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.”
View his moment on stage here: