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Mokitlane Manyarela
Mokitlane Manyarela reflects on his 41-year journey with the UFS Qwaqwa Campus

He has seen the many changing faces of the Qwaqwa Campus, and four decades later, Mokitlane Manyarela says he would not have it any other way.

Fondly known on campus as ‘Ntate Manyarela’, he has been with the campus for 41 years, having started on 1 January 1982 at the ripe age of 18 years. Manyarela recently received a long-service award for 36 years of service, dating back to when the campus moved to its current location from where it started at Lere la Tshepe in 1982.

He recalls arriving at the campus offices in town in 1982 seeking employment, as there were no “buildings or campus” back then.

“I started working as a general worker because there was nothing else to do. All the university’s content would come from Turfloop in those days. As time went by, I worked in the reprographic section, printing exam papers. That was my first official job until the campus moved in 1988 to where we’re now located. All the buildings that are now filling this campus were constructed right in front of my eyes,” he said.

He went on to work for various departments on the campus, such as procurement, cashiers, and finance. In 2007, he joined the transport department, and that is where he is still working as an assistant officer. “What’s made me stay this long is not getting into fights with anyone and always following instructions given to me. I’ve worked under many different bosses, and I believe that none of them have anything negative to say about me. Therefore, I can say I’ve never had a reason to leave because everything I’ve done, I have done wholeheartedly.”

Manyarela said the university also afforded his wife and children the opportunity to obtain their degrees, which is something he considers a huge achievement. “All that I have has been achieved at this institution. It’s been a wonderful journey. I have no complaints, and I am content. I’ve reached my old age here. I don’t know any other job or work environment; this place has become like home to me, and I’m prepared to still give my all to this university, even though old age is now catching up with me.”

News Archive

Lecture honours one of SA’s greatest women leaders
2008-08-22

A member of the national executive committee of the ANC Women’s League, Yolanda Botha, has called on all South Africans to cherish the legacy of Charlotte Maxeke, one of South Africa’s greatest women leaders.

Ms Botha was delivering the first Charlotte Maxeke Memorial Lecture at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein last night, in honour of the pioneering role played by Maxeke in the struggle for human rights, democracy and freedom. The lecture series is a partnership between the Free State Provincial Government and the university.

She was born Charlotte Makgomo Manye on 7 April 1874 at Ramokgopa in the Polokwane district in Limpopo. In 1905 she graduated from the Wilberforce University in Ohio in the USA with a B.Sc. degree, making her the first black South African woman to graduate with a science degree.

She married the Rev. MM Maxeke, a prominent AME minister who had also been educated overseas, and together they collaborated on the compilation and publication of the first AME church hymn book in Xhosa.

Later she became a founder member and president of the Bantu Women’s League, forerunner of the ANC Women’s League. She was an early opponent of the pass laws for black women and an organiser of the anti-pass movement in Bloemfontein.

Charlotte Maxeke died in 1939. Two years later, an ANC conference held in Bloemfontein, passed a “resolution on the women’s section”.

Elaborating on the challenges that women still face, Ms Botha said poverty remains a challenge affecting the majority of women. She called on all women to unite and engage with government to develop a comprehensive strategy for food security and agricultural support programmes to eradicate poverty.

Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za

22 August 2008

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