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03 May 2022 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo Supplied
Simphiwe Dube
ISRC President Simphiwe Dube.

The president of the ISRC, Simphiwe Dube, left his seat alongside the Convocation and traded his procession regalia for the black gown, as he walked across the stage to receive his qualification during the morning session of the Qwaqwa Campus graduation ceremony on 30 April 2022.

Students, proud parents, and loved ones in the Rolihlahla Mandela Hall ululated and clapped as Dube received his Bachelor of Education degree majoring in Intermediate Phase Teaching, with distinction.

Dube himself revelled in the moment, shouting “amandla” to the overjoyed crowd.

Reflecting on how he managed to balance an impeccable academic record while being fully active in student politics as well as other extracurricular activities on campus, Dube said it was all doable with determination, courage, and selflessness.

“I always knew I wanted to make a difference in one way or another, and I suppose that's why I chose teaching as a profession. Coming to university, I was received by a cloud of activism that changed the way I viewed the world. I suppose that's where my journey in the space began.” 

He said the first duty of a revolutionary was to be educated. “Education should be the bloodline of every true revolutionary; it should be the driving force, and it really is inspirational to end an academic period in a cloud of glory; this itself should be a message.”

Describing himself as keen and goal-driven through academic excellence and leadership skills, Dube shared the following words with the student community: “The true goal is to be educated; the main thing is to get that qualification. We are born to be great from the day we enter the UFS gates, we can only stop at the top. Therefore, we should always anchor ourselves in the true revolutionaries who have sought to emancipate education at every turn.”

Click to view documentView his moment on stage here: 

News Archive

Africa still yearns for democracy says academic
2009-05-26

Leading academic Prof Achille Mbembe (pictured), says that in spite of substantial changes the African continent is still yearning for democracy.

Prof Mbembe was delivering a lecture commemorating Africa Day at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.

He said many Africans feel that democracy and the law, including the paramount law – the constitution itself - have betrayed them.

“Many have a feeling that they have not yet lived fully or fulfilled their lives, that they might not or might never fulfill their lives.”

Prof Mbembe, who originates from Cameroon and has been living in South Africa for nine years , said that what struck him about this country in this democratic era was that many people are still yearning for a return to the past.

He said many black South Africans know that the advent of democracy has not provided them with the kind of life they hoped for.

“If anything, democracy has rendered life even more complex than before,” he said.

“South Africa is still a nation where too many black people possess almost nothing.

“Real freedom means freedom from race,” he said. “The kind of freedom that South Africa is likely to enjoy because this nation will have built a society, a culture and a civilization in which the colour of one’s skin will be superfluous in the overall calculus of dignity, opportunity, rights and obligations,” Prof Mbembe said.

“This freedom will originate, purely and simply, from our being human.”

Prof Mbembe is currently a Research Professor in History and Politics at the University of the Witwatersrand in the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research. He has written extensively on African history and politics.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za  
26 May 2009
 

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