UJ paints the town orange
AUCKLAND PARK AND HURSTHILL - University of Johannesburg students turned up in hordes to give to various charity projects and help with community efforts on Mandela Day.
The University of Johannesburg wants to carry on the dream Mandela had for the youth of this country.
That’s what Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, deputy vice-chancellor of the university said at the university’s Mandela Day opening on 18 July.
The university organised an enormous charity effort, starting off with a speech at the Kingsway Campus in Auckland Park. Students then had a choice of various duties to tackle for their 67 minutes.
Groups of students and other volunteers went to Westdene Dam to clean, two groups went to Hursthill’s Kingston Frost Park, some of the students went to Helen Joseph Hospital to clean and cheer the people up there, and other factions went to other hospitals, including Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. There were even students planting trees on all the university’s campuses.
“And there’s more,” Professor Maluleke said.
Clad in orange Mandela Day shirts, the university students and volunteers lent colour to the City with their numerous charity efforts.
“I was just about to come into this world when Mandela was arrested in August 1962,” Professor Maluleke said after the opening event.
“I wouldn’t have this job, or my education if it wasn’t for him. His life has defined my own. I don’t even think I would be here if it weren’t for Madiba.”
The university’s ethos, Maluleke said, is also shaped by the way Madiba lived his life.
“We have four values that we treasure here,” he said.
“Imagination is the first – and Mandela taught us to imagine ourselves in better places, to imagine a free and beautiful world. The second value is conversation. Madiba taught us that the solution was to talk, the solution was not a gun and a bullet. The other values are an ethical foundation, and to lead without corruption, and they are what Mandela did. All of this was inspired by Mandela.”
“This is our opportunity to give,” Ruth Lehoka, the university’s community event coordinator said.
Lehoka was in charge of organising the event.
The group cleaning up the beautiful Kingston Park diligently completed their duties earlier than expected.
“It’s nice that the students are learning about green places, and that the university is giving back to the community,” Ann Simmonds, who joined the park cleaning said.
