Newsletter: From the desk of the Vice-Chancellor

11 March 2026 - Zeblon Vilakazi

As we near the end of term, I wanted to update you on major developments in recent months and highlight matters affecting the University.

As we near the end of term, I thought it would be prudent to keep you appraised of some of the major developments that took place in recent months and to highlight matters that impact on us as a University.

I am pleased to announce that Wits has been recognised as the top-ranked university in sub-Saharan Africa for innovation performance in the 2025 Global Innovation Index, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. This Index assesses how effectively economies translate research, knowledge and technology into economic and social value. Three Wits spinout companies were registered in 2025 including  AirSync and GreenEx, which are commercialising an AI-enabled air quality monitoring solution and a patented moringa extraction technology respectively. The third spinout, Green Lipids, has established proof of concept for ionisable lipids for messenger ribonucleic acid vaccine formulations and secured international support for production scale-up. Congratulations!

Wits also partnered with SWEAT Africa – a festival that brings together entrepreneurs, investors and students to position Africa as a global hub for innovation and venture development.

R100 million Hydrogen Plant

Plans were announced for a R100 million modular hydrogen plant that will support research, training and clean energy innovation.

Research Visibility Platform

The Research Office and the Faculty of Health Sciences are piloting a prototype of a Research Visibility Platform, which will provide a central searchable resource for discovering the research and innovation produced by the University’s researchers both individually and aggregated by department, school, faculty and entity. Watch this space.

New Postgraduate Research Hub

When you have a moment, visit the Postgraduate Research Hub on the 2^nd Floor of Solomon Mahlangu House where you will find postgraduate students working in the communal hot-desk area and presenting seminars and events. Phase two will launch soon.

International Research Centre

It was my pleasure to enter into a partnership with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) to open the International Research Centre, the first of its kind in Africa. The Wits node is co-directed by Prof. Marion Bamford and will foster research collaboration, support the development of early-career researchers and strengthen postgraduate programmes, specifically in the palaeosciences, physics, mathematics and environmental sciences.

People Development and Culture

I am pleased to announce that Mr Sudesh Harduth has been seconded to the position of Senior Director: Human Resources. Alongside this, we are in the process of planning for executive renewals and appointments over the next 24 months.
 
On staff remuneration matters, the University has concluded a further three-year salary agreement with ASAWU. The progression model for academics will continue its development and roll-out in 2026, and a task team will be formed to review promotion criteria for academic staff. The Annual Performance Incentive for Professional and Administrative Staff (PAS) was completed for 2025 and will commence again in March 2026. Salary negotiations in respect of PAS staff are ongoing with organised labour.
 
We have implemented a new tracking system for the institutional culture recommendations that emerged from the Wits@100 Cultures Study. In relation to institutional culture, I have observed the unfolding public engagements dealing with the question of internationalisation within universities, and the associated social media traction that this debate has received. While our commitment to institutional, sectoral and social transformation are unambiguous, I want to be clear that Wits University values internationalisation and its concomitant contribution to a cosmopolitan university, global knowledge exchanges, and the diversity of its people, ideas and pedagogies.

Utility Challenges

It is important to appreciate the challenges we face in relation to the supply of water and electricity. We continue to install photovoltaic systems to reduce our reliance on Eskom and City Power. In December last year we installed 2,22 MWp of PV (with 888 kWp added in 2025 alone). We are aiming to reach 6,0 MWp of installed PV in total. The challenges we now face relate to the municipal distribution networks as a result of failures, planned maintenance and upgrading efforts affecting the supply of energy to all of our campuses. Between 9 January and 23 February this year alone, we ran on diesel backup power for 363 hours at a huge cost to the institution. We urge you all to please conserve energy as far as possible. Water also remains a significant challenge. The impact on our campuses has been intermittent low pressure periods in January, and some sustained low pressure periods in February.

News and Events

There is much happening across the University. You can catch up on the latest news and events on the website – from a new paper on COVID’s Origins: what we do and do not know to a multinational genomics project that expanded global datasets with over 1 000 African genomes, strengthening representation of African populations in biomedical research.

I am pleased to announce that a R7 million grant from the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust will support health sciences researchers and students affected by international funding cuts. African universities and regional experts are also working with Wellcome to establish new science and policy consortiums. These consortiums will address the escalating public health crisis driven by climate change - saving lives and livelihoods. Wellcome will provide an initial £40 million for two new consortiums in Southern and Western Africa with a further £20 million earmarked to set up a third consortium in East Africa. 

The first two regional consortiums will be led by Wits and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.

Witsie Shop Opens

The revamped Witsie Shop also opened in February. You can visit the Shop on the Ground Floor of Solomon Mahlangu House or shop online.

Warm regards

Professor Zeblon Vilakazi FRS 
Vice-Chancellor and Principal