‘Why I gave prize money to Palestinian cause’ – Saleem Badat

Last week, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) awarded a Science-for-Society Gold Medal to Professor Saleem Badat, a prominent figure in the country’s higher education sector.

A critical sociologist and higher education policy specialist, Badat is currently a research professor in the department of history at the University of the Free State. He is the former vice-chancellor of Rhodes University in South Africa, and was the first head of the country’s Council on Higher Education, the policy advisory body to the minister of higher education.

As the vice-chancellor of Rhodes University (2006-14) he created the Jakes Gerwel Rhodes University Scholarship Fund, which was funded from his salary and benefits.

In his acceptance speech, he announced he would donate his prize money of ZAR20,000 (about US$1,130) to the South African BDS Coalition, a network of Palestine solidarity organisations affiliated to the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the body that called for international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in 2005.

He spoke to University World News (UWN) about his award and his most recent donation.

UWN: Congratulations on your award. What does this recognition mean to you?

SB: This award is a tremendous honour, and I am deeply grateful to ASSAf for this recognition. It is particularly meaningful because it acknowledges the importance of connecting scholarship with the pursuit of social justice.

Throughout my career, I have strived to use my research and leadership roles in higher education to advocate for equity, diversity, inclusion and transformation in our sector and in society. This award reinforces my commitment to these values and encourages me to continue on this path.

UWN: In your acceptance speech, you mentioned the ‘dilemma of choice’ during apartheid. Could you elaborate?

SB: Being confronted with difficult dilemmas of choice does not mean that we have no choices. Apartheid confronted us with choosing between active collaboration with an oppressive and dehumanising system, passive complicity, and resistance.

I chose to align myself with the fight for a just and democratic South Africa. It came at a cost: a deferred academic career, periods in detention and a banning order that forbade me from setting foot in any educational institution. I have no regrets.

This experience profoundly shaped my understanding of scholarship. It taught me that knowledge production is never neutral. It either reinforces existing power structures or challenges them. For me, scholarship had to connect with the struggle for non-racialism, non-sexism and social justice, without reducing research to an instrument of political propaganda.

This means rejecting the notion of a ‘value-free’ academy and recognising that our research and teaching should be guided by a commitment to human rights, equity, inclusion and liberation.

It’s a commitment that continues to inform my work today. I believe it is central to the idea of the public good and to the role of universities in society.

UWN: What motivated your decision to donate the prize money to the South African BDS Coalition?

SB: The ongoing genocide, epistemicide and scholasticide – new terms are having to be created to capture what is happening in Palestine – is a grave injustice demanding our attention and action.

Academics have a moral responsibility to speak out against settler colonialism and oppression, and to support those struggling for freedom and self-determination, whether in Palestine or elsewhere.

By donating the prize money to the South African BDS Coalition, I hope to contribute to their efforts of promoting solidarity with Palestinian universities, scholars and students.

I also hope to encourage other academics and institutions to take a stand and support the cause of freedom and justice, which is at the heart of the Palestinian cause.

UWN: Why do you believe it’s crucial for academics and institutions to take a stand on this issue?

SB: I am dismayed at the appalling and shameful silence of ASSAf, of which I am a loyal member, and Universities South Africa (USAf), a body that I once chaired, on the horrendous catastrophe in Palestine.

Over 40,000 Palestinians are dead and 93,000 injured, 90% of the population is displaced, and half a million people are facing severe food insecurity.

We witness all this in real time and yet we remain silent, which makes us complicit. Is it more scientific evidence that we seek? The barbarous genocide by Israel with Western support dehumanises us all, and especially those who remain silent.

Our universities, USAf and ASSAf should be at the forefront of solidarity work with devastated Palestinian universities, scholars and students. How quickly and conveniently we forget the support and solidarity that was extended to us in our fight against apartheid.

UWN: You warned against research becoming a ‘political instrument’. Doesn’t your advocacy for the Palestinian cause risk crossing that line?

SB: It’s a crucial balance. Our primary duty as scholars is to pursue, without fear, truth through critical, rigorous inquiry, questioning assumptions and remaining open to alternative perspectives. But this doesn’t preclude political engagement. We have a responsibility to use our knowledge to address injustice.

Rabindranath Tagore reminds us that “We may become powerful by knowledge, but we attain fullness by sympathy”.

My commitment to justice – in South Africa, Palestine and elsewhere – embodies my values but doesn’t dictate my research. I approach all scholarship equally dispassionately.

I am a strong critic today of the liberation movement to which I belonged for its dismal economic and social failures, and for presiding over rampant corruption and mismanagement of public institutions.

UWN: You highlighted the duties associated with intellectual autonomy and academic freedom. How can universities balance their responsibility to contribute to a just and equitable society with these duties?

SB: Intellectual autonomy and academic freedom are essential, but they should not shield universities from their social responsibilities.

Universities must contribute to just and democratic societies by promoting critical thinking, fostering social justice and addressing pressing issues. This requires both rigorous scholarship and critical and ethical engagement with the rest of society.

There is no contradiction between commitment to both intellectual autonomy and academic freedom, on the one hand, and to human liberation and just and democratic societies, on the other.

Martha Nussbaum speaks of higher education as the “cultivation of humanity”.

What kind of humanity do we cultivate through our universities when we remain silent in the face of genocide? Too much of the silence is for fear of wealthy donors, who often perpetrate or collude in injustice, taking offence and withdrawing funding.

UWN: What role do you see critical scholarship playing in addressing the challenges facing South Africa today?

SB: Critical scholarship helps us understand such problems as inequality, grinding poverty, inadequate public services, mismanagement and corruption. It helps us challenge the status quo, expose injustice and develop strategies for addressing them. It also amplifies marginalised voices, contributing to a more inclusive democracy. That is the spirit of all my books and scholarship.

UWN: What is your vision for the future of South African universities, and what role do you see them playing in the country’s development?

SB: My concern throughout has been questions of difference, equity, redress, diversity and inclusion, social justice in and through universities, as well as their decolonisation and transformation.

We need to build truly South African universities, as opposed to universities that are mere imitations of Eurocentric universities and intellectual thought in the colonial metropole.

I envision South African universities as vibrant hubs of critical intellectual inquiry and social transformation, where an education is an ennobling adventure, and students from all backgrounds can receive a quality education and reach their full potential.

We need universities that produce all kinds of knowledge from our vantage point in Africa and the Global South without being insular and parochial; institutions that engage actively in addressing our local, continental and global challenges, and contribute to an equitable world.