the law”.

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