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Message from the Vice-Chancellor and Principal

Graduation is a special event, a celebration and the culmination of three to four years of intense study, interaction, exploring, learning and experiencing with many who come from different backgrounds and different environments from the ones you were used to.

For you to have come this far, you relied on not only your own intellect, your drive, your determination to succeed, but you also relied on the support of your lecturers, your colleagues, your mentors and your parents and donors.

Without their support you would probably have faltered along the way, so show your appreciation with a round of applause to them (wherever you find yourself).

By being here today, you immediately qualify for two things; to become a graduate of this university and thereby joining the family of SPU Alumni, and taking on responsibilities of contributing towards the further development of this country and this continent.

You are indeed special. To demonstrate how special you are, I would like to remind you of some statistics from a recent report by the Statistician General. Roughly 750 000 of a cohort of one million Grade 1 learners who started school 12 years ago will sit for the Grade 12 examination. Of those, roughly 250 000 will qualify with a baccalaureate pass to enable them to enter into university. We know the throughput rates at university have been such that only about 50% who start in a particular year will finish university in minimum time i.e., three years for a three-year degree and four years for a four-year degree. Many take longer. So on average only about 125000 – 150000 of any cohort finally finish their degree/s or diploma in minimum time. You are part of that 150000.

But you all know what it took to get you to where you are today. It was a journey, a struggle, sometimes for you and your parents/donors. Many thought the day of graduation would never come. Well, it is here today.

It however puts a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. You have to take responsibility for a lot of things once you graduate. You have to contribute to your family, your home, your village and society at large and make South Africa a better place for all.

Luckily, SPU has prepared you well to be a graduate who could contribute towards society.

Success reached is a combination of hard work and a great support team.

I come from a family of 9 siblings. My mother was a housewife, and my father was a farmer, stonemason and a bricklayer.

We lived on a smallholding just outside Kimberley in the Northern Cape. When I was 10 years old, we were evicted from the smallholding because the area was declared a white area under the Group Areas Act. This incident had a lasting effect on my life. It taught me that education is the one thing that no one can take away from you. It also taught me that we should not be bogged down by our past, for it is not where you start, but where you finish.

I was first in my family to go to university, like many of you who are graduating today. However, the context was different then as there was no open university system where you could choose where to go and got accepted based on merit. There was no free education and no NSFAS.

I however, had a hunger and a curiosity for knowledge. This is what drove me to become a scholar, to become a person who learns every day. To a certain extent the drive for knowledge was always a driving force in my life. It is no wonder that I ended up at university as a lecturer and later a professor.

Through my own journey, I hoped I contributed to the lives of others and provided a lens for them to see possibilities for their own lives.

For if you are going to be limited by the extent of your own circumstances, the contribution you can make to the lives of others will be limited. 

As you ponder on your life ahead, consider the following. When you started school some 15/16 years ago, would you ever have imagined that you would be here today.

What influenced your choices? Was it your decision, that of your family, your schoolteachers, or your own passion for something you liked? Probably a combination of all of these.

When you made that decision, you embarked upon a journey that changed your life.

What I do know is that you will reflect on this day some 10 years from now and ask yourself the following questions. Have you reached your own potential? Have you added value to the lives of others? Have you made a meaningful contribution to your society?

If the answer to the last question was a NO, then your degree/diploma was merely a piece of paper and not the embodiment of what a degree/diploma should be. For it should be teaching you and equipping you to be a contributor to society, to be a change agent in the lives of others. 

As graduates you have a special place in society. For education have been known to offer the greatest opportunity for making an impact on the lives of others.

If not for science and its discoveries, the world would still be subject to many diseases, we would be without many of the technology we love so much (can you imagine yourself without your cell phone?).

If not for art, history and the humanities, the world would not be enriched with debate, music, art, stories, and memories.

If not for education, the world would be without teachers. If not for teachers, you would not be where you are today.

There are however many challenges which your generation can solve. We for instance know that the issue of water delivery is still a challenge in many areas of our country, although strides have been made in treatment of water – desalination, reverse osmosis and other techniques used to treat water have made water more accessible in areas where it was not possible before.

Developing countries like South Africa are still behind in providing some of these solutions, although science have made it possible for us to deliver on it.

Whilst we in South Africa and other countries in Africa and the 3rd world are wrestling with social issues, poverty, inequality, the world is gearing up for the next phase in the digital revolution. Are you as graduates ready for this?

Already we live in a world where artificial intelligence is the order of the day, where robotics and robots are taking over the traditional routine jobs that people did a couple of years ago.

Some of the jobs we know today will disappear in a few years’ time.

It requires a new skill set which universities have to adjust to in its teaching and learning programmes. Luckily SPU is one of the universities that is making that adjustment through its digital ambitions… and COVID-19 assisted us greatly.

My appeal to you as graduates is to be nimble, to be flexible and to make sure that you can problem solve.

You will in future enter into jobs where the job titles have not yet been defined. There are many challenges to overcome, so use your new found knowledge and your skills to advance not only yourself, but also our  society.

My take home message to you is:

Don’t let your background and circumstances define your future. You are the only one who has control over that.

Ensure that you go on a journey of being a lifelong learner…learn and adapt.

Prepare yourselves for an exciting future ahead where you can contribute towards society. As the Generation Z, you grew up with technology, it is part of your genetics and frameworks. Use it well!


Congratulations once again on your achievement, your family’s achievement and that of your community who have also supported you on this journey, and of course it is an achievement of the university to have produced such excellent alumni.