Dear graduates, parents, and the people of South Africa,
On Tuesday, 15 March 2022, the Autumn Graduation Ceremony of Unisa was disrupted by a labour protest action. This unfortunate and regrettable event should not have happened. On behalf of the Management, Senate and the entire university community, I wish to express my unconditional and profound apology to the graduates, parents, families, including our students in Africa the rest of the world who were adversely affected by the disruption.
In terms of Chapter 2, the Bill of Rights, Section 10, every South African ‘has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.’ As Unisa – a public institution which is a creature of statute – we have the moral and legal obligation to honour and uphold the Constitution of the Republic, as well as the rights of all our students.
Accordingly, I have directed that for those students who wish to return for a proper and dignified graduation, they are welcome to do so. Further, the university is currently looking at ways in which there could be appropriate redress to the affected graduates. In this regard, formal communication will be issued to the affected students.
Because the university has the obligation to ensure that academic activities, including the sanctity of graduations, takes place under a conducive and stable environment, we have no choice but to postpone the graduation ceremonies for this week. The new dates for the continuation of the Autumn Graduation Ceremonies will be communicated directly with the graduates.
The university does not condone lawlessness or the disruption of graduation ceremonies and other equally important academic activities for whatever reason. I wish to assure our students and the public that the university leadership is hard at work to resolve the concerns of labour as speedily as possible.
At the same time, we need to act in an accountable manner in the interest of all our students, some of whom are first generation graduates in their families. We cannot afford to steal such a moment of pride for our people. We have graduation ceremonies precisely to acknowledge and celebrate our students.
Once more, please accept our unconditional and profound apologies.
Yours sincerely,
Prof Puleng LenkaBula
Principal and Vice-Chancellor
UNISA
Publish date: 2022-03-19 00:00:00.0