media releases - Mamphele Ramphele to deliver Unisa's 2012 Founders Lecture

Community activist, pioneer business leader and founder of the Citizens Movement for Social Change, Dr Mamphele Ramphele will deliver the keynote address at the 2012 Unisa Founders Lecture on Wednesday, 31 October 2012. She will speak on the topic: ‘Educating and Training the 21^st Century South African Citizen’.

Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mandla Makhanya is the respondent.   

Unisa introduced the Founders Lecture in 2003 with the aim of encouraging the university community to focus and deliberate on critical issues in higher education at both global and national levels. Previous speakers at this lecture include Professor Barney Pityana, Unisa’s former Principal and Vice-Chancellor; Dr Philemon Mjwara, Director-General of  the Department of Science and Technology; Lord Sutherland, President of the Royal Institute of Philosophy; Professor Paul Zeleza, Professor of African Studies and History at the Pennsylvania State University in the USA; Dr. T Karunakan, Vice-Chancellor of the Gandhigram Rural Institute-Deemed University in India as well as Professor George Ellis, Professor of Complex Systems at the University of Cape Town.        

The media is invited to the lecture. The details are as follows:

Date     :           Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Venue   :           Senate Hall, Theo Van Wyk Building, Unisa Main Campus,

Preller Street, Pretoria

Time     :           18:00

Dr Mamphele Ramphele profile

Dr Mamphela Ramphele is Founder of the Citizens Movement which was launched in April 2012. She served as Convener of the Dinokeng Scenarios which released its report in May 2009, and is using the ‘walk together’ approach it endorsed to underpin the journey from subjects to citizens which the Citizens Movement advocates.

Dr Ramphele is passionate about education, health, youth development and sustainable livelihoods. She has been an activist since the days of founding the Black Consciousness Movement with other South African citizens. She is author of several books and publications on socio-economic issues in South Africa and has received numerous prestigious national and international awards. These include honorary doctorates acknowledging her scholarship, her service to the community, and her leading role in raising development issues and spearheading projects for disadvantaged persons in South Africa and elsewhere in the world. She is currently Chairperson of the Board of the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and of Goldfields.

Ramphele qualified as a medical doctor at the University of Natal in 1972. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town and postgraduate diplomas in Tropical Health & Hygiene and Public Health from the University of the Witwatersrand.

From May 2000 to July 2004 she served as Managing Director of the World Bank, the first South African to hold this position. She was co-chair of the Global Commission for International Migration (GCIM) between 2004 and 2005. She is a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Steve Biko Foundation.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Ramphele was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, a post she took up in 1996, becoming the first black woman to hold this position at a South African university.  

Professor Mandla Makhanya’s profile

Professor Mandla Stanley Makhanya was appointed Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of South Africa on 1 January 2011. A sociologist by training and profession, Professor Makhanya is a genuine “people’s person” as evidenced in his commitment to and practice of Servant Leadership. 

Having risen steadily through the academic ranks, Prof Makhanya was the Dean for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the old Unisa from January 2000 to February 2004. He continued serving in this capacity after the establishment of the new Unisa, from 2004 until his term as Executive Dean of the College of Human Sciences ended on 1 January 2008, when he was appointed Pro Vice Chancellor of Unisa. A mere two years later, Professor Mandla Makhanya was appointed to the highest office in the University.

Professor Makhanya holds a BA and a BA (Hons) (in Sociology) from the University of Fort Hare, a Masters Degree in Industrial Sociology from the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu Natal), and a DPhil from the University of Pretoria and a DTE from Unisa. In 2007, the University of Athabasca in Canada conferred upon him a PhD (Honoris Causa) in recognition of his outstanding leadership at Unisa and his contribution as a distinguished scholar in distance education.

Professor Makhanya is an executive member of Higher Education South Africa (HESA) whose membership comprises the Vice Chancellors of South Africa’s universities.  He is the Treasurer of the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) as well as an executive member of the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE). He also served as a member of the executive of the National Association of Distance Education and Open Learning in Southern Africa (NADEOSA) in 2007 and 2008.  Professor Makhanya is also an Executive Committee Member of the Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association (HETL) – International Body (2012).  HETL is a body of international experts with a global footprint in education and, in particular, informing on ODL and e-learning issues.

Professor Makhanya is actively involved in UNESCO’s activities. He is a deputy Chairperson of the South African National Commission for UNESCO as well as a Chairperson of the Culture Sector of the South African National Commission for UNESCO. He has also been a member of the National Committee of the Memory of the World (MoW).  In the 1990s he served in various leadership roles in the South African Sociological Association and eventually became its Deputy President in 1998, for a period of two years. During this time he also served as an editorial committee member of their journal Society in Transition. He continues to be a member of the South African Sociological Association (SASA), as well as the International Association of Sociology (ISA) and he continues to exercise his own scholarship through regular publications. Professor Makhanya remains actively involved in student matters through his supervision of postgraduate students. He is also an external examiner for some universities, including the University of Fort Hare and the University of North West. Professor Makhanya completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2009.

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