Page 11 - Installation of Chancellor 8 April 2026

THE ESSENCE OF NATIONAL

MANDELA UNIVERSITY ANTHEM

Our university is grounded in a moral imagination that together what are often treated as opposites —
sees knowledge not as an end, but as a public good excellence and equality, efficiency and integrity, quality Nkosi Sikelel’i-Afrika,
— something to be held with care and exercised in and diversity, ubuntu and sustainable stewardship. As Maluphakanyisw’uphondo lwayo,
the service of justice, dignity and the common good. a modern African university, it places Africa and the
Shaped by South Africa’s democratic journey and Global South at the centre of knowledge production, Yizwa imithandazo yethu,
consciously bearing the name of Nelson Mandela, the while remaining globally engaged. It values epistemic Nkosi Sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo.
University understands its identity as an ethical calling: plurality, multilingualism and critical inquiry, and seeks
to think critically, to act courageously, and to remain to cultivate teaching, research and engagement that
answerable to society, especially to those historically illuminate injustice, unsettle inherited certainties and Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso,
excluded from its promises. imagine more humane futures. O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho.

But we do not carry this name uncritically, neither is it Above all, our University understands itself as a place O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso,
simply a brand. Rather, we engage Mandela through of becoming rather than arrival. Transformation is Setjhaba sa South Africa.
our responsibility before the name: shared participation not a finished achievement but a difficult, long-term
in building transformed spaces, institutional practice — one that calls for ethical leadership, shared
commitment to a modern African university grounded responsibility, and a deep commitment to learning South Africa.
in multiple forms of justice, and research and learning from complexity, contradiction, and change. In this
oriented to making a just society within an explicit sense, the University aspires to mould graduates and
ethics frame. Mandela is encountered not as a heroic scholars who lead with conscience and competence, Uit die blou van onse hemel,
icon but as a complex, dynamic figure of fusions and who hold hope together with responsibility, and who Uit die diepte van ons see.
contradictions. carry forward Mandela’s legacy not as reverence for the
past, but as work toward a more just and sustainable Oor ons ewige gebergtes
At its core, the University is committed to holding world. Waar die kranse antwoord gee.

Sounds the call to come together,
And united we shall stand.

Let us live and strive for freedom,
In South Africa our land.

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