Chancellor Installation Speech

ADDRESS AT INSTALLATION AS CHANCELLOR: RHODES UNIVERSITY, 4 APRIL 2013

 

This is a momentous occasion. I am deeply humbled and honoured to have been nominated and ultimately elected as Chancellor of this fine and highly respected institution of learning, Rhodes University. My family and I wish to thank the Law Faculty for nominating me, the University Council, Senate, Institutional Forum and the entire university community for the confidence they have shown by entrusting me with this very important role for the next seven years.

I’d  want to pay tribute to my predecessor, the late Professor Jakes Gerwel, whom I met in the late 80s, during my time as Assistant Secretary of the then South African Rugby Union, and when he was still Rector of the University of the Western Cape. I knew him as a trustworthy individual and a dependable leader in his own right. I am sure the entire Rhodes community realises how privileged they were to have had him as Chancellor of this University. We shall remember him, as we do those before him.

When I received the news of my election as Chancellor I was with my wife and she heard when I said to the bearer of the news: ‘Give me time to think about it.’ The conversation with the news-bearer was over the phone and when I told my wife what it was about she asked the question: ‘What is there to think about?’ I must confess: my first question, to myself, was: Is this not going to interfere with my rugby duties?

After I had comforted myself that it probably wouldn’t, I cast my mind back to the time that I was a student at Rhodes; my catching of a lift in my employer’s combi from the township in the early mornings to make it to the Afrikaans I lecture, which was affectionately referred to as the ‘Dawnie’; my interview before the then Vice-Chancellor, the late Dr Henderson, when I had applied for a bursary for my second year; and my walk up the hill after lectures to open the pub at the Settlers Inn Motel, where I worked.

I reminded myself about an afternoon, when I arrived home, very upset. I had just written the first Xhosa II paper for the final examination of my second year BA; I was convinced that I had failed it and so I told her ‘I am done with this studying!’ With a stern voice, she said: ‘You will not do that! The whole of Grahamstown is watching you!’ Well, I did not fail that paper, but this tells you from where I got the inspiration to push forward.

I also looked back at Rhodes University from the time that I came to know about it, from 1964 to be exact, the year that I came to high school in Grahamstown, and what it meant to the community on the other side of town. To that community, the Black community, that is, the University was a beacon of hope. Not only did it, together with the Teachers Training College that bounded it, employ a large number of township residents, which it still does, but stories went around in the townships, of student confrontation with the police for whatever reason.

Some of these stories might not have been true, but we loved to hear them. And whether or not the students were said to be in the wrong was, to us, of no consequence. Their standing up to the police, a symbol of the oppressor, gave us a sense of satisfaction, it was as if they were doing it for us, the oppressed.

In the mid-70s, after we had formed a non-racial rugby union (South Eastern Districts Rugby Union) made up of clubs from Grahamstown and surrounds, we decided, in collaboration with the officials of the Kwazakhele Rugby Union (KWARU), another non-racial structure in Port Elizabeth, to make a statement in Port Elizabeth by staging a rugby game in which mixed teams would participate. KWARU already had the Watson brothers playing in their team and we, from our side, mandated our officials to approach the Rhodes Rugby Club and to request them to make available to us 7 players from their first team, which they gladly did, with the blessing of Professor Page, who was either their president, chairman or patron – I do not know which of those positions he held. Amongst those players were the late Alistair Weakley, Derek Barter and Graeme Bell – I cannot now remember the others.

Despite road-blocks set up by the security police  along all the roads leading into the townships of Port Elizabeth in order to frustrate our plans, the players were ‘smuggled’ in and the match was played on the Dan Qeqe Stadium in Veeplaas before a capacity crowd. A year or two following that game a few students joined different clubs in the township and played regular fixture matches there.

I am mentioning this to give you a picture of the kind of student this university cultivated during the years of apartheid rule - students who did not only acquire knowledge through their studies at university, but who also built up character, with a sense of fairness and a preparedness to confront the system with us in our fight for a just society.

But we are in a different era now. Our focus is no longer on the attainment of a democratic society – that we have achieved.  And my motivation and the motivation of many others from my time and before to study law, which was to defend the many South Africans who were unnecessarily sent to jail daily because they could not afford legal representation, is probably no longer the same for student who decide to study law  today. Our focus is now elsewhere, and that is to sustain that democracy by ensuring the promises made in our Constitution, particularly those relating to the foundational values of human dignity, equality and freedom for all, are realised. Whilst there has been significant improvement in the lives of many South Africans, we still remain a very unequal society.

Our unemployment rate is unacceptably high and it, together with the rampant poverty that is currently gripping a large part of our society, is a serious threat to the very democracy of which we are so proud. Poverty robs any person of his or her dignity. This, to my mind, places a huge responsibility on each and every one of us to look for, and to find, solutions to these problems so as to ensure a sustainable future. Although no clear strategies and projects for creating employment on a large scale have been revealed, the Government of the day has, by word of mouth, prioritised what it terms ‘the triple challenges’ of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Do the institutions of higher learning have any role to play in this regard?

In a paper delivered at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, on 14 September 2009, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Saleem Badat,[1] in discussing the role of higher education states that ‘higher education must necessarily intersect and effectively  engage with the economic and social challenges of local, national, regional, continental and global contexts’. ‘The challenges,’ he continues, ‘include the imperatives of economic growth and development; the ability to compete globally, job creation and the reduction or elimination of unemployment and poverty’. The attitude of the World Bank is that knowledge has become a key driver of growth and development, as countries with higher skill levels are better equipped to face new challenges and master technological discoveries;[2] that skills for the knowledge economy are built at the tertiary education level and that as such, university education is now understood to make a necessary contribution, in concert with other factors, to the success of national efforts to boost productivity, competitiveness and economic growth.[3]

Although a recent study conducted in Brazil to establish whether there was a link between higher education policies in that country and the cycles of economic growth they experienced in the 1930s, after World War II, in the 1970s and again after 2002 found that there was no such link, the report of the study makes the point that as Brazil is flexing its muscles to become a leading international player, it needs good university institutions capable of producing the scientists and engineers needed to keep the momentum. I might mention that the study found that each of the cycles of economic growth was explained by favourable external conditions – revenues created by the agricultural and mining sectors, the influx of international investments, a steady transfer of the population from the countryside to the urban centres, generating a growing internal consumption market and, in the last 10 years, the favourable winds of international trade blowing from China.[4]

About China, it is reported that the first premier of Singapore stated during an interview in 2011, that Chinese leaders have transformed a poor society by an economic miracle to become now the second – largest economy in the world and that their strategy for achieving this revolves around their huge and increasingly highly skilled and educated workers.[5] China has targeted its efforts to create a high value workforce, the emphasis being on quality.

It seems, therefore, and I think everybody will accept, that higher education is critical for economic growth, and thus to the future of every developing nation. And our government together with related institutions should begin to work urgently on strategies and programmes in collaboration with institutions of higher learning for ensuring economic growth and development.  But whilst it is true that there may be a need, for purposes of economic growth, for extensive restructuring and a prioritisation of skills, the Vice-Chancellor warns that higher education should not be denuded ‘of its considerably wider social value and functions’. He argues that the purpose of universities ‘is the production of knowledge which advances understanding of the natural and social worlds . . .’ and that higher education has immense social and political value. It has been said that education is intimately connected to the idea of democratic citizenship[6] and, I’d want to add, good governance.

 You will recall the previous quote from the Vice-Chancellor’s paper that ‘higher education must necessarily intersect and effectively engage with the economic and social challenges of local, regional, continental and global contexts. South Africa is part of Africa and is also an important a regional power. As the President of the country said two days ago, when we develop, on whatever front, we must take Africa along. In a speech delivered 13 years ago the former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan said the following:

‘The university must become a primary tool for Africa’s development in the new century. Universities can help develop African expertise; they can enhance the analysis of African problems; strengthen domestic institutions; serve as a model environment for the practice of good governance, conflict resolution and respect for human rights, and enable African academics to play an active part in the global community of scholars.’[7]

In this regard Rhodes is and has been making a huge contribution on the teaching and research front. In 2011, for example, 22% of the total of 2 045 students who graduated were international students from 31 countries in the rest of Africa and in 2012, 20% of a total of 2 240 graduates were from 32 countries in the rest of Africa. You have heard the figures for this year. I have had occasion to peruse the 2011 Research Report  which makes very interesting reading. The report reveals an exceptional amount of research conducted in all the various departments. The number of publications and research papers presented at academic and science conferences over the period covered by the report is phenomenal. And students from countries in the rest of Africa are heavily involved in these programmes. I am convinced that the University is in good hands and I am privileged to be associated with it as its Chancellor.

I end by saying congratulations to all the graduands and parents or guardians who are here to witness the moment. I share in your joy.

L. Mpati