Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks)

Theoretician by trade; Harvard South African Fellow ‘23; Political Theorist; Associate Professor of Higher Education Studies at @go2uj

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

@DuvhaSun It was possible a pocket think, but looked like a fishy link, so I took it down… 😅

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

@DuvhaSun It definitely isn’t easy, but the joy comes from the challenge that it presents. There is something about it that just makes the process of thinking something to look forward to.

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

I must admit that since ascending to the professoriate, it has been everything I imagined it would be. Intellectually exhilarating, deeply demanding, and profoundly fulfilling in equal measure. The responsibilities are significant and the pace relentless, yet each challenge has only strengthened my conviction that this is precisely the work I am meant to be doing.

What continues to sustain me is the joy of the vocation itself—the opportunity to think, teach, write, mentor, and contribute to ideas that matter. Few things compare to witnessing students and colleagues grow, conversations deepen, and new possibilities emerge from shared intellectual work. For all its demands, there is truly nothing quite like it in the world.

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

@Constitution_94 Cha ngim’fihlile. Ikhona bengeke bamthathe 😂

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

#NewProfilePic

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

@Constitution_94 Muntu! Mina ngathatha kudala!

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

The insistence on foreign nationals is getting quite intellectually lazy! Globally leading institutions like Harvard and Oxford are globally leading because they draw skills and expertise from all over the world. To be insular, limited and nationalistic will kills our scientific system!

[Unathi Afrika @UnathiAfrika]

@nhanha_nd The tendency to miss the forest while looking for the specific tree tends to be high among "patriots". Let he/she who has those PhDs in Astrophysics or Computer Science or Nuclear or Mechanical or Electrical or Biomedical Engineering just present themselves if unemployed.

[Mbekezeli @MbekezeliMB]

Justice Minister @mmkubayi made some big announcements today:

- the 20% increase in judges is now with National Treasury.
- New High Courts in Rustenburg, Welkom, Upington, George etc.
- New policy on Acting Judges.
- High Court seat won’t move from Makhanda to Bhisho for now.

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

@Inkosana_ @Menzi_Jiyane Ave efuna lokho 🤭😅

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

A real South African… proves that he is a South African when he says the Americans take things too seriously 😂😅

[Haji @khal_haji]

I’m never grooving in Lesotho ever again
Went in drunk, Came out sober with a headache 🤣

[Jackson @jackson_rem]

Thoko Mkhwanazi Xaluva wants to regulate Christian churches in SA. She says if someone says they talk to God, they must be sent to the psychiatric ward

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

Unfortunately it is. The Council on Higher Education Audit of the South African Doctoral programme(s) found that there is a disproportionality between how many PhDs are done by South Africans vs. How many of those become informative research that drives disciplinary knowledge production, policy interventions and even general policy propositions. So, the work is being undertaken but there is no sufficient articulation of that work into the ‘market of ideas’
P.S. I’ve come to hate that concept of the market, in the neoliberlising academy. It denotes something a little sinister, that demands us to frame the arts and humanities in ways that are similar to engineering and science, that is patenting and marketability, but hey, we live and let live.

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

So there’s an another perspective to this… which was brought to my attention by a dear colleague, who reminded me that there’s also a question of disciplinary distinction. As one sitting in philosophy I can read a sociological text and evaluate it as a weak text, descriptive and not theoretical enough because I sit in a “theory first/heavy” discipline. Similarly, a sociologist can read me and say this is a weak text because it doesn’t have empiricist evidence to substantiate the argument. Now the question becomes can we, from our limited disciplinary vantage points - truly comment -with authority- on cognate, let alone foreign disciplines? We cannot come to conclusions about the work without understanding disciplinary methodology and content. Content evaluation alone cannot stand as the arbiter of the final evaluation.

That said, the question stands on why it is that many South African PhDs stay at the doctoral level and never become research in “market” of ideas. That points to a deeper systemic issue!!!

[Khoisan_Dudu🇿🇦🍉🇨🇩✊🏽 @SothoDudu]

In many ways the thesis helps explain why Ndlozi often struggles to engage contemporary socioeconomic issues with analytical depth. The same tendency is visible throughout his PhD work. Personal narrative frequently displaces rigorous engagement with competing evidence, alternative explanations and material realities.
That is why we should be cautious about elevating academic credentials above scrutiny. A PhD is not proof of insight. It is not proof of wisdom. It is not proof that one's conclusions are correct. What matters is the quality of the analysis and the willingness to test ideas against evidence.

The danger arises when people mistake academic status for intellectual authority. Scholarship is a living process of challenge, debate and refinement. Once a scholar stops engaging criticism, stops publishing, stops testing ideas in the marketplace of peer review and public scrutiny, their contribution risks becoming academically inert.

Credentials may command attention, but only ideas can earn respect. And ideas that are insulated from challenge eventually become dogma rather than scholarship. The public should judge arguments on their merits, not on the titles that precede someone's name.

[Prof_Kumalo (Ph.D. Tuks) @KumaloProf]

“Credentials may command attention, but only ideas can earn respect. And ideas that are insulated from challenge eventually become dogma rather than scholarship. The public should judge arguments on their merits, not on the titles that precede someone's name.”

[Khoisan_Dudu🇿🇦🍉🇨🇩✊🏽 @SothoDudu]

In many ways the thesis helps explain why Ndlozi often struggles to engage contemporary socioeconomic issues with analytical depth. The same tendency is visible throughout his PhD work. Personal narrative frequently displaces rigorous engagement with competing evidence, alternative explanations and material realities.
That is why we should be cautious about elevating academic credentials above scrutiny. A PhD is not proof of insight. It is not proof of wisdom. It is not proof that one's conclusions are correct. What matters is the quality of the analysis and the willingness to test ideas against evidence.

The danger arises when people mistake academic status for intellectual authority. Scholarship is a living process of challenge, debate and refinement. Once a scholar stops engaging criticism, stops publishing, stops testing ideas in the marketplace of peer review and public scrutiny, their contribution risks becoming academically inert.

Credentials may command attention, but only ideas can earn respect. And ideas that are insulated from challenge eventually become dogma rather than scholarship. The public should judge arguments on their merits, not on the titles that precede someone's name.