Address by Dr BE Nzimande, the Minister Of Education, Science and Innovation on the occasion of UNISA’s 150th anniversary celebration held under the theme ‘Reclaiming Africa’s intellectual futures’ at UNISA Zk Matthews Great Hall – Winnie Madikizela- Mandela Building

Programme Directors:

Prof MT Mogale, Prof P Segalo, and Dr G James;

His Excellency Dr TM Mbeki, Former President of the Republic of South Africa, and Chancellor of the University of South Africa;

His Excellency, Deputy President, Paul Mashatile;

Your Excellencies: Ambassadors and High Commissioners representing various Countries in South Africa;

Mrs M Kubayi-Ngubane, Minister of Human Settlements;

Mr Buti Manamela, Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation;

Ms L Ntshalintshali, MEC: Social Development of Mpumalanga and other members from various Government Departments;

Ms AM Miller, United Nations Women Multi-Country Representative; United Nations Women and other members of the United Nations and SAWID present;

Mr J Maboa, Chairperson of the University Council and other Members of the University Council present;

Prof P LenkaBula, UNISA Principal and Vice-Chancellor and other Members of the University Executive and Extended Management present;

Senior Prince NS Mampuru, Senior Prince Bapedi ba Mamone and other traditional leaders present;

Dignitaries from the National, Provincial, and Local Governments, and Friends of the University of South Africa attending this Lecture Virtually;

Representatives from other Sister Institutions of Higher Learning present;

Business Communities, Ecclesiastical Communities, representatives from various Political Parties, and various Research Institutions present;

Members of the Unisa National Students Representative Council and other Unisa Student Structures;

Representatives from various Unisa Forums and organised Labour Organisations;

Retirees, Alumni, and other members of the University Community present;

All our performing artists;

Representatives from various media fraternal;

Distinguished members of the audience

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good Morning

Introduction

It gives me great pleasure to make these Opening Remarks at UNISA’s 150th birthday celebrations, a significant milestone in the history of South African higher education.

Founded in 1873, UNISA occupies a unique place in the annals of higher education history as the oldest university in our country. Not only that Unisa gave birth to the university system in South Africa.

Indeed, we continue to make our part of the Department of Higher Education and Training, we have already built the University of Mpumalanga and the University of Sol Plaatje.

We have completed feasibility studies for the establishment of the University of Science and Innovation in Ekurhuleni and the Crime Detection University in Hammanskraal.

Since its inception, this university has spawned into existence and supported the establishment and development of an illustrious list of other higher education institutions such as UCT, Stellenbosch, Fort Hare and many more.

With an incredible enrolment projected 370 000 plus students across 130 countries in the world, UNISA is one the truly mega-universities in the world today. This is quite remarkable, given the relatively small population size of our country.

UNISA’s history of course reflects the broader history of the times in which it was moulded from its roots in the colonial period, the long period under the Union of South Africa from 1910 till 1960, the 45 years of apartheid (‘white republicanism’), and the last 27 years into the democratic era.

Its major development took place in the post-war period, notably, from 1946 when it pioneered tertiary distance education across SA and the wider African continent, to and in 2004 after it incorporated Vista University and merged with Technikon SA to become a truly mega-university.

Over time UNISA grew to enroll a staggering 1/3rd of all higher education students in South Africa.

Its footprint traverses 130 countries! Its motto “Pro Gentibus Sapienta” – in service of humanity – began to be reflected in an impressive array of academic programmes brought into reach of far-flung communities and individuals in all sorts of circumstances.

Stalwarts of the struggle against oppression and Apartheid, ZK Matthews and John Langalibalele Dube were amongst the first Africans to receive degrees from Unisa, following in the footsteps of Simon-Peter Mihlali, the first black student to matriculate under the Unisa examinations in 1879.

UNISA boasts amongst its million and more alumni community, the likes Youth League President Anton Lembede, Former President Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Emeritus Demond Tutu, Anti-apartheid activists and Rivonia Trialists Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg, former Chief Justice of South Africa Pius Lang and Moegoeng Moegoeng, former Deputy Chief Justice, Dikgang Moseneke, Justice Raymond Zondo, former Judge of the Constitutional Court Edwin Cameron, Dr Neville Alexandra, Dr Gill Marcus, Ms Agnes Allen Lewis, Dr Mamphela Ramphela, Dr Mosibudi Mangena and Professor Eskia Mphahlele and Former President Jean Betrand Aristide of Haiti. UNISA is also the alma mater of our very own President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In the 1940s, notable figures such as Oliver Tambo, Getrude Nhlabati, Sir Seretse Khama and Robert Mugabe, amongst others, received their degrees from the University of Fort Hare, registered as external Unisa students.

Those who study with Unisa today should thus be proud that they share an alma mater with such distinguished personalities.

Ladies and gentlemen

This Conference is celebrating UNISA’s 150th anniversary under the theme ‘Reclaiming Africa’s Intellectual Futures’.

I note with interest that you are assuming – and rightly so in my view – potentially multiple futures as we are of course not homogenous, with different social forces and interests competing to define what it means to be African in the 21st century.

Taking the same assumption, I will argue the case for an African agenda committed to the creation of a socially-just, equal, inclusive and sustainable Africa and global humanity.

1. Challenges of a changing world

Honourable President, Dr Mbeki

To speak meaningfully about a radical imagination for Africa, we have to contextualize the historical moment in which UNISA wants to carve out a distinctive role.

We are celebrating 150 years at a time when the world is witnessing a major war in eastern Europe (Russia-Ukraine), major economic and geopolitical rivalries between principally the US and China, re-polarization of many parts of the world along new Cold War lines, weakening of post-Second World War multilateral institutions (eg. UN, WTO) and emergence of new regional and trans-national blocs and alliances.

Today we are facing at least three converging crisis points creating unprecedented instability across the world – fracturing of the neo-liberal model of growth and globalization, a major climate and ecological crisis, and widening levels of social inequality with devastating effects on the poor and working peoples (a crisis of social reproduction).

2. Renewal of the new Africa agenda

Whist the situation globally is at that point, our continent is still held back from its full potential by Africa’s subordinate place in the global political and economic system (itself now in crisis), still enduring legacies of colonialism and neo-colonialism, and internal weaknesses and failures to take rapid advantage of strategic opportunities for renewal.

However, in recent years, particularly after the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and the shameful racism displayed by the West in vaccine hogging, we have seen renewed energy and efforts by AU leaders to create stronger internal conditions for greater unity of purpose within the continent to tackle the major existential and developmental challenges such as climate change, economic marginalization, technological development, food security and so-forth.

The AU Africa 2063 Agenda lays out a number of strategic priorities around which future intellectual work in which there is a crucial role for African higher education, science and innovation.

Equally important, tackling these challenges will of course require societal-wide mobilization of all our indigenous resources and capacities – governments, civil society, labour, industry and the African diaspora.

In my considered view, post school education and training has a particularly distinctive role to play as they are hardwired and soft-wired to provide Africa with home-grown, contextually-relevant and practical solutions for its own problems.

After the 2017-18 Feesmustfall movement we saw a more recent resurgence of promoting a more radical extension of our universities into society to strive for a more inclusive and equal society.

The development of indigenous Afrocentric epistemologies, methods of research, teaching and learning are of course key to the sustained development of finding African solutions to African problems.

In this regard, I see UNISA, with its vast network of campuses and satellite facilities across 130 countries, the bulk of which is on the continent, as an immense source of innovation to drive the renewal of the African agenda.

This role includes but goes beyond the training of professionals such as teachers and nurses, but also involves forging STI partnerships in health management, pandemics, food security, economic and business development, legal treaties and migration dynamics. For this to happen, UNISA itself must get its house in order.

3. The renewal challenges of UNISA

Colleagues, government has been deeply concerned about many aspects to do with the strategic direction, quality of administration and academic outcomes, governance and leadership problems which had been facing a number of administrations and Councils over the past decade.

In 2021, and in response to many complaints and also DHET’s own assessment of the situation at UNISA, I appointed a Ministerial Task Team (MTT) of eminent academics and higher education experts led by Professor Vincent Mphai, to look into the sources of crises at UNISA.

Its report was tabled to my Ministry and I shared this with the UNISA Council. This was followed in 2022 by the appointment of an Assessor, Professor Temba Mosiua, to further probe into specific matters raised by the MTT for further investigation. This report has also now been handed to my Ministry and we will be announcing further steps in the near future.

One of the key challenges identified by the DHET and also reflected in the MTT Report concerns that of the business model and growth strategy for UNISA.

In recent years, we have seen UNISA creeping into the domain of ‘contact education’ provision which, as you know, is at variance with its foundational mandate as a ‘distance learning’ (or better put, mixed mode, non-residential) education provider.

It is precisely the strength of its foundational model as a distance education provider that has made UNISA able to expand across the African continent and providing educational access to citizens in many different professional settings. This trend must be checked and UNISA must restore its foundational mandate.

UNISA furthermore, must accelerate the modernization of its technology platforms to fully manage and apply for good use new innovations such as Generative AI (for example, ChatGPT) as tools to assist it to carry out its operations efficiently across vast geographical distances, and of course regulating its applications in teaching and learning, and research settings.

The revolution in massive online technology providers – many offering free online courses – pose serious challenges to our universities and UNISA has to successfully compete in this unpredictable, innovation-intensive space.

Let me make the wish that future generations of UNISA leaders celebrating its next 150 years in the year 2173, will be able to look back at the 21st century and find in the digital records of a future Earth significant evidence of UNISA having left an indelible mark in having made a pioneering contribution to final emancipation of the African continent from its colonial legacies and marking the onset of the much-promised African Century.

Honourable Chancellor, Chairperson of the Unisa Council and Madame Vice-Chancellor, I urge Unisa to take advantage of its added leverage of having as your Chancellor, Former President Thabo Mbeki, an inspirational leader who has distinguished himself as a philosopher and leading thinker, known for his ground-breaking revitalization of the African Renaissance, the repositioning of Africa and South Africa as prominent international economic and political role players.

Having said that, I know that UNISA is capable of pulling together and uniting behind the goal set by UNISA in its motto – “Pro Gentibus Sapienta” – in service of humanity.

I wish UNISA a happy 150 Anniversary.

I thank you.

Source: Government of South Africa