Director of Ceremonies
Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Fikile Mazibuko
Former Chancellor Inkosi Dr MG Buthelezi
Chairperson of Council Mr Bheki Ntuli
Members of Council and the Alumni Association
President of Convocation Mr Vusi Mahaye
Members of the Provincial Executive
Members of the National and Provincial Legislatures
Mayors and councillors
Traditional leaders
Academics, students and members of the university community
Business and other strategic partners
Your Excellencies High Commissioners and Ambassadors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Forty years ago in 1970, I was one of 605 students who registered at the University of Zululand. After all these years, it is with a great sense of honour that today in 2010 I accept my election as the fourth Chancellor of the University of Zululand (UniZulu).
One takes over this responsibility with all the humility necessary as we try to fill the shoes of my eminent predecessor JG Zuma, our President. His Excellency, President of the Republic and the ANC, Mr Jacob Zuma took the reins as Chancellor in 2001. This was a time when in KwaZulu-Natal we were developing our capacity for listening, patience, negotiation, tolerance and peacemaking. As Chancellor, he steered the University of Zululand out of the rough seas of political conflict into the calmer waters of academic excellence. He was able to drive the University of Zululand towards institutional autonomy and being a university that embraces the new non-racial and democratic ethos of our post-1994 Constitutional order.
President Zuma succeeded the Honourable Inkosi Dr MG Buthelezi, Member of Parliament and President of the Inkatha Freedom Party who lent to the position of Chancellor not only his wisdom but also his illustrious national and international stature.
Dr Buthelezi ensured that the institution also maintained a steady direction throughout the years that he was here as chancellor and continued to be true to its vision of a university that delivers quality education and changes forever the lives of those who come into contact with it.
We also wish to take this opportunity to thank the previous Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rachel Gumbi for her sterling contribution to the transformation and repositioning of the University of Zululand. Under her stewardship, this University has gradually integrated into the broader South African academic society and is now alive to the realities and demands of the 21st century economy.
At this point let me congratulate Prof Fikile Mazibuko on her appointment as the new Vice-Chancellor of our institution. We convey our best wishes to you in all your endeavours to fulfil this national mandate. We want to assure you Professor Mazibuko of our fullest and unqualified support as you take the University to greater and greater heights.
It is the fortune of the province of KwaZulu-Natal that irrespective of political affiliation we have one centre which will forever keep us together. That centre is none other than His Majesty King Goodwill ka Bhekuzulu. We know and wish that whatever change may take place here His Majesty should never be too far from the University of Zululand. We hope that His Majesty will always remind us that even though we may belong to different political parties, we are still party to one political system, the post-apartheid multi cultural and multi party order.
It is this unity of history, tradition and modernity which is the basis of the future of this province, the future of this country. Tomorrow the first flight will land and take off from the new world class King Shaka International Airport in La Mercy. It will herald a new era in aviation in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa. It marks the fulfilment of a dream which started in 1996 and which only 14 years later has come to completion. As MEC of Transport here in KwaZulu-Natal I was part of the first proposals to bring this airport to the province. As Minister of Transport I am glad to be here to see the project take off.
Ladies and gentlemen, tolerance at universities is the one condition which will bring the necessary vibrancy befitting an intellectual institution such as the University of Zululand. While unanimity might be preferable, it would create a world of perpetual boredom. Importantly, knowledge production and reproduction change and history, innovation and creativity, can never take place when everything stays the same. Vibrancy in a university requires a constant clash of ideas and vigorous engagement with what is in order to create what should be.
One of the foremost thinkers of our time, former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam once asked a ten year old who came up to him for an autograph, "What is your ambition,” he asked her? "I want to live in a developed India," she replied without hesitation. We have no doubt that the ambition of that ten year old is shared by 48 million people in this country and 800 million on the continent.
Like the rest of the world we want development. We have moved away from a state of underdevelopment which was induced by apartheid colonialism. We now characterise ourselves, and are characterised by others, as a developing country. A country is developed when it has peace, democracy, water, energy, transport and communications.
Peace does not happen. It is created. It is the self-creation of precisely the self same parties to the conflict. You do not throw up your hands and say the peaceful ones are not yet born. The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars.
This is the experience of KwaZulu-Natal. This is the experience that in 1992 became the national experience through the establishment of the National Peace Accord. This is the experience that has since been transformed into the most sought-after export from South Africa namely peace and conflict resolution. In much the same way that Britain’s export has been the Westminster system of democracy, South Africa’s experience is still felt in Burundi, in Sudan, in Madagascar, in Zimbabwe and by the international community at large. Ours is to treasure this experience, live up to its promise. It begins with our personal as well as group commitment. As Meryl Streep puts it, we are the choices we make.
Ladies and gentlemen, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd wanted universities such as this one to produce natives who were hewers of wood, drawers of water and were limited to certain levels of labour in the South African economy. UniZulu has however over the past 50 years defied that logic and instead produced great leaders in many fields of human endeavour in South Africa and abroad.
Ladies and gentlemen, the question facing this university is similar to the question we asked of the Department of Transport when we took over in May 2009.
The first question is where do we see South Africa in 10 years’ time? Secondly, what role do we see ourselves playing in relation to that project? This evening, we start asking the same questions of this university. Where do you see South Africa in 10 years’ time?
What role will you play in getting South Africa there?
It is a question we must ask of all of us as a community and a country. We must ask the same questions in relation to Africa: Where do we see Africa in 10 years time? What will our role be in ensuring Africa gets there?
As Dr Kalam suggests, South Africa must choose whether it marches towards being a developed economy or gallops towards that eventuality. Development calls for the production of pioneers in science, engineering, transportation, logistics all of which are necessary for innovation and technology driven growth. A university is that place where focused teaching, learning, research and pointed innovation take place. This is the role that UniZulu must play in getting Africa to year 2020.
This posture places us at the head of a country’s developmental agenda. It demands a symbiotic relationship between the university, public policy makers, implementers and the general community. Through this university, we must produce applied knowledge, relevant scholarship and become an engaged university. Through this approach, our university can play an appropriate role in the
Ladies and gentlemen, globally the financial crisis has forced a relook at expenditure and introduced a culture of austerity all around the world.
Universities now have to increase the quality of output more than ever before while relying on less money.
Fortunately our country has made the correct choice that university education remains a key ingredient to a better future for South Africa. The allocation of resources responds to our developmental agenda and where we want to see South Africa in 10 years’ time.
So what is the role for the University of Zululand in this specific regard? For a start this university must stay true to its own vision and mission of being “a leading rural-based comprehensive university providing quality education.” In living this vision however, UniZulu must provide answers to a number of challenges such as rural development, agriculture and food security, road maintenance, electricity maintenance and water purification needs.
Located as we are on the coast we cannot ignore the maritime economy of our country. We therefore require a battery of specialised maritime and harbour engineering skills which are not only in short supply in South Africa but in the world. We also know that the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has declared 2010 the year of the seafarer.
The IMO has also indicated that there are some 200 000 jobs available internationally for people coming out of our institutions. This means we can act locally but make a global impact in this sector.
Another area of possible focus is comprehensive rural development. Our Rural Access improvement programme is part of a comprehensive Rural Transport Strategy for South Africa (RUTRASSA) and addresses the transport challenges in rural areas. We will continue to construct bridges and access roads and provide non-motorised transport for our people.
We have also raised the importance of moving away from road to rail for the future. Some have said we are dreaming, but we ask how else we are going to move our people and goods faster.
As the Department of Transport we are told that a number of students walk long distances to campus and to school. We are therefore going to donate bicycles to deserving students in the campus precinct and surrounding areas. We have also agreed with the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport that going forward university road is going to be maintained regularly. We are pleased we have received a firm commitment from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport to find a permanent solution to the KwaDlangezwa intersection.
We intend giving all these projects we have referred to above practical implementation. In this regard maritime transport, rural development and the movement from road to rail will form the content of our ongoing discussions with the university.
Our discussions will lead to the setting up of an African Renaissance Institute. This will be linked to the University, based in KwaZulu-Natal but national, continental and global in its reach. Secondly, organised student sports used to be one of the most popular activities on the campus calendar and at the University of Zululand. We want to revive this in the tradition of the Freedom Charter which declares that there shall be peace and friendship in South Africa. Wits University has demonstrated the commitment to sporting excellence by having a team competing at the highest professional level in the country.
Pretoria University, a rugby-focused campus has emerged as a soccer force to be reckoned within the country. Pretoria University demonstrates that sporting excellence is possible on campus. It has not only beaten top professional teams in South Africa but is also supplying the Premier Soccer League (PSL) with highly trained and disciplined sports people.
In the United States intervarsity sports is one of the most popular attractions and has become a multi-million dollar industry that opens doors for many a young person into the paid ranks of professional sports. Sport is today a means to a quality livelihood. It is also one of the best vehicles for social and national cohesion.
In closing, let me refer you to two intellectuals who lived centuries apart but who have an important message for us today. One message is taken from the few books in the Bible written by a woman. Her name also happens to be the name of my late mother.
Here I refer to Esther 4:14 and I quote: “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise from another place but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this (Esther 4 v 14, the Bible King James version).
The other voice is that of Algerian intellectual Franz Fanon who reminds us as follows: “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it.” (Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth)
Programme director, Vice-Chancellor and distinguished guests, we again, express our sincere appreciation for the honour bestowed on me today. I would like to thank my wife Zama and my children for all their support which allows me to be who I can be.
Thank you!
Issued by: Department of Transport
30 April 2010
