Rhodes university vice-chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela said on Wednesday that the institution was determined to support Mandela Day by doing voluntary work through the Grahamstown community between 27 and 31 July.
Rhodes university vice-chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela said on Wednesday that the institution was determined to support Mandela Day by doing voluntary work through the Grahamstown community between 27 and 31 July.
The vice-chancellor said they would do this through their Trading Live intitiative, a project of the Community Engagement Office.
"As you know every year we celebrate Mandela Day, the day when every person in this country is invited to contribute a minimum of 67 minutes of their time.
"The idea is to make a difference in the lives of those who are less fortunate. Our Trading Live initiative is part of the Mandela Day events. This year our theme is Masibambisane Siluluntu lwase-Makana (Let's Unite as the Makana Community).
"It's really an opportunity for our staff and our students to make a contribution to our local communtiy, a contribution which is based on the principle of equality, mutuality and respect," said Mabizela.
The university will hold their activities between 27 and 31 July because students are still on holiday over Mandela Day itself (18 July).
He said all the activities the university undertakes are meant to build a better society, the kind of society that is envisioned in their constitution and one that is more humane and caring.
It is also a chance for students and staff to work together with the greater Grahamstown community.
This, in turn, allows young people to be exposed to a society that is, perhaps, very different from what they're used to. In many ways, he says, Grahamstown is a microcosm of the effects of our apartheid past.
"This is where you will see grinding and debilitating poverty and deprivation existing alongside relative affluence. "Some of our students come from very rich backgrounds and they have never experienced a different kind of society here in South Africa.
"So it's an opportunity for them to enrich their educational experience at Rhodes by being exposed to the kind of challenges that some of our compatriots have to grapple with on a daily basis.
That really is very important and it's part of what the Mandela Day events can achieve," said Mabizela.
He said that it is important for Rhodes to firmly embed itself in the community.
That includes finding out what the community needs and partnering with various organisations to fulfil those needs.
"It is very important for us to be part of the initiative seeking solutions. The higher purpose of our education is to transform individual lives and to change society for the better. "So our Trading Live activities are organised through our community engagement office.
It very important for us to build a partnership with our community. And it's a two-way process "For some reason people seem to think that, by virtue of our being a university, there is nothing that we can gain from the community but in fact there is so much that the university can learn from those around us.
"So as much as we work with the community and make available the benefits of our skills and knowledge, we also benefit from getting a deeper understanding of the challenges they face.
This is an opportunity for us to convey a message to the local communtiy that we see ourselves as part of it," said Mabizela.
He points out the Trading Live is very much part of that two-way process.
"For example, there are some in our university who say they want to be exposed to Xhosa lessons.
And so some of the local schools and young people around town are able to come to the university teach university staff and students isisXhosa. Its about mutuality.
It's not the university going out there to do things for the community, it's an initiative created for both the university and the community to interact and work together. To meet each other half way."
