Her laugh is always at the ready. It is a quick-draw one, holstered but unlocked, an infectious six-shooter that disarms in an instant. “I laugh at everything!” Ntsikie Kote, Chief Strategy Officer at the North-West University (NWU), readily admits.
Outside her office in Building F1 on the University’s Potchefstroom Campus, spring is slowly awakening from its slumber, and there is a flurry of sounds as students make their way to and from classes.
It is a moment of respite from a position that is as time consuming as it is rewarding.
“I have to ensure that the University has a strategic plan, that it follows not just a plan, but a strategy, a long-term vision of where we want to go as a university. The core function of the University is to train students to equip them for life outside the University, and there are a number of ways to navigate that and to do that. So my job is to make sure that we use the best in our arsenal, our strengths, the things that will make us better as a university. We have our goals, and we are making our way forward in as practical a way as possible,” she explains.
She leans forward slightly, clasping her hands together and tilting her head. A smile creeps across her face, as if all her senses have been tickled, and with a palatable sense of satisfaction she says: “The NWU has so much to offer. We have so many excellent programmes, from pharmacy to accounting to engineering and many more – all of it in a multilingual environment.”
Another hallmark of her character is her directness. She can be unflinchingly honest. Universities – and not just the NWU – are in a sense a microcosm of the country. Therefore, they are breeding grounds for common solutions that can be repurposed and implemented on a large scale. Solutions, she believes, that are desperately needed.
“I'm not happy with where the country is going. I think that we could have done better, but I think that's almost everybody's view. However, I don't have a gloomy outlook, because I look at the world, and South Africa is part of the world we live in. The world in general is not going in the right direction either,” she says sombrely.
“That's why education is so important because it’s the key to actually turning things around and, at worst, keeping them at a level where they don't deteriorate any further. And I think that the importance of universities and education is that we should educate people to think freely and to solve problems. We must not educate people to continue to be dependent, and that is what universities have to start to move away from. We have to be able to allow people to go out into society, build things, manufacture things, do things, and not be dependent on government, and that is a function of education.”
Her combination of verve and determination has seen her overcome many a challenge, and creating challenges is a self-confessed addiction.
“Am I ever not working? I always, always, have a project in mind.” Cue that distinctive laugh: “My husband is starting to think: ‘Yeah, it was an attractive quality in the beginning, but not so much anymore! I like to do things and try new things.”
You can almost hear Marvin Gaye singing soulfully: ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough…’
But then the conversation shifts to her youth and the challenges she faced, which were anything but of her own choosing or doing.
“It was adventurous.” She pauses, reflecting on the years that have shaped her, that scared her, that instilled discipline in her and filled her with both melancholy and joy. “It was a challenging yet happy childhood. It was, in a sense, balanced, with hard times and good times.”
Her father was born in the Eastern Cape town of Peddie, was exiled from South Africa, and met her mother in Botswana, where she was born. After her father passed, she moved to the old Transkei at the age of five, where she lived with her uncle, a pastor, in a house with 13 cousins and family members. Her uncle was a strict man. Mornings started early, scriptures were memorised and they moved around a lot because of his vocation. She struggled to learn isiXhosa and later, when she returned to Botswana, she found it even harder to relearn Setswana. She persevered, found her calling, and when the ceilings in Botswana proved too low for her ambitions, she moved back to South Africa. At the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR), she built a reputation as a highly respected strategist, and when the opportunity arose to work in the Office of the NWU’s principal and vice-chancellor, Prof Bismark Tyobeka, she pounced.
“I like working with people who have conviction, people who are resolute, people who walk the talk, people who do what they say. That is why I like Prof Tyobeka and that is why we work well together.”
It is a relationship built on a shared understanding and a collective mission: “South Africa is standing on a precipice, and what we as a country must do, is to bring back that can-do spirit from all members of society. We need it.”
