MESSAGE to Alumni
from Professor Tshilidzi Marwala
mina emerged as an important beacon of hope. The University of Johannesburg (UJ) serves as a microcosm of South Africa. As we have battled an uncertain and difficult context, Bra Hugh’s words once again emerge as a source of strength. Our alumni play a vital role in speaking to this. Though many of our alumni have not been students for quite some time, they are still a vital part of the UJ community. Our University has carved a footprint for itself in South Africa, Africa and across the world. We’re a University worth talking about
“I wanna be there when the people start to turn it around.” These were the opening lyrics to Hugh Masikela’s Thuma Mina. Echoing our constitution that speaks to “we, the people”, Bra Hugh as he was affectionately called sounded a clarion call to all citizens to make the vision for South Africa a reality. In 2017, when President Cyril Ramaphosa gave his inaugural state of the nation address, he drew on thuma mina, or in English, send me as the signal for his new dawn. For a nation so fragmented by politics and a dark history that has left discontentment and disillusionment in its wake, thuma
and our rankings are certainly testament to this. As our esteemed alumni, this is the stature you hold with you. At the beginning of 2020, few could have predicted that this would have been our trajectory. The spread of a virus in China, then in the rest of East Asia did not seem like it would shake our world order. How wrong we were. There are no words to ascribe to this period we are in even though the phrases ‘unprecedented’, ‘unchartered waters’ and ‘pandemic’ have become firmly part of our lexicon. We have certainly been thrust further into the Fourth Industrial Revolution
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ALUMNI IMPUMELELO
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