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SATURDAY PROFILE | Outgoing NWU principal Dan Kgwadi: 'Change the stereotype around black leaders'

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Outgoing North-West University vice-chancellor Professor Dan Kgwadi in front of one of his favourite paintings in his office on the Potchefstroom campus (James de Villiers, News24)
Outgoing North-West University vice-chancellor Professor Dan Kgwadi in front of one of his favourite paintings in his office on the Potchefstroom campus (James de Villiers, News24)

The man who helped guide North-West University out of crises in 2014, Professor Dan Kgwadi, says he is leaving the university because he needs to prove that black leadership can be successful. Kgwadi speaks to James de Villiers about how he took up space in apartheid to help usher through change today, why employment equity is still an issue on the Potchefstroom campus, and how growing up in a single-parent household shaped who he is today.  

When Professor Dan Kgwadi, 54, first walked up the steps of the main administrative building on North-West University (NWU) 's Potchefstroom campus in 2014, he says he was met with many people - both staff and students - who thought he would deteriorate standards at the institution. 

At the time, the university - formed in 2004 after an uncomfortable merger between the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education and the former University of Bophuthatswana - was amidst a public crises. 

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