Professor Phumla Mtala
Director of Programmes in the College of Economic & Management Sciences, University of South Africa (UNISA)
Advanced Training for Leadership and Skills '97

Professor Phumla Mtala began her career as nurse in her native South Africa. After eight years, she decided to switch career paths and become an educator. She went on to obtain bachelor's degrees in commerce, economics and educational leadership from the University of Transkei, the University of South Africa (UNISA) and Rhodes University, respectively. Professor Mtala was awarded an AAI scholarship, under the Advanced Training for Leadership and Skills (ATLAS) program, to attend Eastern Michigan University, where she graduated with a master's in economics cum laude in 1997.

Professor Mtala has held teaching positions at Umtata Technical College, the University of Transkei and at Border Technikon in the Eastern Cape. Upon returning to South Africa after attending Eastern Michigan University, Professor Mtala resumed her career as an educator at Border Technikon where she was one of the first black women executive directors. After several promotions and the merger of Border Technikon with UNISA in January 2004, she was appointed Director of Programmes in the College of Economic & Management Sciences at UNISA, South Africa 's first comprehensive university and the largest distance learning university in Africa.

At AAI's 22nd Annual Awards Gala in September 2006, AAI recognized the career and character of Professor Mtala, presenting her with AAI's Distinguished Alumna Award for her role in spearheading institutional transformation in South Africa. Professor Mtala has had a highly successful academic and professional career, in which she has continuously confronted and overcome racial and gender boundaries with determination and perseverance. In January 2006, AAI interviewed Professor Mtala, in which she shared some of her thoughts on AAI, her career, and the role students of educational programs can play in Africa's development.

AAI: How has AAI helped you accomplish your educational and career aspirations? How have you applied your experiences to your working environment?

Professor Mtala: The AAI scholarship provided me not only with intellectual skills and competencies, but also empowered me with leadership skills and competencies, which helped me grow to positions of more responsibility and power.

Throughout my career, I have always strived to create a working environment which affirms and empowers people to contribute to the best of their abilities, regardless of gender or race, an environment in which there are no second-class citizens, and an environment which instils people with feelings of ownership of the work place and its resources.

AAI: How do you feel that studying in the United States was beneficial to your academic and professional careers?

Professor Mtala: Education, coupled with international exposure, improved my self esteem, and liberated me from the inferiority-complex-baggage that I carried for years, and which was subsequent to my previous history as a black South African woman. Today, I see myself as a woman with a sense of worth, I am able to think strategically and can challenge issues that affect me and my community with confidence and dignity.

AAI: How do you feel that you, in your position as Director Programmes at the College of Economic & Management Sciences at UNISA, are impacting or creating a change within South Africa and the Continent?

Professor Mtala: The higher education scenario is changing at an accelerated pace. Universities, throughout Africa, are facing new challenges and these challenges present unprecedented opportunities, opportunities to make teaching and learning relevant to the emerging realities, as well as to reach out to the unreachable. These realities can be met by designing a qualification mix that is relevant to societal needs, and which would contribute to the country's Human Resource Development Strategy, a core function of the Director of Programmes.

AAI: What advice you would give to the next generation of AAI Alumni? What would you like to see their generation accomplish?

Professor Mtala: First, AAI alumni must understand that although education is their fundamental right, it is not provided to them for self consumption, but is a country's investment in them, and the expected return from such an investment is their contribution in the development of their country and their continent, Africa.

Subsequently, they must think beyond their own boundaries/circumstances, and use their skills and competencies to address topical issues that affect their countries.