Address by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa during his installation as Chancellor of the University of Mpumalanga, Ingwenyama Conference and Sport Resort, White River
Programme Director, Prof John Shongwe,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Premier of Mpumalanga, Mr David Mabuza,
Chair of Council of the University of Mpumalanga, Dr Madoda Mabunda,
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mpumalanga, Prof Thoko Mayekiso,
Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors from other Universities,
Scholars, Students,
Distinguished Guests,
The brighter day is rising upon Africa.
Already I seem to see her chains dissolved, her desert plains red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities.
Her Congo and her Gambia whitened with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business, and all her sons employed in advancing the victories of peace - greater and more abiding than the spoils of war.
It is exactly 110 years, almost to the day, since Pixley ka Isaka Seme published these stirring words on the 'Regeneration of Africa'.
As we gather here, in the place where the sun rises, to celebrate the birth of this new seat of science, we are committing our voices, our deeds, our intellect to the creation of a new and unique civilization.
As we gather here, in the province of Mpumalanga, we can pronounce with confidence and conviction that a brighter day is indeed rising upon Africa.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with profound humility that I accept the honour and responsibility bestowed upon me by the University of Mpumalanga to serve as its Chancellor.
This young African university, among the first established in a free and democratic South Africa, is an emphatic affirmation of our determination to employ our sons and daughters in advancing the victories of peace.
It is an affirmation of our conviction that only an educated people, a skilled people, an enlightened people, can be a free people.
This young African university will become more than a seat of learning and a repository of knowledge.
It will become an instrument of progress, a beacon of hope.
This is a university whose identity and posture is unashamedly African.
As one of South Africa's first post-apartheid universities - together with the Sol Plaatje University in the Northern Cape - the University of Mpumalanga is uniquely placed to define the university of our new democratic age.
As we do so, we would do well to heed the words of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, when he said:
"We must in the development of our universities bear in mind that once it has been planted in the African soil it must take root amidst African traditions and cultures.”
The soil of Mpumalanga is rich. Its people diverse. Its cultures vibrant.
It possesses the ability, the industry and the desire to become a renowned seat of learning.
It does not have the history of great institutions like Fort Hare or the resources of a Cape Town or Stellenbosch, but it has the kernel of what can grow into a leading African university.
The University of Mpumalanga has a vision to produce thinkers and leaders who see education as a service to humankind.
It sees a skill not as a personal possession, but as a community resource.
It sees knowledge not as a commodity, but as a great endowment in which all may share equally.
This is a university that has set itself up to nurture talent, embrace difference and reward excellence - to champion academic rigour and intellectual courage.
This university has embraced the constitutional values of human dignity, respect and equality.
It has embraced the constitutional imperative to recognise and redress the injustices of the past.
This must be reflected in its curricula, in its teaching, in its research and in the recognition of the value of indigenous knowledge systems.
We must pay attention to our students, validate their lived experiences, and democratise knowledge production and dissemination.
A university must be occupied with the contemplation and expansion of human understanding.
It is called upon to discover, probe and, where necessary, dispel what are held as universal truths.
Yet a university should not be, as the saying goes, an ivory tower.
A university should be present and engaged in its immediate environment.
This university of Mpumalanga should derive its purpose from the place in which it is located.
It should derive its purpose from the communities that surround it and from the province for which it is named.
It should serve the country and it should serve the continent.
This university should become a vital element of the social, cultural and economic life of this province.
It should develop the skills that the economy needs to grow, to diversify and to create jobs.
It must generate the ideas and develop the technology that will be used to tackle poverty, hunger, disease and environmental degradation.
It must build faculties, disciplines and curricula that respond to the needs of the immediate environment, the needs of the continent and the requirements of global competitiveness.
It must promote an intellectual culture that thinks and rethinks our assumptions on development.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The University of Mpumalanga exists to create opportunities.
It serves many students from impoverished backgrounds.
It serves the children of farm workers, mine workers, factory workers and the many others who have struggle throughout their lives to overcome our awful apartheid inheritance.
It serves students who come to this university under-prepared.
This places a great responsibility on the university to ready these young people for study - to bridge the divide between what is and what should be.
It places a responsibility on the university to pay close attention to the material circumstances of its students, and to do everything possible to ensure that every student has the means to study, to live and to succeed.
This university must join its fellow institutions to work with government to ensure that no person is denied access to higher education because they are poor.
We need to work together to develop funding mechanisms that are sustainable and ensure a high quality of education.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The journey to this moment - the establishment of a new African university - has been a long one.
It began 20 years ago, when Premier David Mabuza - then the MEC for Education - set up a committee to explore the possibility of establishing a university in this province.
It was an act of great ambition and enormous confidence.
It was an act of foresight that will benefit the people of this province for generations to come.
We owe a great debt of gratitude to Minister Blade Nzimande for seeing this journey through to its conclusion.
Now, as we embark on our next journey as a young African university, let us reflect on these words from the Vision Statement of the National Development Plan:
Our new story is open ended with temporary destinations, only for new paths to open up once more.
It is a story of unfolding learning.
Even when we flounder, we remain hopeful.
In this story, we always arrive and depart...
We are Africans.
We are an African country.
We are part of our multi-national region.
We are an essential part of our continent.
Being Africans, we are acutely aware of the wider world, deeply implicated in our past and present.
That wider world carries some of our inheritance.
We have learned a great deal from our complex past; adding continuously to our experience of being African.
We feel understood.
We feel needed.
We feel trustful.
We feel trusted.
We feel accommodative.
We feel accommodated.
We feel informed.
We feel healthy.
We feel safe.
We feel resourceful and inventive.
We learn together.
We talk to each other.
We share our work?
We are energised by sharing our resourcefulness.
We are resilient?
We are a nation at work.
I thank you.
