Mlambo-Ngcuka, Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, at Tshwane
University of Technology (TUT), Tshwane
2 November 2007
Salutations
Programme director
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tyobeka
Chairperson of Council, Mr Matlhare
Staff and students of TUT
Distinguished guests and Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemen
"We empower people"
Introduction
Your kind invitation for me to become the chancellor of Tshwane University
of Technology (TUT) is a humbling honour. It comes after a loss that is still
sore to many of us. I am talking about the loss of Mama Adelaide Tambo who was
the chancellor of this university at the time of her death. Her death was
untimely. The loss and vacuum we still feel.
That is why we cry "awunoni mhlaba, kufa ungcolile uqoqa konke uqoqisise."
We console ourselves with an assumption that she has joined Tata Oliver Tambo,
making up for the many years they were robbed of family time as the struggle
made demands on them. The song "kuyobanjani sesihleli noTambo sesibona amabhunu
eginqgika" rings in our ears. This song sets a scene of Tata and Mama Tambo in
the other world together reflecting on the road travelled and triumphs over
adversaries.
The wisdom, leadership, embrace of life that Mama Adelaide exhibited has
given a footprint that is forever in our hearts and in front of our eyes. I am
sure this footprint is also in the TUT's collective memory. As we mourn her, we
also celebrate a life lived fully. To put education in its proper place, at her
installation in 2006 MaTambo said: "During the struggle days we used the slogan
freedom during our lifetime. Now we have won that freedom, but without
education, freedom is without any meaning." To that I add that ignorance is an
enemy of our democracy, we have to defeat it. Education indeed gives meaning to
freedom.
Education in broad community context implies a process of development of a
person. It is anathema in Africa to learn for the sake of learning without a
practical purpose, which positively transforms lives. Education has to have a
qualitative outcome meant for greater good. It must instil the notion of being
"proud to serve" and achieving greatness by giving oneself to others for a good
purpose. The task of advancing education is the greatest single shield we have
to protect this nation from the invasion of poverty, the burden of incurable
and avoidable diseases, the helplessness and marginalisation of whole
communities and generations.
I embrace the challenge of being part of this institution with a view to
contribute towards ensuring it grows in being part of that fight against
ignorance that leads to poverty. Through quality education the strategic
contribution can and must be to produce competent citizens who are "proud to
serve," able and convinced that theirs is a task of reconstruction of our land,
economy and communities.
Once the tools are in their hands, their minds and hearts must never be
found idle in the middle of a battle in which we are all called upon to be
gallant soldiers. "We empower people", that is the TUT motto and that, has to
be a resolve of TUT graduates. In them is the destiny of this great nation for
which Steve Biko lived and died. This year we celebrate Biko's legacy, thirty
(30) years after his death. He was thirty years-old when he died, hence the
30/30 caption of the celebrations. He lived his life in full and he created a
destiny to be shared by all.
As a community, within a learning nation, we have a lot to for which to be
thankful from the life of this young man. Indeed, we gained a lot from his
short life. How can someone who had such a short life have accomplished so
much, while many of us, with longer lives, may not even achieve a fraction of
what his short rich life achieved? The lesson for the young is that it is never
too early to follow your dreams and to take responsibility.
Biko gave us a great vision within which to locate our work today, when he
said, "the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the
oppressed." Today's oppressors and tormentors of young people, especially, are
ruthless ambition, crime and drugs. Young people must not surrender their minds
to those new forms of oppressors!
Biko further made it clear that our mission was not just learning to imitate
the white masters who enslaved us but "to decolonise the mind" to know that we
are masters of our destiny not a project of white masters; we are not a "native
problem" but an African Solution. Our youth must be problem-solvers.
Africa is the youngest continent with a high population under 35 years old.
Africa has all these young minds on which to build its future and the young
population is Africa's biggest competitive advantage and key to its solutions.
As age is a trend that only goes in one direction the aged continents cannot
reverse. Africa must use its youth to build its future.
What does that mean for us today? We at TUT and elsewhere in higher learning
institutions in South Africa, it means we have to work for the development and
liberation of young and old minds. Learn from the young life of Biko. We also
have to emphasise the value of education as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen says,
"enhanced capabilities that education brings results to freedom and benefits to
individuals and nations". And that is indeed a fact.
While Joseph Stiglitz writing on globalisation says, "a country's most
important resource is its people and if a large fraction of its people do not
live up to their full potential as a result of lack of access to education then
the nation will not live up to its potential."
Education or the lack of it, is South Africa's "opportunity and threat" and
hence our call for a skills revolution, which must prepare the nation for
higher productivity. In that skills revolution we also appeal for relevance of
skills passed to the learners and high calibre citizen we want to bring out.
Technical skills are highly sought after in the economy, a combination of
appropriate skills and formidable character is what will rebuild South Africa
and what we must aim for. The Tshwane University Technology has what it takes
to contribute to nation building. What Steve Biko could not finish 30 years ago
is now in our hands to complete. As leaders we have to guide the young to
finish this task so as to realise what he believed in when he said:
"In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest
possible gift a more human face." Now is the time for all of us to make this
hope and dream a reality. We should be committed to a vision which says because
of TUT, South Africa and Africa will be a better place. We have to answer the
lament of President Mbeki at the Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture where he asked
us to re-examine our values:
"(He called us to be) worthy citizens of our community, the very exemplars
of what defines the product of a liberated South Africa." President Mbeki was
challenging us to lift others as we climb and never to acquire wealth through
unsavoury means, to cherish work and our own accomplishments. Easy victories
are hollow, you soon discover. And we must be the change we want to see.
Education must socialise us and instil the pride in a shared and better
tomorrow as against making a "fast buck" or the "me, myself, I" phenomenon. As
a nation, we long for men and women to lift us to greater heights. To make sure
that the poverty trap that grips so many women will be no more.
We have to work to ensure that the growing number of children at risk is
reduced and the children are regaining their innocence, and their realisation
of the future potential is insured. Our young people and staff must know there
is immense pleasure in work; that and all of us here must lead by example and
be role models. I look forward to working with TUT and indeed other
universities to advance the work we do. To give our young graduates an
opportunity to gain international exposure in Information Communication
Technology (ICT), engineering, finance and tourism, which are the areas we are
focussing on in the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa). I
am here to be part of a collective, together we must ensure we never have a
student who cannot be placed for experiential training.
As the university we have to address the factors that render graduates
unemployed, which include soft skills, communication skills and confidence as
it was shown in the study we did recently. Ladies and gentlemen, I will, as
Chancellor of this university, seek to dedicate myself to make a difference and
to earn the honour, to bring different stakeholders to this common task of
taking the knowledge economy to our people. I hope my wishes and actions will
contribute to a TUT that will distinguish itself and will be synonymous with
excellence and production of a new rounded and technologically competent
citizen that will serve the nation with pride and distinction. To the council,
staff and all those who put their confidence in me and in us, I thank you.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
2 November 2007
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)
