Former SALDRU Director Murray Leibbrandt formally retires from UCT

Celebrating Murray

“Write a little article about Murray’s career and contributions,” they asked me as SALDRU’s former director prepares for his UCT retirement. But how does one do justice in a single “little” article to such a scholarly giant whose research, leadership, influence, and mentoring touch so many institutions, groupings and individuals? 

Last week we celebrated Murray at a heartwarming retirement function as a prelude to the SALDRU at 50 panel discussions that afternoon. What follows here draws on some of the day’s tributes, as well as a few of the many written contributions from others who could not be there in person. It is, of course, a mere glimpse into Murray Leibbrandt the scholar, mentor, influencer of policy and economic development and – above all –mensch. 

Murray the scholar

‘Rabula revisited: the South African land issue in the light of a village-level study’ was the title of Murray’s PhD thesis submitted to the University of Notre Dame in 1993. This study’s area of inquiry – just like the many that followed over the next 30-plus years – was a manifestation of his belief in social science as a tool towards a greater good. 

According to Google Scholar, Murray Leibbrandt papers have been cited more than 10 500 times to date, which is an extraordinary feat. His bio describes his research as using “survey data, particularly longitudinal studies, to explore poverty, inequality, and labour market dynamics in South Africa and across Africa”. But that sounds somewhat underrated compared to the seminal works that he is associated with. 

Image: From left to right: SALDRU Director Vimal Ranchhod, former Director Murray Leibbrandt, UCT Associate Professor Cecil Mlatsheni and DataFirst Director Cally Ardington. Credit: SALDRU. 

These include the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), the country’s first national panel study that ran for 12 years, which Murray, as its founding principal investigator, helped the government to design. NIDS was also the first national survey to be run outside of Statistics South Africa. It was initiated and funded by the Department of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation and run by SALDRU between 2007 and 2019. 

“If data could speak, it would sound like Murray”, remarked Najwah Allie-Edries, head of National Treasury’s The Jobs Fund, at last week’s function. To which Jeff Murugan, UCT Acting DVC for Research and Innovation cleverly added later in his tribute: “Murray is big data.” 

Influencer of policy and economic development

How such “big data” is made sense of, explained, and responded to by government is what stands out about Murray. 

Kunal Sen, director of UNU-WIDER, remarked about Murray’s “ability to see the big picture in any research problem”. 

Najwah commended “his coherent view of inequality – that there are intercepting domains of inequality that cannot be addressed in isolation – then we would lose the war”.

Kate Philip, the programme lead of South Africa’s Presidential Employment Stimulus, goes further: “Murray’s contribution to deep research on poverty and inequality is part of the bedrock of South African policy in this area. His academic rigour has always been in the service of policy to help the poor, address inequality, and make the world a better place. The NIDS was groundbreaking, providing new insights into the dynamics of poverty and inequality that have had huge impacts on policy. Murray’s role in breaking that ground was pivotal.” 

The impact of Murray’s intellectual prowess also reached beyond the policy sphere through his involvement and leadership in multisectoral initiatives to investigate and develop strategies to overcome poverty and inequality in South Africa. An example is the Mandela Initiative (MI), which was a UCT-led undertaking in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a follow-on from the Carnegie II inquiry led by SALDRU’s founding director, Francis Wilson. 

Verne Harris, who at the time was the head of the Foundation’s Memory Programme, cited Murray’s leadership and “brilliant content inputs” as important to MI. The final report of the Initiative, according to Verne, became the “basis for the Foundation’s continuing work in the poverty–inequity nexus, especially in the early childhood development space”.

Image: Murray pictured with his family. Credit: SALDRU. 

Kate Philip, the programme lead of South Africa’s Presidential Employment Stimulus, goes further: “Murray’s contribution to deep research on poverty and inequality is part of the bedrock of South African policy in this area. His academic rigour has always been in the service of policy to help the poor, address inequality, and make the world a better place. The NIDS was groundbreaking, providing new insights into the dynamics of poverty and inequality that have had huge impacts on policy. Murray’s role in breaking that ground was pivotal.” 

The impact of Murray’s intellectual prowess also reached beyond the policy sphere through his involvement and leadership in multisectoral initiatives to investigate and develop strategies to overcome poverty and inequality in South Africa. An example is the Mandela Initiative (MI), which was a UCT-led undertaking in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a follow-on from the Carnegie II inquiry led by SALDRU’s founding director, Francis Wilson. 

Verne Harris, who at the time was the head of the Foundation’s Memory Programme, cited Murray’s leadership and “brilliant content inputs” as important to MI. The final report of the Initiative, according to Verne, became the “basis for the Foundation’s continuing work in the poverty–inequity nexus, especially in the early childhood development space”.

Educator, teacher, and mentor

Murray Leibbrandt has supervised 48 PhD students over his career, 38 of whom have already graduated, in addition to numerous masters and honours students over the years. Nicola Branson, a chief research officer at SALDRU, was one of them; she studied under Murray since enrolling for her honours in economics at UCT. 

Nicola shared some of her and other former students’ observations of Murray during the celebrations. These included that he treated them as equals and with respect, that he cared deeply about not only their work but also about them as people, and that he gave them the freedom to explore their own ideas. Contributions also highlighted his patience with his students and the way that his belief in them shaped many of their careers.

Murray, the mensch

The tributes to Murray, whether in person, in writing or in video recordings, all have the same thing in common: his humility and how he invests in people and treats them with respect, kindness and compassion. 

This results in what Kate Philip called “Murray’s ‘induced effect’ on policy – building other people, including wave after wave of students in which he takes such evident pride in their success – and succeed they do. You find them simply everywhere, influencing policy themselves. This is a real and tangible and a key part of his legacy, not only as an academic – but as the real mensch that he is.”

And then there is his wicked sense of humour. Verne shared how, in 2015, when the MI was due to be announced publicly at UCT with renowned French economist Thomas Piketty as the “superstar” speaker at the event:

“Except, Piketty didn’t get on his flight to Cape Town. We were setting up a video link for a virtual presentation to a packed hall, but then technical difficulties made it impossible for Piketty to connect with us. Murray was unflappable, though, eventually taking an ever-diminishing audience through Piketty’s presentation slides. Afterwards, he said to me laconically: ‘It could have been worse.’” 

After all the homage paid to him at the retirement function, Murray responded with his usual understatement of his achievements:

I believe in doing good in the world. And doors opened and people joined me. I’ve had an anointed life. But I am not going anywhere; I will still be around.

In the new year, Murray will continue as a director of the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research and as principal investigator for the Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa – amongst other exciting projects that carry his stamp.