VIDEO: ‘NMU must spearhead changes in SA society’

The newly launched Nelson Mandela University should be at the forefront of solving inequality, poverty and unemployment as it has been rebranded as the only university to carry the name of one of the greatest statesmen the world has ever seen.

That was the dominant message by speakers – including Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa – at the university’s official name-change event at its Missionvale campus yesterday.

“This university must be at the forefront of efforts to make higher education accessible to the poor and to the marginalised,” Ramaphosa said.

“This university, and particularly this campus, is located on the periphery of an area where our people live, in an area that all of us cannot and should not be proud of,” he said.

“This university must be at the forefront of efforts to make sure that higher education is an instrument for the achievement of social equality.”

Ramaphosa said while the government had made strides in making higher education accessible, many academically deserving people were still not able to attend university.

Nelson Mandela Foundation spokesman Luzuko Koti said when the university was given permission to use the former president’s name, it became one of 50 institutions around the world asking for formal approval to use it.