Hearts, minds and deep dialogue on ‘living values’ in higher education

Discussions about values – especially between university leaders and student leaders – are never simple. Add South Africa’s complex social realities, and you can expect sparks to fly. Yet, when these conversations are grounded in kindness and a spirit of problem-solving, they can become deeply constructive.

That’s exactly what happened at the University of Cape Town (UCT) last week, when higher education leaders, student representatives, and values practitioners gathered for a thought-provoking national dialogue titled “Values in Higher Education Conversations”.

Hosted by UCT Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor Mosa Moshabela and convened by the Values 20 (V20) South Africa Steering Committee under the G20 leadership, the event explored a deceptively simple question: What does it mean to live our values?

Opening the session, Dr Preeya Daya, the chairperson of V20 South Africa, did not mince words. She described a world – and a country – facing not just economic and environmental challenges, but “a deeper crisis of values”.
 

“Knowing the importance of values is not enough. Living them is what transforms society.”

“When profit outweighs care and responsibility gives way to indifference, climate change becomes not just an environmental problem – it’s a values problem,” she said. “In South Africa, inequality, corruption, and eroding public trust are not only policy failures – they are failures of principle.”

Aligned with the G20, the V20 movement urges nations to put humanity, ethics, and sustainability at the centre of decision-making. With South Africa holding the G20 Presidency in 2025, the national theme “Living Values” calls for translating ideals into action. “Knowing the importance of values is not enough,” Dr Daya concluded. “Living them is what transforms society.”

 “We need a glue that binds us”

In his opening address, Professor Moshabela reflected on the importance of shared values in uniting diverse academic communities. “When I arrived at UCT last year,” he said, “I walked into a space where many acknowledged divisions, fragmentations and fractures. I realised immediately that we needed something to bring us together: glue. And that glue is our values.”

He spoke candidly about leading a university shaped by activism, history, and difference. “How do we debate fiercely and still respect one another? How do we confront our history with compassion, not hostility?” he asked.

“Diversity is our superpower,” Moshabela said. “But it can also become our adversary – unless we learn to live our values, not just name them.” He linked this to the legacy of movements like Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall: “Those movements carried both the power to demand justice and the pain of generations of exclusion. If we want to lead with values, we must go deep – to understand that pain, and to heal.”

Professor Stephen Ndlovu, the VC of the Vaal University of Technology, urged universities to ground their missions in constitutional principles. Quoting the preamble of the South African Constitution, he reminded participants that institutions must embody the values of dignity, equality, non-racialism, and non-sexism.

“Leadership must be founded on the values of the Constitution,” he said. “Universities have long upheld autonomy and accountability, but we must align these with human values that shape how we teach, lead, and engage with society.”

Echoing this call, VC-designate of the University of Limpopo, Dr Jeffrey Mabelebele, said institutional leaders must model constitutional values. “Accountability, empathy, and solidarity must be visible in our leadership,” he said. He highlighted his university’s compulsory consumer literacy module as an example of embedding values within the curriculum.

“Without the active participation of students and staff in the change agenda, it will fall flat,” Dr Mabelebele warned. “Universities must honour their historic DNA of social justice.”

The uncomfortable truths

Responding from the audience, Professor Somadoda Fikeni, the chairperson of the Public Service Commission, warned against what he called “the weaponisation of values”.

“Tenders, leases, and corruption – these are cancers that eat away at the academic project,” he said. “We must ensure that knowledge doesn’t drift away from the common sense of values.”

Professor Fikeni argued that rebuilding higher education’s moral fibre requires restoring the everyday decency that holds communities together. “Is it conceivable that families collapse but society still functions with norms?” he asked. “We take these things for granted until they no longer exist.”

Giving the students' perspective, UCT Students’ Representative Council (SRC) president, Thando Lukhele, urged universities to make their values tangible in everyday interactions. “Values are about seeing the next person as human enough to offer respect and truth,” she said.
 

“Transformation isn’t about big ideologies – it’s about everyday inclusion and context-driven decisions.”

For Lukhele, institutional values should humanise campus life. “When we recognise the human in front of us, it changes how we teach, how we lead, and how we interact.” She argued that living values requires acknowledging people’s histories, cultures, and pain. “It’s not about slogans – it’s about daily lived experiences.”

From the University of the Western Cape (UWC), SRC president, Mcntosh Khasambe, expanded on this idea, grounding it in ubuntu. “Ubuntu is not rhetorical,” he said. “It’s in our DNA.”

He explained that UWC’s foundation reflects ubuntu itself: “UWC was established in the 1960s to open the doors of learning for those who were historically excluded – at the time, coloured people.” Under VC Professor Jakes Gerwel, those doors widened to include all black South Africans. “That in itself is a replication of ubuntu – giving access to those who were previously disadvantaged.”

For Khasambe, dignity is expressed when students are visible and participate in decisions about their welfare, accommodation, and academic support. “Student leaders shouldn’t be seen as troublemakers,” he said. “They are partners in transformation.”

He added that universities are “microcosms of society” – reflections of South Africa’s inequalities, but also potential agents of change. “Apartheid was yesterday,” he reminded. “We exist in a highly unequal, still structurally colonised society.”

True transformation, he argued, requires universities to go beyond their gates. “A big mandate for universities is to go back to the townships and give back to the communities,” he said. “Transformation isn’t about big ideologies – it’s about everyday inclusion and context-driven decisions.”

Integrity and accountability in leadership

University of Mpumalanga SRC president, Prosper Chilwane, said integrity has been his leadership compass. “Our university was founded upon seven values: excellence, integrity, diversity, collaboration, adaptability, relevance, and inspiration,” he explained. “The value that I have taken to heart, and that has guided our SRC, is integrity.”

The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s outgoing SRC president, Siyabonga Mlondo, highlighted “client orientation”, which he interprets as stakeholder orientation. “Our values form the acronym R.E.A.C.T: respect, excellence, accountability, client orientation, and trust,” he said.

“For me, client orientation means satisfying the needs of our primary stakeholders – the students – and ensuring collaboration so that everyone participates in our success,” Mlondo said. “Putting students first while engaging all stakeholders is how we live our values.”
 

“If every listed company contributed just R1 million, we could wipe out historical debt in one year and restore students’ dignity.”

Bringing the discussion to a powerful close, Professor Bonang Mohale, the chancellor of the University of the Free State and V20 Sherpa, said transformation must go beyond reform to achieve “fundamental change in both shape and form”.

He outlined six priorities for reimagining higher education: inclusive academic excellence; a social justice approach to learning; contextualised academic freedom; ethical governance frameworks; public ownership of universities; and a sustainable funding model.

“We are excluding children because they chose poor parents,” Mohale said, noting that student debt now stands at R20 billion. He proposed a “historical debt fund” supported by corporate social investment. “If every listed company contributed just R1 million, we could wipe out historical debt in one year and restore students’ dignity,” he said.

He also envisions universities as vibrant public spaces. “Imagine if we used these universities from six to five, and on weekends, communities came because universities are fountains and beautiful gardens – places for learning, gatherings, even weddings,” Mohale said. “Then the community will protect it.”

The “Values in Higher Education Conversations” are part of a national dialogue series, which led to the V20 Summit in Cape Town on 16 and 17 October 2025.