Date: 06/05/2005
Source: Department of Provincial and Local Government
Title: Mufamadi: Graduation ceremony at the University of Venda
Speech delivered by Minister for Provincial and Local Government, Mr S Mufamadi, on the occasion of the graduation ceremony at the University of Venda for Science and Technology
Mr Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor GM Nkondo;
Members of Council;
Members of the Executive Management;
Members of Senate and all academic staff;
The President of the Student Representative Council and all students;
Graduands;
Parents and Sponsors;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen:
For the parents, the academic staff and the graduands, this momentous occasion marks individual triumph over many obstacles that had to be negotiated along the way. It is my singular honour to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all those who cross the stage this morning. Their enthusiasm for scholarly endeavour is today being crowned with success. Not only is this a milestone of individual achievement, but also, the nation is entitled to cherish a hope that the whole of society stands to profit from your services and learned insights. The nation is proud to have such men and women of accomplishment.
Nine days ago, our people assembled in various parts of the country to celebrate eleven years of democracy. Looking through a rear-view mirror to compare our democracy’s prehistory to its impetus, we see statistical indicators of performance which confirm that since 1994, South Africa has substantially freed itself from the shackles of its colonial and apartheid past. However, the problem of underdevelopment and poverty remains an abiding concern. We proceed from the premise that universities are a national resource through which the nation makes an intellectual investment. Thus, we assume that our graduands will bring to the problems of underdevelopment and poverty the knowledge they acquired from this university.
Mr Vice-Chancellor, our country is crying out for intellectuals who embody public spiritedness as their pre-eminent virtue. Throughout its ebbs and flows, South Africa’s struggle for liberation had in its forward trenches, persons who fitted this description. They performed an important intellectual role of refusing to accept that what existed was unalterable. In this regard, our roll of honour is replete with names such as those of Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Sol Plaatje, Mzwakhe Lembede, Oliver Tambo, Steve Biko, and many others - luminaries whose willingness to learn from the people spurred their thinking towards a coherent vision of the alternative society. Their academic knowledge, acquired from conventional institutions of learning, was tempered by contact with real life situations and an appropriate diagnosis of the human condition. Not only did they participate in the articulation of a democratic alternative, but also, they took to battle for the victory of the society of their vision.
Whereas in the pre-1994 period, the absence of democracy posed a strategic challenge to which the nation needed to rise, today’s principal challenge is to translate peoples’ power into an authority which can be effectively mobilised for purposes of bringing about a better life for all our people. In the pre-1994 situation the responsibility of the public intellectual was to help locate power in spaces which are inhabited and controlled by the popular masses. Today the principal social responsibility is to seek the transformation of material and ideological capacities of the State so that it can serve to realise popular, egalitarian and democratic goals and purposes.
The success which we celebrate today, takes us a step further towards meeting this target. Our goal will be met provided you “get your hands dirty” in the “lived experiences” of our people. The contribution, which you now have the possibility to make, will enhance our collective capacity to challenge the claims of those who unilaterally gave themselves the licence to hegemonise knowledge production, especially in academic social science.
Mr Vice Chancellor, the success of our country is inextricably bound up with the success of the African continent as a whole. Our country is part of a continent which has a tortured history of subjection to colonial plunder. It is therefore important that the successes we are celebrating today are harnessed to the task of shaping the future dynamics of our continent. This continent is home to many people who live in conditions of abject poverty. They lived in such conditions yesterday, they do so today and in the absence of a comprehensive remedial action, they will do so tomorrow.
Many African countries have not been able to realise their full post-colonial potential because of sustained internecine conflict. In the midst of such conflict tax revenues disappear, commodity exports decline, foreign exchange reserves vanish, and the informal sector dominated by smuggling takes over the remnants of the economy.
Mr Vice-Chancellor, in recent years the continent has been taking greater responsibility within the context of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to resolve its own problems. We seek to develop capacity that is endogenous to the continent for the resolution of conflict and for the creation of conditions that are propitious to the growth and development of our own economies. All this and other related goals are realisable if we have an African intelligentsia that is grounded in the reality of the continent.
Mr Vice-Chancellor, for obvious reasons our continent has to be the foremost theatre of operation with respect to the pursuit of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. These are the goals in terms of which the world seeks to reduce by half the number of people in absolute poverty by the year 2014. In order to reach this target, African economies will need to grow at an estimated 7% a year on average. One of the factors which stand in the way of Africa achieving these goals is that our continent has a preponderance of weak states that are ill-equipped to impose a policy agenda what would attenuate the peripheralising consequences of contemporary international connectivity.
Our prospect for reaching the Millennium Development Goals and for setting the African continent on the road to sustainable development lies in us asserting our right to co-frame the rules of the global game. It lies in our refusal to submit to the tyranny of those who insist on the global centralisation of influence over national policymaking. We will be able to do all this if we invest in the creation of indigenous intellectual resources. More than ever before, Africa is in need of an organic intellectual who is responsive to the imperative of renewal and development. Indeed, we need in the African continent, a strong state which is ideologically articulated to a civil society-in-motion.
South Africa’s experience since 1994 has taught us that there inheres in the people, latent possibilities to overcome the worst of human conditions. It is this lesson of experience which has reinforced our commitment to stay focused on the goal of transforming our county, and ultimately our continent, into a happy place for all. We have every intention of harnessing the success of our graduands to this goal. South Africa is proud of its men and women of achievement and it implores them to stand up and be counted.
Thank you, and thank you ever so much.
Issued by: Department for Provincial and Local Government
6 May 2005
Source: Department of Provincial and Local Government
Title: Mufamadi: Graduation ceremony at the University of Venda
Speech delivered by Minister for Provincial and Local Government, Mr S Mufamadi, on the occasion of the graduation ceremony at the University of Venda for Science and Technology
Mr Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor GM Nkondo;
Members of Council;
Members of the Executive Management;
Members of Senate and all academic staff;
The President of the Student Representative Council and all students;
Graduands;
Parents and Sponsors;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen:
For the parents, the academic staff and the graduands, this momentous occasion marks individual triumph over many obstacles that had to be negotiated along the way. It is my singular honour to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all those who cross the stage this morning. Their enthusiasm for scholarly endeavour is today being crowned with success. Not only is this a milestone of individual achievement, but also, the nation is entitled to cherish a hope that the whole of society stands to profit from your services and learned insights. The nation is proud to have such men and women of accomplishment.
Nine days ago, our people assembled in various parts of the country to celebrate eleven years of democracy. Looking through a rear-view mirror to compare our democracy’s prehistory to its impetus, we see statistical indicators of performance which confirm that since 1994, South Africa has substantially freed itself from the shackles of its colonial and apartheid past. However, the problem of underdevelopment and poverty remains an abiding concern. We proceed from the premise that universities are a national resource through which the nation makes an intellectual investment. Thus, we assume that our graduands will bring to the problems of underdevelopment and poverty the knowledge they acquired from this university.
Mr Vice-Chancellor, our country is crying out for intellectuals who embody public spiritedness as their pre-eminent virtue. Throughout its ebbs and flows, South Africa’s struggle for liberation had in its forward trenches, persons who fitted this description. They performed an important intellectual role of refusing to accept that what existed was unalterable. In this regard, our roll of honour is replete with names such as those of Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Sol Plaatje, Mzwakhe Lembede, Oliver Tambo, Steve Biko, and many others - luminaries whose willingness to learn from the people spurred their thinking towards a coherent vision of the alternative society. Their academic knowledge, acquired from conventional institutions of learning, was tempered by contact with real life situations and an appropriate diagnosis of the human condition. Not only did they participate in the articulation of a democratic alternative, but also, they took to battle for the victory of the society of their vision.
Whereas in the pre-1994 period, the absence of democracy posed a strategic challenge to which the nation needed to rise, today’s principal challenge is to translate peoples’ power into an authority which can be effectively mobilised for purposes of bringing about a better life for all our people. In the pre-1994 situation the responsibility of the public intellectual was to help locate power in spaces which are inhabited and controlled by the popular masses. Today the principal social responsibility is to seek the transformation of material and ideological capacities of the State so that it can serve to realise popular, egalitarian and democratic goals and purposes.
The success which we celebrate today, takes us a step further towards meeting this target. Our goal will be met provided you “get your hands dirty” in the “lived experiences” of our people. The contribution, which you now have the possibility to make, will enhance our collective capacity to challenge the claims of those who unilaterally gave themselves the licence to hegemonise knowledge production, especially in academic social science.
Mr Vice Chancellor, the success of our country is inextricably bound up with the success of the African continent as a whole. Our country is part of a continent which has a tortured history of subjection to colonial plunder. It is therefore important that the successes we are celebrating today are harnessed to the task of shaping the future dynamics of our continent. This continent is home to many people who live in conditions of abject poverty. They lived in such conditions yesterday, they do so today and in the absence of a comprehensive remedial action, they will do so tomorrow.
Many African countries have not been able to realise their full post-colonial potential because of sustained internecine conflict. In the midst of such conflict tax revenues disappear, commodity exports decline, foreign exchange reserves vanish, and the informal sector dominated by smuggling takes over the remnants of the economy.
Mr Vice-Chancellor, in recent years the continent has been taking greater responsibility within the context of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to resolve its own problems. We seek to develop capacity that is endogenous to the continent for the resolution of conflict and for the creation of conditions that are propitious to the growth and development of our own economies. All this and other related goals are realisable if we have an African intelligentsia that is grounded in the reality of the continent.
Mr Vice-Chancellor, for obvious reasons our continent has to be the foremost theatre of operation with respect to the pursuit of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. These are the goals in terms of which the world seeks to reduce by half the number of people in absolute poverty by the year 2014. In order to reach this target, African economies will need to grow at an estimated 7% a year on average. One of the factors which stand in the way of Africa achieving these goals is that our continent has a preponderance of weak states that are ill-equipped to impose a policy agenda what would attenuate the peripheralising consequences of contemporary international connectivity.
Our prospect for reaching the Millennium Development Goals and for setting the African continent on the road to sustainable development lies in us asserting our right to co-frame the rules of the global game. It lies in our refusal to submit to the tyranny of those who insist on the global centralisation of influence over national policymaking. We will be able to do all this if we invest in the creation of indigenous intellectual resources. More than ever before, Africa is in need of an organic intellectual who is responsive to the imperative of renewal and development. Indeed, we need in the African continent, a strong state which is ideologically articulated to a civil society-in-motion.
South Africa’s experience since 1994 has taught us that there inheres in the people, latent possibilities to overcome the worst of human conditions. It is this lesson of experience which has reinforced our commitment to stay focused on the goal of transforming our county, and ultimately our continent, into a happy place for all. We have every intention of harnessing the success of our graduands to this goal. South Africa is proud of its men and women of achievement and it implores them to stand up and be counted.
Thank you, and thank you ever so much.
Issued by: Department for Provincial and Local Government
6 May 2005
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