12 out of 28 members of Council are black. Assuming - and one cannot assume these things, safely - that all 12 black members voted in favour of a black VC, two further progressive votes were found among white members of Council. Which means, out of 16 white members of Council, fully 12% are prepared to consider the possibility of a black VC. I suppose after 11 years of a black president running the country, the idea has become sufficiently conceivable for two of these white members of Council - neither of which is the Chair.
On the other hand, perhaps the assumption of black Council members voting progressively is flawed. After all, the Matanzimas, the Buthelezis and the Mangopes were also at least superficially black. And, here at UCT, we had a black VC who brought about arguably the most reactionary intervention of all - the outsourcing of "non-core" services like cleaning, gardening and security.
The report is silent on whether the vote was between two candidates, one white and one black, or whether it was on the principle of a contract renewal for the incumbent white VC (thereby excluding the possibility of a black VC) and so perhaps one should be wary of reading too much into what is presented. But it does raise interesting questions around the transformation of senior leadership in the Higher Education sector in SA - a debate of much interest to us here too, particularly in the light of the fora concerned with these matters not yet having had sight of an employment equity plan for our own Senior Leadership Group.