[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

Honourable Chancellor,
Chairperson of Council and members of Council,
Vice Chancellor,
Vice Chancellors from other Institutions of Higher Learning,
Distinguished guests who have graced this august occasion,
Members of the Students Representative Council
Workers and Students of the Technikon,
Parents and relatives,
Ladies and gentlemen

I feel very much honoured and indeed humbled by the invitation extended to me by the Institution to come and grace this auspicious occasion; to be afforded an opportunity to address this congregation is indeed more than an honour.

"A life begins long before it starts, emerging from other lives before returning to them again. When it emerges it does so out of current of time that long preceded it and continues its way with scarcely a ripple long after. Though it has its own inner time, its own inner dimension and volume, when it emerges and takes the shape it does so against the pressure, resistance and influence of a surrounding history and ethos. It enters into the flow of this time, wafted this way and that, driven by it, sometimes altering its direction, matching as best as it can its inner being to the demands of time outside it. Both dimensions are real, inner and outer, and together they form the matrix that makes the path and trajectory of a life."

Like life, the African Nation has begun its journey long before it started. A journey that was started long before by our forefathers who through their resilience, bravery and wisdom laid a solid foundation from which to build a better life for all South Africans. As we stand here today celebrating the achievements of yet another generation, we do so drawing strength and inspiration from the sufferings, torture and humiliation of the African heroes and heroines who like life resisted the pressure and influence of the colonial and apartheid history and ethos.

Slowly but painfully we are emerging from a fractured society, a society defined by destitution, racial tensions, a society where in basic human rights and many other pertinent privileges enjoyed by citizens of a country were a preserve of a few. Higher Education was considered a domain of the chosen few who unfortunately happened to be privileged and white. The denial of access to Higher Education of the majority of the South African population, who by definition happened to be black and underprivileged, would have far reaching implications for the development of our country into a prosperous country devoid of poverty, illiteracy etc.

The current of time has unfortunately not healed the deep intellectual gashes and academic scars inflicted upon the South African people by the Verwoedian Grand Plan. As we traverse the socio-economic transformation path the bitter legacy of the Verwoedian education system continues to stick out its vile head glaringly traceable in the fields of technology, engineering and other science related fields. Certainly, this remains the biggest of challenges as we attempt to make strides in rolling back the ills of the past, but also, it is the task that we have to undertake with zeal and precision.

The twin ills of poverty and underdevelopment on the one hand, and the pressure of having to take part in the global competitive arena on the other, that our country and the province is confronted with, constitute a very interesting inner and outer interactive yet somewhat contradictory dimensions of the development trajectory we have to traverse in our quest to change the lives of the people. In this regard, the major role of Institutions of Higher Learning will have to be in the areas of underdevelopment and poverty in the context of globalisation. As they do that they must understand that globalisation is not a given phenomenon, while it cannot be changed it surely can be influenced to benefit the poor people.

Inspired by the extent to which Institutions of Higher Learning like the Eastern Cape Technikon and other Institutions have embraced social transformation we sure are going to overcome the challenges we have mentioned supra. Certainly there is a lot that needs to be done in terms of ensuring that Institutions of Higher Learning are better positioned to play a meaningful role in advancing the struggle to change the lives of the people of this country and our Province in particular.

A CASE FOR THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE NEW DISPENSATION

The ushering in of the new order in 1994 has presented a new set of challenges the key among which being the reconstruction and development of our country into a united, democratic, non - racial, non - sexist South Africa. This in essence means the emancipation of the Africans in particular and blacks in general from the social as well as economic bondages.

Again, these challenges translate into the struggle to "ROLL BACK THE FRONTIERS OF POVERTY" in our lifetime.

The part of the country where we are today is by far the hardest hit by poverty. It is the part that is defined by acute infra - structural backlogs, underdevelopment, scathing social disparities etc. this situation holds true for every corner and square meter of our province.

Within this context, therefore Institutions of Higher Learning will have to find their niche as defined in the RDP document as being to represent the major resource of national development needs, but also to contribute to the advance of worldwide knowledge. Simply put, in the same way that these institutions have been the sites of epic battles between the forces of democracy and those who were opposed to it, they (institutions) should contribute in the production of a human resource that would fit the developmental plans of the country, but also remain the centres of excellence and maintain high academic standards.

The transformation process is a long and thorny road and requires an amount of work and high levelled sense of purpose as our hero and African intellectual, O.R Tambo puts it: " transformation requires a more dynamic discourse that insists on capacity and potential; on originality and on a creative existence that makes and remakes its own essence; that stimulates a will to overcome history, time and necessity, rather than encouraging submission. We need to introduce this into our Institutions of Higher Learning as much as to our African intelligentsia. South Africa needs to believe in our capacity to overcome our painful history."

Indeed South Africa needs to believe in the capacity that Higher Education has to develop. Of course as we examine the role to be played by Institutions of Higher Learning we cannot help but being engulfed in the temptation to cast our eyes back over the past, but also to discern more clearly the path that lies ahead of us.

Owing to the Verwoedian Grand Plan the African majority was deprived access into the fields of technology, engineering, and other science related fields. This explains the skewed skills base that our country has with the fields mentioned above being the domain of the few. As we emerge from our painful past and taking shape as a country against the new pressures, resistance, surrounding history and ethos this is the one single challenge that we have to grapple with and this is the challenge that is at the door step of Higher Education.

In the wake of the new higher education landscape Institutions of Higher Learning are faced with even more daunting challenges arising from new policy framework and implications thereof. For us higher education system should be configured so as to respond to the new national as well as provincial priorities. For our province these are:

RURAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

As alluded to earlier on that our province and the region where we are today is characterised by high levels of poverty, limited economic and employment opportunities, and limited services to the majority of communities. The Institutions of Higher Learning have a distinct role to play to help realise the objective of Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme.

For relevance in our province and this region, we need to strengthen these institutions in agricultural academic to spur growth in the agricultural sector to ensure food security and job creation. Furthermore, Institutions of Higher Learning need to design business development programmes and a bias focus on project management skills to help SMMEs and encourage cooperatives so that our people on their own can in turn be major contributors to job and poverty alleviation.

PROVISION OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Our province is faced with major infrastructure backlogs in the provision of roads, bridges, schools, clinics etc. to meet this challenge our province needs a large pool of technical skills in the areas of engineering and project management.

In the face of this mammoth task, the Eastern Cape Technikon (ECT) is certainly not dwarfed by this seemingly gigantic challenge. This institution through its department of civil engineering which, I believe, is the oldest department of this institution can certainly play a leading role in helping realise this objective.

This institution has come a long way. From being an extension of a branch of another institution into being a fully-fledged competent higher education institution. Like life, it has emerged and took shape against the pressures, resistance, and influence of the surrounding history and ethos of the time and has now come of age. As it enters into the flow of this time, it does so priding itself of the wealth of experience especially in the field of civil engineering and applied technology.

The department of Roads and Public Works is indeed honoured to be associated with an institution with such a history of determination.

At this stage, Mr Chancellor, I am pleased to inform you that the Department of Roads and Public Works and the Department of Civil Engineering of the Technikon will be signing an agreement for a programme of co-operation. This agreement, we hope, will have benefits both the institution and the department in that the Roads and Public Works' capacity will be enhanced while students will be provided with experiential exposure and will also be provided with the necessary support including bursaries.

We believe, Mr. Chancellor, that this agreement constitutes an example of the role that can be played by Institutions of Higher Learning in partnership with government. It is indeed a partnership that we so dearly treasure and that which we are committed to uphold and make work for the benefit of the poor people in our country.

The other equally important challenge facing the institutions of learning is to continue to produce the African intelligentsia. An intelligentsia that will appreciate and embrace the plight of our people the majority of whom are women and live in rural areas, an intelligentsia that will advance the tasks of this revolution the ideological basis of which is founded on the desire to create a society free of exploitation, but most importantly an intelligentsia that will defend gains that we have made as a country and a people of South Africa.

This is not an easy task as there exist in these institutions and the country in general, racial and class tensions sometimes lead by a species of structural paradox which are profoundly influential in the making and development of an intelligentsia we need as a country.

These institutions are also characterised by contradictions that are not simply philosophical constructs, but express the objective life experiences, in the age of globalisation, of this emergent intelligentsia who must know and feel the discontinuities between the sensibilities acquired through learning and the role they have to play in changing the life of the poor people of our country.

However, these are also the institutions that should produce a brand of men and women for whom the intensity and flavour of living and contributing to the overall objective of developing our country lay not merely in knowing but in doing.

The twin challenge goes to the existing African intellectuals who, I believe cannot afford to be spectators in the process of creating a new society. They too have an important role to play in constructing our society anew. An immediate role that comes to mind is in the area of policy development processes. Here academics could play a major role by interpreting and simplifying government policies for easy consumption by the majority of our people.

The last challenge that I think all of us must confront without fail is the scourge of HIV/AIDS. Our approach on this matter should and must be beyond the provision or not provision of Anti- retroviral drugs because the problem of HIV/AIDS is bigger than the provision of drugs. We should adopt an all-embracing approach to HIV/AIDS not just prevention. Our approach should be about creating and applying a series of interventions that are co-ordinated and that bring together prevention, care and support activities

Institutions like the Eastern Cape Technikon could also play a pivotal role in this regard by conducting base-line research for the surrounding communities. The research could involve issues like the extent of infections in a particular area, the trends for various social groups, lessons learned world-wide especially in similar situations. Such is an attitude that should occupy us all the time.

CONCLUSION

Our country is poised for a brighter future, to realise it requires each one of us collectively and individually to make our contributions in the best way we can.

Congratulations to the graduandi and diplomates, but remember that this is only the beginning. You owe it to the majority of the poor people of this country and this province, you owe to your parents and relatives, you owe it to this institution and lastly you owe it to yourselves. Do not fail, your country needs you.

Thank you.

Issued by: Roads and Public Works, Eastern Cape, 24 May 2002