USA and RSA can learn from each other,
Commencement '98 speaker says

For the first time since 1926, hundreds of graduates kicked off Commencement May 2 with a procession from Elbel Field to Michigan Stadium. There, they joined 6,000 other degree-recipients and tens of thousands of family members to hear speaker Mamphela A. Ramphele (pronounced Ram-FAY-lay), vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town and South Africa's only top female university administrator of African ancestry.

Ramphele--who in her recent autobiography termed herself the "political widow" of slain anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko--said that South African recent history shows that leadership is important.

"It's easy to forget that just six years ago our country was on the verge of civil war; the majority was unable to vote; racist ideology dominated government planning, our leadership was in prison, and a military junta seemed like a plausible scenario."

Disaster was averted, she said, because leaders "were capable of stepping outside the narrow confines of party politics and racist ideology, leaders who were prepared to take risks in reaching out across boundaries that were seen to be rigid."

But while South Africa showed that "individuals make a difference," Ramphele, who was banished to the hinterland for her anti-apartheid activities and lived under surveillance for seven years, said that she "would be remiss if I left you with the impression that apartheid is a dead thing of the past. For the amazing thing about apartheid was not that it was a failure, but that it was a phenomenal success. The previous government achieved the aims of denying black people opportunities for advancement, housing, medical care and above all education."

Ramphele said that "like a stain on the fabric of society; the residues of racism do not go away by themselves. With the immediacy and scope of our problems, we cannot idly stand by and simply watch the course of events, like spectators in a stadium. We need to accept responsibility to examine and renew that fabric."

Leaders at the University of Cape Town realize that "we need to pursue a policy of promoting both excellence and equity," she said. South Africa is uncompetitive today, she said, because "excellence was undermined by discriminatory policies, which prevented drawing from the widest pool of talent available. How can we be competitive if we do not draw on the rich diversity of talent from all of our people?"

"Equally destructive are policies that purport to pursue equity at the expense of excellence," she added. "Equity without excellence leads to decline and the loss of talented people who leave for greener pastures."

The social challenges in the developing world "are also present here in the developed one," Ramphele said. "In South Africa, we may not have the best of all that technology has to offer, but nonetheless we have enough of a commitment and release of creative energy to deal with the challenges of human development."

The text of the 1998 Commencement address is on the Web at http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/1998/May98/ramph.html