Page 4 - Installation of Chancellor 8 April 2026

CEREMONIAL FORMAL

DECLARATION INSTALLATION

Installation of We gather today for the formal installation of Dr Grace deeply with this University’s identity as a transformative
Naledi Mandisa Pandor as Chancellor of Nelson African institution in service of society.
Mandela University.
Dr Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor By the authority vested in the Council of Nelson
as Chancellor of Dr Pandor is a distinguished scholar, public servant Mandela University, and in accordance with the

Nelson Mandela University and global leader, whose life’s work affirms that Statute of the University, we hereby install Dr Grace
Naledi Mandisa Pandor as Chancellor.
knowledge must serve justice and institutions must
nurture dignity.
May her tenure strengthen our scholarship, deepen
Her academic leadership, commitment to education, our integrity and advance our contribution to society.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF and dedication to democratic governance resonate

THE INSTALLATION

The installation of a Chancellor marks the formal This installation signals a special moment in the history
transition of ceremonial responsibility. As a university of the University. Not only because the University
that carries the name Mandela, the event assumes a is recommitting itself to advance the academic
wider significance — it gestures toward a stubborn expression of Mandela, but because it senses a deeper
hope for a changing country and a changing world, connection with the tradition of the University as a
amid the converging planetary climate crisis, socially embedded institution in the service of society.
democratic erosion and deepening inequality.
Dr Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor assumes this
Since its establishment in 2005 through the higher office at Nelson Mandela University at a time when
education merger processes, our University has universities globally are called upon to lead with
consciously worked to enlarge the generative integrity, ethical courage and social responsiveness.
interface between excellence and equality, efficiency Her distinguished record of activism, public service
and integrity, quality and diversity, and ubuntu and and scholarship resonates deeply with the University’s
sustainable stewardship. The 2017 name change — identity as a transformative and socially embedded
linking the institution explicitly to the name, legacy and African university.
ethical imagination of Nelson Mandela — reaffirmed
and deepened these commitments, placing upon Today’s installation affirms our commitment to
the University an obligation of profound moral, social advancing equitable access to meaningful opportunity
and intellectual significance. Our Chancellor has, with and success, strengthening African and global
great self-assurance, skill and poise, reflected this partnerships, and contributing to just and sustainable
promise over the past eight years. futures.

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