NELSPRUIT – Education is looking up for the country. This was the message delivered by Dr Blade Nzimande on Thursday during his speech at the official launch of the University of Mpumalanga at the Lowveld Agriculture College.
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) visited the Lowveld last week to announce the architects who will be designing the province’s first university and have an imbizo as well as the official sod turning ceremony.
“The single greatest contributor to the growth of the black middle class is education,” the minister of higher education said. “Education was not better under apartheid. You can criticise us, but don’t lie to our people.”
In an attempt to assuage the fears of the college’s current students, Nzimande confirmed that the college would be incorporated into the university. In contrast to this, Rifelwe Khosa, a member of the agricultural college’s choir which supplied the entertainment on the day, said she hoped the college would not be done away with, but exist alongside the university.
“They should not kill the college,” she said, despite het excitement at the establishment of the university.
It is expected to start operations in January 2015. It will be built where the agricultural college is situated and will incorporate Siyabuswa College. Nzimande said he looked forward to the new generation of teachers being trained there.
The university will initially focus on agriculture, as the college does now, before expanding to include natural resource management, nature conservation, wildlife management, plant and animal sciences, forestry and technology.
“The university “must be a university of the 21st century on the African continent,” he added. He also aimed a stern warning to the students to be mindful of the way they may express discontent with the system. “Those who destroy educational buildings are enemies of the country and of progress,” he said.
