Professor ‘Alex’ Amtaika was a prodigious scholar and thinker on democracy and liberty who lived his life in the pursuit of academic excellence and a commitment to social equity and civic responsibility. An Associate Professor and ebullient teacher in the Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes University, he, together with his nineteen year old daughter, Wala Sibutha, a first year Rhodes University student, died tragically in a car accident on the way to Durban on the morning of the second of April.
He was appointed Associate Professor at Rhodes University from 2018 until his death after appointments as Senior Lecturer at the University of the Free State from 2010-2017; Lecturer at the University of Natal from 2002-2010 and Lecturer at Vista University from 1998-2001.
After undergraduate studies at the University of Malawi (1991) and a BA Honours and MA degree in Political Science from the University of Natal (1994) Alex obtained his PhD in Political Science, under the supervision of Professor Tom Lodge, from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2002. He later earned a Certificate in Research Methodology from the University of Michigan (2009). At the time of his death, he had just obtained a C rating from the NRF and was delighted to have been selected as a member of the Mellon funded Inclusive Professoriate Programme at Rhodes. This had him eager and busy, submitting two book chapters to the University of New York and finalizing the publication of two books for the end of the year.
Alex was keenly interested in the promotion of democracy and development. As a political theorist he taught, did research and published on Local Government and Governance, South(ern) African Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations – especially International Political Economy – and Research Methodology. His publications are concerned with democratization, local government, civic duties and rights, socio-economic development and power. Recently he completed two comparative book studies on political leadership and the consolidation of democratic practices within the structures of the governing parties, as well as on the control of economic power structures in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. At the time of his passing, two books were in process for publication with Cambridge University Press, “The Limits of Constitutional Democracy in Land Restitution in South Africa and Zimbabwe: Rhetoric and Reality” and “Land as Private Property and as Public Good[s]: The Collision of Systems of Land Restitution in South Africa and Zimbabwe.”
His interest in local government gave him an international profile. As such, he was a founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of African and Asian Local Government Studies and a Visiting Professor at Khoen Kan University, Thailand as well as Executive Director of the International Association for Local Government.
Alex strongly believed in upholding and defending values and principles of participation, responsiveness, fairness, equality, justice, good governance and human rights. His humanist impulse showed in the way he related to his students, colleagues and the public at large. In his own words: “In practical terms, my deeper and wider understanding of political concepts enables me to understand not only human behaviour, but also helps me when it comes to dealing with human beings and people in general, because politics is about social behavior and the way humans interact.” A man of unimpeachable principle and integrity, he was an upright, decent and humble person, forever positive, with a ready smile and ready glint from behind his specs for all who met him. This year he expressed to all that he felt very happy at Rhodes after many years of personal struggles. He was full of even greater promise and scholarly intent at the time of his passing.
Rest in eternal peace, Prof Amtaika
Alex’s story was a story of the triumph of will over adversity. During his years as a lecturer at the Soweto campus of Vista University, he was hijacked on his way home, shot multiple times and left for dead by robbers. That he survived was a medical miracle – but the incident left him with permanent bodily damage. Upon recovering sufficiently, he spent several years assisting and indeed pressurizing the police and prosecutors to bring the perpetrators to justice.
As a colleague he was loyal, principled and – as in everything he did – he refused to compromise or take an easy path when matters of moral integrity were at stake. He was fearless in his willingness to challenge those in positions of power when he deemed their behaviour unacceptable. In this he became a much admired role-model for students and younger colleagues. Greatly loved as a teacher, he was also – interestingly – hugely demanding of his students. His loss is a loss to many future generations of students of a mentor not only in matters of scholarship but also in what is means to be a person of integrity and of commitment to the public good.
Our deepest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, students and former students and to all those whose lives he touched.