“I introduced Ubuntu into my professional discourse, and now the world knows what it means in our field.”
Prof Elelwani Ramugondo
Introduction
In this exclusive interview, Joyce Nwezeh speaks with Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, Student Affairs, and Social Responsiveness at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa.
The conversation explores her lifelong calling in education, her pioneering contributions to occupational therapy, her leadership in pan-African academic change movements, and her vision for empowering students and women across the continent.
Interview
Prof. Elelwani Ramugondo:
I am Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, Student Affairs, and Social Responsiveness at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
What Inspired Her Path in Academia
Joyce Nwezeh:
What inspired you to pursue a career in the education and academic sector? What was that moment that made you know it was either education or nothing?
Prof. Elelwani Ramugondo:
Interestingly, when I was very young, I must have been seven or eight years old, something in me just said I would one day work at a university.
My father was a gardener for one of the universities in South Africa, the University of Pretoria, during apartheid. It was only for white people. My father worked in a university where there was not a single black student. And for some reason, something inside me said: “One day I will teach at a university, and I will teach both black and white students.” I cannot tell where that voice came from.
Even though my background eventually was in occupational therapy, my first job after graduating from the University of Cape Town was to start a whole department from scratch in a school for children with special learning needs in rural Limpopo.
Teaching was always in the stars for me because graduating with a health sciences degree usually means becoming a health professional or researcher. But my first job was at a school.
I introduced a way of assessing children for school readiness that was very unorthodox. Many children in rural South Africa had never seen puzzles, which were commonly used in assessments. So I introduced other indicators such as the ability to move to rhythm and the ability to appreciate humor. None of the children I assessed struggled in schooling.
Years later, I saw some of these children — even those with complex disabilities like osteogenetic imperfecta — entering university.
That work eventually made it into an international textbook recently, so finally the story has gone global.
When I worked in the United States for two years, I spent about one year and seven months again in the school system. When I was recruited back into academia, I came straight from the school system.
Education has always been in my blood. I took to teaching like a fish in water. Before I knew it, research became a big part of my work. I rose through the ranks to full professor and now Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
Her Contributions and Impact
Joyce Nwezeh:
What meaningful contribution or impact have you made in your career, particularly in driving change or uplifting others?
Prof. Elelwani Ramugondo:
I am the first black recipient of a PhD in occupational therapy on the African continent. Since then, I have graduated nine PhDs, including graduates from across the continent. Four of these PhDs are women who are already associate professors.
I also led the occupational therapy program in the late 2000s. Under my leadership, the department became the most transformed and most visible occupational therapy program globally. This visibility led us to host the first World Federation of Occupational Therapy Congress on African soil in 2018, where I gave the first keynote address.
I introduced Ubuntu as a concept into my professional discourse. Before that, no one outside Africa knew what Ubuntu meant in my profession. Now they do, because of an article I published — my most cited work and the most cited paper that year in the Journal of Occupational Science.
At my university, I co-founded the Black Academic Caucus with a strong Pan-African vision. I also became an advisor to the Vice-Chancellor after the #RhodesMustFall movement, helping the university engage on decolonization, black consciousness, black radical feminism, and Pan-Africanism.
We produced a curriculum change framework that is now publicly available for anyone wanting to decolonize academia. We also redefined the meaning of academic freedom. As chair of the Academic Freedom Committee, I invited Professor Mahmood Mamdani back to UCT — a significant moment given his earlier departure due to resistance to change.
In my current role, I have brought a humanizing praxis informed by Ubuntu into transformation work. During my tenure, gender-based violence protests have become a thing of the past because students feel we are responding meaningfully to allegations of GBV.
Future Influence if She Wins the Power 2025 Award
Joyce Nwezeh:
Should you win the PAWES 2025 award, how would you use this platform to influence others and drive change in your sector?
Prof. Elelwani Ramugondo:
In my current role, I am responsible for student affairs, and students always want to hear from me. The University of Cape Town attracts many international students, most of whom are from the continent. Winning this award would be powerful because I would share what it stands for, who has won it before, and the kind of impact they made.
Visibility through students makes for incredible inspiration. These are the young people who will lead society. They need to know the continent is watching and that they must put their degrees to good use.
I am also responsible for human resources, overseeing almost 30,000 students and nearly 7,000 staff members. For women staff members, this award would signal that they too can achieve such recognition. Young academics and support staff look up to me, and being acknowledged helps them believe they can be acknowledged too.
Growth Strategy and Sustainability
Joyce Nwezeh:
What is your growth strategy to ensure sustainability and minimize risk?
Prof. Elelwani Ramugondo:
Every year, universities — not just UCT — experience student protests driven by fee debt. On the other hand, there is graduate unemployability. This is a big risk not only for me, but for the entire higher education sector in South Africa and the continent.
My dream, and one initiative I am working on, is to address both student fee debt and graduate unemployability. Sustainability is about addressing students’ main pain points.
Debt weighs heavily on mental health. If we don’t address this issue, none of us are without risk.
I am working on an initiative that brings students into solution-finding. Before they even graduate, they receive mentorship and preparation to get placed in companies. The world is so digitized that students can work from their room before graduation.
With mentorship, students can contribute toward paying their own fees.
I am working with a partner from another part of Africa — alumni from Uganda — who run an online business school. They help mentor students and teach them skills, including AI coding, regardless of what they study. Students can build portfolios that may lead to employment upon graduation.
We cannot have students who feel powerless. They must pay their fees if government cannot cover them in full. This is my strategy for sustainability.
