The Rhodes University 2010 graduation ceremonies running over 3 days – Thursday 8 April to Saturday 10 April - kicked of with the Dr Saleem Badat, the Vice-Chancellor, congratulating the 1 897 students who will be graduating at the five graduation ceremonies, on their tremendous achievement.
He said it needed to be noted that 60% of the graduates (1 142) were women, 37% (700) postgraduate students, and 19% (356) international students from 38 countries in the rest of Africa and from countries around the world.
Dr Saleem Badat said most of the graduating students “were born in the late 1980s, a period of great turbulence and social conflict. This was, however, also a time of great optimism for it was clear that apartheid tyranny could no longer continue and had to give way to a new social order.
“We must take immense pride in the imagination, creativity, ingenuity and courage that we displayed as a people to rid ourselves of tyranny and to fashion our democracy.
“You are a generation that has been, thankfully, largely spared the horrors, brutality and injustices of apartheid. You are the first generation with the opportunity of living in a society founded on a democratic Constitution that proclaims the commitment to human dignity, the achievement of equality, and the advancement of non-sexism and non-racialism and the human rights and freedoms that are contained in our Bill of Rights.”
Mr Peter Harris, well-known Human Rights lawyer took to the podium and solidified Dr Badat’s message by looking at the inequalities of the past and the heroes and heroines who fought for change with no financial gain, and in some cases at the cost of their own lives.
He reminded the congregation that “we need to release the ugliness from the past from our hearts and embrace everything that those heroes fought for.”
Mr Harris’ speech spoke directly to the students and encouraged them to be leaders with the right frame of mind. He reminded them that the university is half paid for by public taxes, taxes of our street sweepers, our paramedics, our miners.
All South Africans pay tax in some way or another and so they helped pay for the qualification the graduates received last night. As a final message he asked that graduates remember to repay this debt to the South African public by working towards changing the turmoil and inequality into peace and harmony.
Click here for VICE-CHANCELLOR’S full address
Click here for an introduction to Peter Harris
Click here for Book Award Citation
Click here for Distinguished Senior Research Medal Citation