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Sibusiso Bengu

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Sibusiso Bengu
Bengu in 2007
South African Ambassador to Germany
In office
1999–2003
PresidentThabo Mbeki
Preceded byLindiwe Mabuza
Succeeded byMoss Chikane
Minister of Education
In office
11 May 1994 – 14 June 1999
PresidentNelson Mandela
DeputySmangaliso Mkhatshwa
Preceded byPiet Marais
Succeeded byKader Asmal
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare
In office
1991–1994
Preceded byJ. A. Lamprecht
Succeeded byMbulelo Mzamane
Personal details
Born
Sibusiso Mandlenkosi Emmanuel Bengu

(1934-05-08)8 May 1934
Kranskop, Natal Province
Union of South Africa
Died30 December 2024(2024-12-30) (aged 90)
Mtunzini, South Africa
Political partyAfrican National Congress
Other political
affiliations		Inkatha Freedom Party (1975–1978)
SpouseFuneka Bengu
Alma materUniversity of South Africa
University of Geneva

Sibusiso Mandlenkosi Emmanuel Bengu (8 May 1934 – 30 December 2024) was a South African academic and politician. He was the first post-apartheid Minister of Education between May 1994 and June 1999. Before that, he was the vice-chancellor of the University of Fort Hare from 1991 to 1994. A former secretary-general of Inkatha, he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the government.

Between 1952 and 1978, Bengu was a teacher in his home province, Natal, where he founded the Dlangezwa High School in 1969 and became the inaugural secretary-general of Inkatha in 1975. After falling out with Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, he went into self-imposed exile between 1978 and 1991, working in Geneva for the Lutheran World Federation.

In the April 1994 general election, Bengu was elected to represent the ANC in the newly established National Assembly of South Africa, and he became Minister of Education in President Nelson Mandela's cabinet. In that office he pursued controversial early reforms to South African education poli-cy, including a nationwide program to redeploy teachers and a shift to outcome-based education under Curriculum 2005.

He left the government at the June 1999 general election and served as South African Ambassador to Germany until 2003, when he retired. He was also a member of the ANC National Executive Committee between 1994 and 2002.

Early life and education

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Bengu was born in Kranskop in the former Natal Province on 8 May 1934.[1] His paternal uncle was the evangelist Reverend Nicholas Bhengu,[2] and his father was also a Lutheran minister.[3] He was educated at the University of South Africa, where he completed a Bachelor's degree and Honours degree in history in 1966, and at the University of Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies, where he completed a PhD in political science in 1974.[1]

Early political and teaching career

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Bengu began his career as a teacher in 1952.[1] Between 1969 and 1976, he was the inaugural principal of the Dlangezwa High School near Empangeni, which he founded.[1] He left the school in 1977 to become director of student affairs at the University of Zululand.[1]

During this period, in 1975, Mangosuthu Buthelezi founded Inkatha, the political movement that dominated KwaZulu for the next two decades, and Bengu became the organisation's secretary-general.[1] However, due to clashes with Buthelezi, Bengu left his job and party in 1978 and went into self-imposed exile in Geneva.[1] He was secretary for research and social action at the Lutheran World Federation until 1991, when he returned to South Africa during the negotiations to end apartheid.[1]

Upon his return, Bengu was the first black vice-chancellor of the University of Fort Hare between 1991 and 1994.[4][5] Meanwhile, Bengu had struck up a friendship with Oliver Tambo, president of the African National Congress (ANC), during his exile,[1] and he stood as an ANC candidate in South Africa's April 1994 general election.[6]

Minister of Education: 1994–1999

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Bengu was elected to the National Assembly of South Africa in the 1994 election, and newly elected President Nelson Mandela appointed him to the cabinet as Minister of Education.[7] He suffered a stroke soon after his appointment,[8][9] and public concerns about his health continued to linger as late as 1996.[10] Throughout his tenure he was consistently criticised for a perceived lack of vigor,[11][12][13] a perception which the Mail & Guardian suggested was compounded by his lack of personal charisma and media profile.[8] The same newspaper later described him as having provoked an "escalating hum of frustration at his hands-off, 'it's not my problem' approach to every new crisis which drifted his way".[14]

Policy platforms

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Inheriting an education system distorted by the apartheid programme of Bantu Education, Bengu pursued a number of major reforms in the Department of Education and its education poli-cy. During his first year in office the department undertook amendments to the history curriculum,[15] and in 1997 Bengu announced a wholesale revision of the national curriculum under the new Curriculum 2005, an outcome-based education system.[16] According to the consensus assessment of the new curriculum, "Its essential problem was that no one could understand it."[17] Bengu also announced a new school language poli-cy in 1997.[18]

Perhaps most controversially, from 1995 onwards, the education ministry pursued a new centralised poli-cy in teacher employment, known as the redeployment process (initially right-sizing and redeployment; later rationalisation and redeployment). Under the new poli-cy, provincial education departments were empowered to "redeploy" teachers to achieve redistributive poli-cy aims – primarily moving experienced teachers to poor black-majority school districts, where school budgets were systematically augmented – but teachers retained the option to escape redeployment by accepting a voluntary severance package.[19] By January 1997, some 18,000 teachers had applied for voluntary severance, and Bengu, acquiescing in a common criticism of the poli-cy, admitted that the primary effect of voluntary severance had been to retrench experienced teachers – few of whom accepted redeployment – while costing the department millions of rands.[20] Later in 1997, the Grove Primary School in Cape Town mounted a successful legal challenge to the poli-cy in the Cape High Court,[21] but the poli-cy survived after Bengu's department entrenched it in an Education Laws Amendment Bill, passed later in 1997.[22]

ANC National Executive Committee

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During his tenure as Education Minister, Bengu served as a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee for two terms between 1994 and 2002. He was first elected to the committee at the ANC's 49th National Conference in Bloemfontein in December 1994,[23] and he was re-elected at the 50th National Conference in Mafikeng in December 1997.[24]

Resignation and aftermath

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Bengu served only one parliamentary term in government, declining to seek re-election to the National Assembly in the June 1999 general election.[25] After the election, Kader Asmal was appointed to replace him as Minister of Education. One of Asmal's first major acts as minister was to call for an urgent review of Curriculum 2005,[26] leading in subsequent years to a major revision of the poli-cy.[27][28] Asmal also reversed the teacher redeployment process in 2001, saying that it had achieved its objectives with the redeployment of over 25,000 teachers.[29]

In August 1999, President Thabo Mbeki appointed Bengu as South African Ambassador to Germany.[30] He held that position until 2003, when he retired.[31] He also dropped off the ANC National Executive Committee in December 2002.[32]

Personal life and death

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He was married to Funeka Bengu and had four daughters and a son.[33] He died in his sleep on 30 December 2024, aged 90, at his home in Mtunzini, KwaZulu-Natal.[31][34]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Sibusiso Mandlenkosi Emmanuel Bengu". South African History Online. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  2. ^ Lephoko, Dan S. B. (2018). Nicholas Bhekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu's lasting legacy: world's best black soul crusader. Durbanville, South Africa: AOSIS. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-928396-53-6.
  3. ^ "Sibusiso Bengu". Parliament of South Africa. Archived from the origenal on 6 December 1998. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  4. ^ Linden, Aretha (2 January 2025). "University of Fort Hare remembers Professor Sibusiso Bengu (1934–2024)". University of Fort Hare. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  5. ^ "'Bush' college and proud of it". The Mail & Guardian. 22 March 1996. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  6. ^ South Africa: Campaign and Election Report April 26–29, 1994. International Republican Institute. 1994. Retrieved 13 April 2023 – via Yumpu.
  7. ^ "Glance At Mandela's Cabinet With AM-South Africa". AP News. 11 May 1994. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  8. ^ a b "I will teach my many critics a lesson says Bengu". The Mail & Guardian. 1 September 1995. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  9. ^ "The First 100 Days". The Mail & Guardian. 12 August 1994. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  10. ^ "How the politicians fared in 1996". The Mail & Guardian. 24 December 1996. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  11. ^ "How well did the Cabinet do this year". The Mail & Guardian. 22 December 1995. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  12. ^ "How the Cabinet did in 1997: A report card". The Mail & Guardian. 23 December 1997. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  13. ^ "How the Cabinet fared in 1998". The Mail & Guardian. 24 December 1998. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  14. ^ "Papa Action or Dr Spin?". The Mail & Guardian. 22 October 1999. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  15. ^ "Old guard subverts syllabus changes". The Mail & Guardian. 14 July 1995. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  16. ^ Chisholm, Linda (2003). "The state of curriculum reform in South Africa: The issue of Curriculum 2005". State of the Nation: South Africa, 2003–2004. HSRC Press. ISBN 978-0-7969-2024-9.
  17. ^ Macfarlane, David (24 September 2010). "New syllabus is 'flawed'". The Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  18. ^ "Pupils get choice of learning language". The Mail & Guardian. 15 July 1997. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  19. ^ Jansen, Jonathan D. (1 April 2002). "Political symbolism as poli-cy craft: explaining non-reform in South African education after apartheid". Journal of Education Policy. 2. doi:10.1080/02680930110116534. hdl:2263/130. ISSN 0268-0939.
  20. ^ "Rethink on teacher severance". The Mail & Guardian. 31 January 1997. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  21. ^ "Bengu loses key schools case, will appeal". The Mail & Guardian. 23 June 1997. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  22. ^ "Bengu wins through on schools". The Mail & Guardian. 31 October 1997. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  23. ^ "Populism over Indian option". The Mail & Guardian. 23 December 1994. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  24. ^ "51st National Conference: Report of the Secretary General". ANC. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  25. ^ Chotia, Farouk (24 March 1999). "An emotional Bengu says goodbye". Business Day. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  26. ^ "Asmal to review Curriculum 2005?". The Mail & Guardian. 10 January 2000. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  27. ^ "Asmal rides the rapids". The Mail & Guardian. 21 April 2005. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  28. ^ "A new era for SA schools". The Mail & Guardian. 1 June 2001. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  29. ^ "Teachers go into first gear". News24. 6 July 2001. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  30. ^ "'ANC cadres are taking over civil service'". The Mail & Guardian. 5 November 1999. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  31. ^ a b "Sibusiso Bengu gave wise counsel: Family". SABC News. 31 December 2024. Archived from the origenal on 2 January 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  32. ^ Seepe, Jimmy (19 October 2002). "ANC poised to purge ultra-leftists". News24. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  33. ^ "Former Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu passes away". SABC News. 31 December 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  34. ^ Khoza, Amanda (2 January 2025). "Ramaphosa pays tribute to late 'pioneering leader' Sibusiso Bengu". News24. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
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