Former UCT vice-chancellor Stuart Saunders: Gravitas, genuineness, integrity and the calm intelligence of a discerning intellect

I received the invitation not long after I was appointed as deputy vice-chancellor at the National University of Lesotho to deliver the graduation address at the UCT graduation ceremony of the Faculties of Art, Fine Art and Architecture. It took place on the summer afternoon of Friday, 9 December 1988.

I accepted the invitation after a great deal of introspection. South Africa was in a deep state of turbulence since the declaration of a state of emergency in 1985. I wondered about the wisdom of going there from my place of safety in Lesotho. Nevertheless, as I was able to travel in and out of South Africa on a Lesotho passport as a naturalised citizen of that country, the desire to take a peep back home was strong. Also, I still held strong reservations about “white'” universities, particularly the “liberal ones” in the country of my birth. In my book they were all a part of apartheid’s institutions. 

I landed in Cape Town on Thursday, the day before the graduation. Mid-morning on the day of the graduation Vice-Chancellor Stuart Saunders and I shook hands as he welcomed me into his office at the Bremner Building on lower campus for a scheduled meeting. Together with the warm handshake, I also registered one of his trademarks: the fatherly smile. It was part of the essence of the dignified presence of authority he projected.

I now know that he was 57. Then, had I known, I would not have thought he looked it. I was 40 and probably looked at it with that self-conscious assertiveness of a Black Consciousness young black man in the corridors of whiteness who was on the lookout for any signs of condescension from a white man. I was uneasy that I detected none. Instead, I sensed in him a kind of reaching out that came across as a thoughtful, even humble, invitation to ponder an issue against the much broader complexities of a country at war with itself.

That’s what I thought I read on his face. Unexpectedly.

Pausing after the preliminary civilities, Dr Saunders, sitting opposite across the light-brown wooden table, picked up a booklet as if he was pondering it. He then carefully turned some pages, his mind searching for the next utterance. When he found the words, it was something to the effect that what he had been reading and at that moment looking at was outstanding writing of deep insight. He went on to say something about how UCT would be greatly enhanced by the presence of an academic who thought and wrote this way.

The words, his face and body language came across as expressing genuine admiration and respect.

What he had in his hands was a copy of the English Academy Review. He was referring to my keynote address, “The English Language and Social Change in South Africa”. I had delivered it at the Jubilee Conference of the English Academy of Southern Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in the spring of September 1986. I recalled the prolonged applause at the end of my delivery on that morning at Wits.

Dr Stuart Saunders, as vice-chancellor of UCT, showed courage and leadership during some of the darkest times in South African history. (Photo: University of Cape Town)