On 7 October 2022 Sol Plaatje University (SPU) hosted the Annual Sol Plaatje Lecture at the SPU Library Auditorium to honour the legacy of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, after whom the university is named. The SPU community as well as members of the public attended the event at the Library Auditorium. Attendees also streamed the event online with 148 views to date on the SPU YouTube Channel.
Vice-Chancellor and Principal of SPU, Prof Andrew M. Crouch, welcomed guests and gave background on Plaatje. “Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was an intellectual, translator, politician, journalist, linguist, and writer, who contributed to the rich heritage of South Africa. Today we celebrate the birth of Solomon Plaatje born on 9 October 1876. Our university is named after him, a remarkable individual, a giant on the African literary landscape”, said Prof Crouch.
Amongst esteemed guests were Chancellor of Sol Plaatje University Judge Steven Majiedt, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State Prof Francis William Petersen, SPU Council Member Mr Connie Molusi, Principal: Social Performance at Kumba Iron Ore Ms Thando Njoko and Chairperson of the Black Management Forum in the Northern Cape Mr Darrell Louw.
Mr Sabata-Mpho Mokae, Lecturer for Creative Writing in African Languages at SPU and the author of the biography The Story of Sol T Plaatje, provided a background to the Annual Sol Plaatje Lecture series. “The Annual Sol Plaatje Lecture series began in the 1980s and remains an important event in the SPU event calendar as it is a moment of reflection, questioning, suggesting of solutions and explaining the life of Plaatje”, said Mpho-Mokae.
Guest speaker Professor William Gumede from the School of Governance at the University of the Witwatersrand, who is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of the Democracy Works Foundation, spoke on the theme “Intellectual Re-Imagination: What can South Africa learn from the East Asian Development States”. Prof Gumede focused on lessons our country can adopt in re-building and re-imagining a new South Africa. He believes the recipe for success is a collective mindset change: “East Asian governments and leaders introduced radical mindset changes that thoroughly shocked the old social, traditional and political systems, and set these countries on the path to successfully pursue industrialisation, lift economic growth rates and develop globally competitive companies”.
He said the partnership between the state, business and civil society gives the state deep knowledge of industry, the knowledge to effectively govern the market and to come up with quality industrial policies. He further spoke about the mindset of accountability, which should be fostered across all levels of society and honesty should be valued at individual and collective levels that do not exclude the political elite.
Respondent to the lecture, Prof Lesego Malepe, in her response to the lecture said, “No society is perfect, but we have an education system that’s building momentum that translates to our youth receiving quality education and training and addresses the requirement for skills that are needed in the economy which is visible through the establishment of this institution”.
Prof Lesego Malepe was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and left for the United States of America in 1978 as a Fulbright scholar. She is now a retired political science professor living in Boston, Massachusetts. She is the author of a semi-biographical novel Matters of Life and Death and a travel memoir Reclaiming Home – Diary of a Journey through Post-Apartheid South Africa. Her novel has been translated into Setswana titled Mmamo-gashwa.
The legacy of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, as one of South Africa’s torchbearers in the liberation struggle serves as a reminder and inspiration of his immense contribution to South Africa’s rich literary history.
