Address by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science And Innovation, Mr Buti Manamela at the Graduation Ceremony of the Faculty of Education of the University of Zululand, Kwadlangezwa, 18 April, 2023
Acting Chancellor, Professor Mtose;
Acting Vice- Chancellor, Professor N Kunene;
Deputy Chairperson of Council, Dr Kaniki;
Deans of the various Faculties;
Academics from various institutions;
The university community;
The parents;
The students and student leadership; Distinguished guests; Ladies and gentlemen:
It is my honour and privilege to speak here at this important occasion- the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Education of the University of Zululand.
Let me congratulate those of you who have defeated the N plus two rule.
1. Remember Nokutela Dube!!!
I want to start my speech by telling you a story not about Nelson Mandela, but about a woman who made education fashionable and who I want you to fashion yourself even better than her.
In 1994, just on the eve of the national general elections, this country was almost in a precipice of a civil war. KwaZulu Natal was almost the epicentre of this violence. And through countless meetings and negotiations, especially between the ANC on the one hand, and the IFP and the Conservative Party on the other, finally, all political parties in the country agreed to participate in the national general elections.
As a sign that these were to be a peaceful election, Nelson Mandela chose to cast his vote at Ohlange High School, which was founded in 1901 by Nokutela Dube, who was also the founder and wife of the first President of the African National Congress, John Dube.
She attended a missionary school in Inanda, and because of her academic prowess and her husband’s calling as a minister of church, they both travelled locally and abroad to teach both the word of their god and the children of the world.
However, in her travels, she always knew that she had to come back home and pay it forward to those who had invested their time and resources teaching her how to read, write and accumulate knowledge.
Founding a school today may be one of the simplest goals one can achieve compared to then. In 1901, being black, and a woman, was no small hurdle. But with dedication and commitment she pushed ahead with her dream of educating the black child.
She gave her life into this trade when she did not need to, but because she realised the transformative power and value of knowledge, and that it remained the one thing you can share without losing it, and possibly gaining more of it.
Nokutela Dube’s name should be on the lips of many of you as you join her and million others who have responded to the calling that teaching is.
You are walking on the footsteps of giants. As you do, do not forget that others existed before you, and shaped this world to their will by the energy they exerted to their beliefs.
2. Do better than those who came before you!!!
Ongone has bulldozed its way into the history books, not only of South Africa, but if the world. It has remained the almer mater of some of the greatest names we should be proud of sharing citizenry with.
The illustrious list of names that are products of this university include Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Judge Sisi Khampepe, Sibongile Khumalo, Dr Mosibudi Mangena, Dr Hlengiwe Mkhize, Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng, and of course our current Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Bonginkosi Blade Nzimande.
With this rich list of your alumni, you are stepping into the shadows of men and women who helped shape the future of this country. These are men and women who took the honour of graduating from this university and used it for the best of their people and nation.
However, I do not urge you to be like them. They walked these corridors in the toughest, darkest and thickest of our time in history. The adversity that confronted them, the legislated hate that was meted against them, the narrow path that lied ahead beyond the gates of this university, is what shaped them.
I urge you to do better than them.
Yes, our post-school education system has its inherent structural problems; but it is one of the best in the continent and can stand head and shoulder with the best amongst the world. Thus, you are freed from the limitations that were imposed on them, which are now but a thing of the past.
When I say be better than them, one of them is Pennuel Maduna, who left this campus in his late twenties to go into exile and join the ANC in Lusaka. He became instrumental as one of the first crafters of the constitution of our land being part of a team that was assembled by OR Tambo. He and many others who donned the graduation garb of this university understood that they have become the merchants of oNgoye, as this university is popularly known.
And thus I say, you dare not forget that you are walking in the shadows of giants, and you should never forget that mere mortals who became giants left footprints for you to follow. Others, as I said, have walked this route and showed the world that besides what apartheid intended with oNgoye, it turned rough boulders into diamonds that continue to glitter the world.
When you leave here, remember that every school in the province should have an educator from here; every court a legal fundi of your Almer Mater, every clinic a nurse, every mine an engineer, every covered inch of this country where there are graduates, you now have the honour of wearing that badge— “I went to oNgoye and I graduated”.
3. All Praise to the Teacher!!!
We are graduating students from the education faculty. Teaching is one of the most important professions our country needs. We have here a group of young people who will become an army in our classrooms across the country.
You will be deployed in almost every nook and cranny of this province and country.
I do not know what inspired you to become teachers or educators. It could be because some of you saw your first teachers as role models. They were the only other adults outside of your parents whom you interacted with.
They instilled in you a sense of discipline, commitment and gave you the very foundation of knowledge and showed you how to go and hunt for more. They shaped the manner in which you are going to see the world. They helped you stay on course when it seemed the road is too long and full of insurmountable difficulties. You trusted them. And even though you doubted that one plus one is indeed two, you took their word for it.
Today, because of the investment of all the teachers in your life, you have crossed the first box of education at a higher level.
I was not inspired only by the teachers in school, but also the teachers at home played even a greater role.
Both my aunts and my uncle were trained teachers. Not only were my aunts teachers, but they were/are both principals. They also went on to study further beyond their teacher diplomas. They are heroes in our family, but also in the community.
The teaching profession remains one of the most important and valuable. The extent of the impact and reach that teachers have in society is immense.
One always remember their first boyfriend or girlfriend; and their first teacher.
But not all teachers are good ambassadors for their professions. Some have committed crimes worse than society can comprehend. A few amongst those who practice this profession do go to school under the influence of alcohol; others have sexual relations with the school kids; some even use violence to instil discipline; some do not even bother to ensure that they do their best, or even beyond the call of duty; to teach the kids to the best of their abilities.
I want you to be a better type of a teacher. The one who understands the children that they teach, their weaknesses and their strengths, what their family background is and who their parents are (if they have any), whether they do have a meal before they come to schools, are they being bullied at home or at school which may affect their studies, are they deaf or blind, and if not is there a way in which we can help them so that this does not affect their studies, you need to contribute into revolutionizing teaching.
I want you to also look into the possibility of studying further, or exploring ways of making education delivery better in the context of advancing technology.
Can we find a better way to deliver lessons in a much more exciting and fun way? Is there a way in which we can think of education beyond the classroom?
Some of the older teachers may be stuck, and rightly so according to them, in the old ways of learning and teaching. This is the way that worked when we did not have twitter and TikTok.
That traditional methodology of teaching is competing with these platforms, sometimes for the best, and at times for the worst.
You are the generation that needs to think beyond the box and get children excited about mathematics, history, languages, science, art and technology.
They say in China, using algorithms, some of the social media is used for learning and teaching beyond the classroom. So TikTok will not only be used for showcasing dancing and singing, important as these are, but should also promote robotics, 3D printing, technological literacy and many other skills that will help children evolve into sophisticated beings.
You are the generation that should redefine learning and teaching as we know it.
I visited one of the TVET colleges recently, and went into their electrical workshop. I met there one of the teachers who have been with the college for so many years. He took me through the various stations that he uses to train his students. One of these was the solar installation and maintenance station.
He told me how this was not part of the curriculum, but the challenges out there have imposed this curriculum on us. So every Saturday he teaches his electrical students how to run solar energy as a business. In the first week, only two students attended because it was voluntary. It was only when these two students started making money that the rest became interested.
That’s the kind of innovation that I am talking about. I want to take this opportunity to urge you to go and teach at TVET Colleges too. This is one of the growing sectors that needs better qualified instructors who understands and respect the trade.
4. Consider doing National Service!!!
Currently, in our country, we do not have a national youth service that strong enough and focus on graduates from our universities and TVET colleges. Most of you here today, I am told more than 80%, would have studied through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. When this scheme started, all students were expected to pay it back, no this is no longer the case as government covers everything that has to do with students studies.
Thanks to the struggles that you waged for fees to fall, fees have fallen. But this education is not for free. It is paid by the sweat from the brows of your parents through their taxes. It has given you the opportunity to study this far. It has opened a new door of opportunity that if you were born in any other part of the world, you would not have received.
I am here to ask you to pay it forward. I am not only asking the students of oNgoye. I am asking students across the country who are part of a privileged few, 1,2 million this year and costing the national fiscus an investment of more than R49 billion, to consider paying it forward even though the state does not expect you to.
Go and contribute in eradicating illiteracy in your communities. Go and volunteer in an early childhood development centre for a year. Go and fill in a gap at a school that has a vacancy but unfunded posts. Go and teach the disabled, the poor and the destitute.
Look for local NGO’s that places students in international programmes that has to do with education and go and learn what is happening in the world. Go and teach the elderly who cannot read or write. I know that you have challenges of your own.
You are probably worried whether you will be employed or get a scholarship to China or Hungary or from this University. But considering a volunteer service will also come with its own benefits. The values of selflessness, solidarity, care for our fellow human, social cohesion and many others that awaits us on the other side of the door.
Importantly, even if you do jump into the world of work, many of you may want to be located in the city lights. Think about where there is the most needs. Some of the rural communities do not have teachers that the can look up to, and some of the teachers to not see why they should be locked up in villages.
But it may be important to think of the lives that you can change if you consider working in those areas, those villages, those outskirts where no one goes, but where lives and souls also need to be saved.
We need a million Nokutela’s who will brave the unjust laws, the hurdles that are placed before them, the desire to be self-serving and the urge to use what we have just for our own benefit.
History does not remember those who danced in their own limelight. History remembers those who lit candles for others so they can see their own way.
Go out there and make history and better country.
Congratulations and thank you for listening.
