Message by the President of Convocation

Fraternal greetings to all UNIVEN Alumni

Let me start by welcoming you all to the UNIVEN Alumni fold. Thank you for taking the time to participate in the July 2021 online elections of convocation in which I have been elected to serve as President of the Convocation. The other members elected to serve in the Executive Committee of Convocation are the Vice President, Mr Rudzani Mushweu and additional members namely Ms Shonisani Tikva Masutha, Ms Letsobana Virginia Moagi, Ms Salome Kobola Makgoka, Adv. Sipho Mashele and Adv. Mpho Mashao.

Our election comes at a truly remarkable year in which all of us have been touched in some fundamental way by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. The spread of COVID-19 has taught us that alumni relations in-person activities can be replaced by digital programmes such as webinars, live streams and social media chats. It is a new normal that as UNIVEN Alumni, we should embrace these online programmes to achieve our intended goals.

The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic will remain a feature of the coming years, but they will not hinder our efforts to execute our mandate to advance the interests of our graduates and those of the registered students. We will resort to online programmes to advance the interests of graduates and currently registered students.

All former students are the lifeblood of their alma mater. You should be proud of being an integral part of this institution. The prestige of the institution rests with its alumni and what they do. The positive contributions alumni make in whatever form be it time, skills, money and donations in kind will undoubtedly help in the growth and development of this University.

We surely hope that the next five years of our term of office will be that of togetherness, of development and success. I implore all our graduates in their diverse fields and professions to come on board and provide support, ideas and solutions to a myriad of challenges the University faces. Some of the greatest challenges are the financial difficulties faced by the missing middle and postgraduate students as well as graduate unemployment.

We invite you to join us in this journey to help our students to complete their studies. We also invite you to join us in helping our unemployed graduates either to find employment or to create employment for themselves. Remember, the University of Venda has adopted a ‘2021-2025 strategic plan’ in which one of its aims is to produce graduates who are not job seekers but job creators.

We will be in touch and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Mr Masa Sylvester Motadi
President of Convocation, UNIVEN
mmotadi@yahoo.com