Chairperson of SA’s biggest educational group resigns

Sithembiso Nzimande, group chairman of the Educor group, South Africa’s largest private educational group has announced his resignation.
His resignation has come as a shock to many in the educational world after Nzimande’s very successful hands-on leadership of the top adult-education and school-leaving institutions in South Africa.
Nzimande ran a successful publishing company and staff recruitment organisation – he was and remained a major shareholder in both - before joining Educor Nomandla in 2008 as chairman before being made group chairman of the Educor group early last year.
A charming and hard-working individual, Nzimande took a very active role in the company visiting many of its subsidiaries whether Damelin, Lyceum, City College or others and negotiating multi-million contracts for the group. Popular among staff he was particularly concerned about ethics in business and education.
“Education has long been a passion in my family. Both my parents were involved in it in one way or another and that rubbed off on me.  It was a huge privilege to work for the largest private education group in South Africa and to try and create a positive impact on the future of education, whether young people finishing school, or school leavers, or those who wanted to follow a career path and then those coming back for additional skills training as adults.
“I discovered how many people have so many dreams and hopes vested in education. I realised too that how we present the training we give, how we support lecturers, learners and administrators in that environment is absolutely critical.  I heard many touching stories, whether it was teachers learning how to use computers for the first time so they could assist their children to parents who had saved up long and hard to try and give something extra in terms of education to their children. Their desire to try and give their children a future they had not had was very touching for me. The role of educators is a sacred one.”
Nzimande said that family concerns and the demands of his existing two companies had become increasingly onerous.
“It became clear that I had to make some difficult choices. My parents began the publishing company after my mother authored her first nursing textbook that is still used in training syllabi. I decided that I had certain loyalties that were unbreakable and too that for now, I need to focus my attention on areas I believe that will prove of most benefit to my family for now.”
Nzimande said his decision had been some months coming, “I consulted with friends and advisers and had some chats with senior officials in Educor to prepare them for this decision.”
Nzimande has already begun easing out of Educor and into his new role back at Alberts Publishers and Executive Recruitment.