Prof Cheryl Hendricks to continue Nelson Mandela School mission

Professor Cheryl Hendricks – the director of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance – is drawing on her experience in academia and policy as she charts its way forward. 

Professor Hendricks took up the position in April. Over the past 100 days in office, she has been meeting with colleagues, partners and stakeholders and engaging in various forums nationally and continentally. She has also been intentional about listening to, and determining, what will sustain the school into the future. She has extensive experience in the non-governmental organisation (NGO) space.

“I very much see my role as bridging the divide between academia, policy and practice and a lot of my interaction has been with academia, civil society, and with governments and inter-governmental organisations. I am pan-African in my orientation. I’m a feminist, striving for equality, human dignity, peace and prosperity for all,” she said. 

“Governance is a key challenge globally, and I think the pandemic highlighted many of those challenges. In Africa, our political, economic and social challenges are complex, and governance and leadership are key to addressing these. Therefore, I am drawn to the fact that this school of governance is focused on leadership, governance and sustainable development.” 

“We must be a space to co-create solutions to those challenges and open the space to do that.”

The vision of the school, she added, will largely remain the same. “This school was set up to strengthen ethical leadership and inclusive and effective governance on the continent and that should remain its mission. We do this via our academic programme, which is at the core of the school. We have our executive education offering, our research programme, and we have a space that invites critical dialogue. A key part of what the school seeks to do is to provide policy development and implementation support to governments and inter-governmental organisations.” 

Pushing the knowledge production envelope is uppermost on her mind, as well. “What I see the school doing is upscaling and deepening its impact so we can see the necessary changes in the lived realities of the people of Africa. The school itself has a strong reputation for its work on regional integration and green industrialisation. These are areas we will continue to pursue in terms of research and capacity building. We will be more intentional about our interventions on leadership and governance across the continent. We also need to be working more collaboratively with other schools of governance, research institutes, civil society and with our key stakeholders: government departments, public service commissions, intergovernmental organisations such as the United Nations, African Union and Regional Economic Communities.” 

Cultivate leadership 

She continued: “For me, it is not just about partnerships and knowing who your stakeholders are – it is also about the mindset shift that must happen. We are not just any school of governance. We carry the name of Nelson Mandela, and this places a huge responsibility on us to ensure that we embed the values and principles and dedication to service that informed his life’s work. We are located on the continent and therefore must be Africa-centred. We must strive to not only be the go-to school of governance on the continent for students, institutions and outside partners, but be a space where we have the uncomfortable conversations and collectively co-create solutions to the many challenges facing the continent, and that we are able to provide thought leadership in this regard.” 
 

Hendricks recently oversaw the launch of the Nelson Mandela Memorial Centre architectural design competition. “It is exciting that the school can be co-located with a living memorial of Nelson Mandela. We emphasise living memorial because this is going to be a space to cultivate the leadership that we want. Thinking about Nelson Mandela as a peacebuilder requires us to ask how we can bring that energy to the continent,” she said. 

When asked whether her initial expectations have been met as director, Hendricks said, “The school has met my expectations so far and, in saying that, I have also met my hurdles. I know what they are, but I do not think they are insurmountable.” 

With August being Women’s Month, Hendricks offered some reflections: “Let us be kind to ourselves; let us celebrate our victories. Let us recognise where our challenges still are. Let us come together to discuss some very fundamental challenges that perpetuate themselves within our society, such as patriarchy, for example; as well as gender-based violence. We need to go back to the drawing board – not to review policies but to ensure implementation. 

“‘Empower a woman, empower a nation’ is a nice-to-have slogan, but we now need to think about how we action that in a period when there is such a huge backlash against gender equality and human rights, globally. Our work needs to begin again.”