The University of South Africa (Unisa) will officially inaugurate former South African President - Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki as the new chancellor of the university.

The event is taking place as follows:

DATE                     : Monday, 27th February 2017
TIME                      : 10:00 
VENUE                   : ZK Matthews Great Hall, Unisa Muckleneuk Campus, Preller Street, Pretoria, 0002

The appointment of President Thabo Mbeki as the new chancellor of UNISA took place during the council’s siting on the 08th December 2016.He was unanimously found to be a suitable candidate as a result of his outstanding leadership and his credentials as arguably the most prominent 21st century proponent of the African Renaissance.
“Through his political leadership, President Mbeki has been involved in various leadership roles in the liberation struggle and post-Apartheid nation-building programme for almost six decades” said Prof Mandla Makhanya, Unisa Principal and Vice Chancellor.

In appointing a chancellor, the Unisa Council carefully considered attributes and qualities that resonate with its vision and mission as articulated in the university’s Strategy Vision 2030 to become ‘The African University Shaping Futures in the Service of Humanity’. Amongst some of the other key factors considered by the Unisa Council in the appointment of President Mbeki as chancellor are the following:

• Unisa is in a process of transformation and is positioning itself as the African University. It already has a range of Africa-focussed programmes and a solid footprint on the African continent. Thabo Mbeki is the foremost proponent of the African Renaissance and is still involved in a range of conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction efforts. These include his role as the Chairperson of the AU/UNECA High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa.
• Unisa’s partnership with the Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) is one of the university’s flagship strategic relationships that have assisted in profiling the university globally; and has also led to the hosting of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI) the launch of the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library (TMPL) as well as the partnership with the South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET) in the publishing the Road to Democracy History Book Series. This partnership has greatly enhanced Unisa’s continental and global standing through a range of other programmes.
• Unisa endeavours to be an intellectual home of African scholarship and thought leadership and its repositioning to be a transformed African university playing a leading role in the realisation of the African Union Agenda 2063 will be greatly enhanced by this appointment of President Mbeki as the university‘s chancellor. It will also give great impetus to our partnership with the African Union Commission, which was formalised in a Memorandum of Understanding signed in October 2013.
• Unisa has also been observing President Mbeki’s consistency, passion and dedication in the educational and intellectual engagement programmes; which is in line with and helps our academic and research project.

Members of media are invited to attend the press conference to be held on the day.
                              
For RSVP please contact Tommy Huma, on 072 218 6197 / 012 429 3981 (humatm@unisa.ac.za) , Edgar Rathelele on 082 059 9243 / 012 429 6930 (ratheme@unisa.ac.za) and Reboile Matheba 073 379 0463 / 011 486 1560  (reboile@mbeki.org)