Universities have a key role to play in raising the quality of life of all South African citizens, President Thabo Mbeki said on Tuesday.
”Education is the key to unlocking each person’s potential and improving the quality of life in general,” he said on opening the University of Pretoria’s new law-faculty building.
He complimented the university for its contribution to research, the quality of its education programmes and for successfully transforming from a predominantly white, Afrikaans institution.
The enrolment of black students exceeded 40% last year, with the figure for post-graduates reaching 43%.
”I think we will agree that this trend should continue so that all South Africans, regardless of race, creed, religion, language and gender, will truly find this university a pre-eminent and welcoming centre of learning.”
Mbeki also welcomed the fact that the institution has positioned itself as an ”African university”.
Through partnerships with other universities on the continent, various programmes at the law faculty and the admission of students from other African countries, the university has positioned itself as a contributor to the continent’s renaissance, he said.
Mbeki pointed to the importance of South African universities emerging from the current process of change, ready to compete with the best of the world.
”It [change] must guarantee that we catch up with the best in the world in terms of the generation and use of knowledge capital to create the winning society we all yearn for. It must guarantee that we produce the intelligentsia that must be at the cutting edge of our process of renaissance.”
The president spoke out against recent ”destructive behaviour” by students on the campuses of some tertiary institutions. Such actions will not be tolerated, but the government will respond to all legitimate concerns, he said.
Mbeki then witnessed the inauguration of the Oliver R Tambo Memorial Law Library, at which Tambo’s widow, Adelaide, unveiled a portrait of the late African National Congress leader.
Tambo’s daughter, Thembi, said her father would have loved the idea of being attached to a law library.
”We are in the process of locating his law books. If we are successful, my mother would like very much for them to be housed here.”
The law faculty has nearly 2 000 students, among whom 51% of under-graduates and 47% of post-graduates are black.
It has 150 international students, mostly from the Southern African Development Community. — Sapa