The Mandela School July 2020 Newsletter: Mandela Month tribute, student achievements, and remote learning
Mandela Month
For this year’s Mandela Day, the Mandela School joined the global community for the 18th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, themed: “Tackling the Inequality Pandemic: A New Social Contract for a New Era”. The lecture was hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the keynote address was delivered by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
Guterres highlighted Madiba’s resilience and his dedication in the fight against inequality. As the global community is faced with a pandemic that has changed the world as we knew it, more than ever, the world needs leaders who embody Madiba’s values.
“He [Madiba] devoted his life to fighting the inequality that has reached crisis proportions around the world in recent decades – and that poses a growing threat to our future. COVID-19 is shining a spotlight on this injustice. Today, on Madiba’s birthday, I will talk about how we can address the many mutually reinforcing strands and layers of inequality, before they destroy our economies and societies,” said Guterres. Read the full address here.
At the Mandela School, July is special in twofold, we honour Madiba’s birthday as well as the official launch of the School with its new name and new branding. The School was initially established as the Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice in 2011. It was then officially launched in a ceremony attended by Vice-Chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng as the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town on 18 July 2018.
As this month ends, we anticipate the future and its prospects, in the same vein we reflect and celebrate the many achievements and successes at the Mandela School in the past year and current. We highlight some of the exciting programmes, events and seminars that brought the School to life.
Celebrating student achievements
We kicked off 2019 by showcasing the Mandela School’s Building Bridges first 100+ fellows of the Leading in Public Life: Emerging African Leaders Programme (EALP). The campaign produced a digital magazine that profiled the EALP first 100+ fellows. Read more: here.
Fellows of the Public Life: Emerging African Leaders Programme in Cape Town. PHOTO: The Mandela School
In the same spirit of showcasing our students, we celebrate the Mandela School’s postgraduate programmes that saw a total of 26 graduates walking the stage of the Sarah Baartman Hall in style during the 2019 autumn and summer graduation ceremonies respectively. Making this our biggest number of graduates as a School. In numbers: 14 Masters in Development Policy and Practice, 11 Master of Philosophy in Development Policy and Practice and 1 Postgraduate Diploma. In addition, eleven 2018 Masters students will graduate in 2020!
The Mandela School’s Masters graduates on the day of the UCT Summer graduation, 13 December 2019. PHOTO: Phumza Marumo
The Mandela School held a successful first fulltime master’s semester course, entitled the Practice of Policy Making and Implementation. The course brought together students from politics, economics, environmental humanities, philosophy, and sociology. Countries represented include South Africa, Venezuela, China, Norway, and Nigeria. The course was convened by lecturer, Musa Nxele, and included Professor Brian Levy and Professor Alan Hirsch. The course continued in 2020!
Professor Alan Hirsch and Musa Nxele with the Practice of Policy Making and Implementation class of 2019. PHOTO: The Mandela School
The Mandela School’s Building Bridges successfully hosted the Leading in Public Life: Women, Influence, and Power Programme. The inaugural 3-day residential programme took place in Cape Town, South Africa from 5th – 7th June, 2019 with 20 women leaders from six African countries (Botswana, Gambia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe). The leadership fellowship for mid-career African women working in the rule of law sector, aimed to promote solidarity, ambition and ultimately enhance democracies with more women equipped with legal training in public leadership positions.
The Leading in Public Life: Women, Influence, and Power Programme participants in Cape Town, June 2019.
Spotlight on staff and celebrating successes
The Mandela School was pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Faizel Ismail as the new director of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance. Professor Ismail took the position as the director of the School in July 2019. Read more about Professor Ismail’s appointment: here.
As the Mandela School, we were pleased to celebrate the launch of Professor Carlos Lopes’ book Africa in Transformation: Economic Development in the Age of Doubt. In 2019 Professor Lopes was appointed by the President of Namibia as member of the country’s High Level Panel on the Economy. He was also designated ‘2019 Economist of the Year’ by FiancialAfrik and one of 10 African personalities of the year 2019, by the largest Spanish daily EL PAIS. Professor Lopes further made the list of the 2020 100 Most Reputable Africans.
On 13 December 2019, in his capacity as African Union High Representative for Partnerships with Europe, he held a strategy comprehensive meeting at the Mandela School, with full support from the School. Professor Faizel Ismail, the School Director, was the happy host having himself been a negotiator for most of his professional life. The team will keep expanding in order to support African countries for the busy 2020 negotiations.
Professor Faizel Ismail and Professor Carlos Lopes, during a meeting at the Mandela School, in December 2019. PHOTO: Phumza Marumo
2019 held many more monumental moments, including Professor Alan Hirsch’s appointment to serve in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). The establishment of the PEAC was announced during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address. The unit aims to generate new ideas for economic growth, job creation and addressing poverty.
The Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). PHOTO: GCIS
Building Bridges
The Mandela School held and co-hosted important and timely public lectures, seminars, book launches and brown bag lunch series in 2019. The School’s commitment to knowledge sharing saw the development of partnerships with various organisations, such as the Kofi Annan Foundation, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), African Union’s African Peer Review Mechanism Secretariat (APRM), as well as the Auditor General - South Africa.
The Mandela School has continued with the same vision in 2020, due to COVID-19, the School has been hosting various webinars and masterclass series. Updates on webinars and masterclass series are shared on the School’s digital platforms.
Africa Month Public Symposium in May 2019, held in partnership with the APRM at the University of Cape Town. PHOTO: UCT
The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), in collaboration with the University of Cape Town (UCT) Convocation and the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance hosted the second African Month Public Symposium, under the theme: Africa’s innovations in the global fight against COVID-19, from 27 May to 29 May 2020. Watch all the sessions as they happened.
Read the full newsletter here.
Do connect with us on our digital platforms to keep abreast with the School’s activities. For communications related enquiries please contact: petunia.thulo@uct.ac.za and for general enquiries please contact: maria.beaunoir@uct.ac.za.