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TODAY IN KIMBERLEY’S HISTORY 19 SEPTEMBER

UPDATED: 19/09/2024

19 September 1877, Cecil Rhodes writes his second will.
19 September 2013, Sol Plaatje University launched in the Northern Cape, the first since true democracy.

Sol Plaatje University turns 11 years old today.

The new Sol Plaatje university in Kimberley will represent a new order of African intellect, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said on Thursday 19 September 2013.

“It is the first new university to be launched since 1994 and as such is a powerful symbol of the country’s democracy, inclusiveness, and growth,” he said at the launch in Kimberley.

“It represents a new order of African intellect, with a firm focus on innovation and excellence.”

Nzimande said the new university would join the rest of the country’s institutions of higher learning in serving the country’s growing socio-economic needs.

A total of R6.8 billion in infrastructure investments over the 2012 and 2014 medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) had been dedicated to the expansion of institutions in order to handle bigger volumes.

“Sol Plaatje University will require a further investment of approximately R5 billion over the next ten years,” Nzimande said.

The university’s ten-year plan would include the enrolment of 135 students and three academic programmes in 2014 and gradually increasing the target to 7500 by 2024, he said.

The university will eventually have three campuses — central, northern and southern.

Photograph: Tristan McLaren Photography

UPDATED: 19/09/2017

19 September 1877, Cecil Rhodes writes his second will.
19 September 2013, Sol Plaatje University launched in the Northern Cape, the first since true democracy.

DID YOU KNOW

The new Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley will represent a new order of African intellect, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said on Thursday 19 September 2013

“It is the first new university to be launched since 1994 and as such is a powerful symbol of the country’s democracy, inclusiveness, and growth,” he said at the launch in Kimberley.

“It represents a new order of African intellect, with a firm focus on innovation and excellence.”

Nzimande said the new university would join the rest of the country’s institutions of higher learning in serving the country’s growing socio-economic needs.

In the last decade, university enrolments had grown by more than 50 percent, from 2001 to 2012.

A total of R6.8 billion in infrastructure investments over the 2012 and 2014 medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) had been dedicated to the expansion of institutions in order to handle bigger volumes.

Sol Plaatje University will require a further investment of approximately R5 billion over the next ten years,” Nzimande said.

The university’s ten-year plan would include the enrolment of 135 students and three academic programmes in 2014 and gradually increasing the target to 7500 by 2024, he said.

The building would eventually have three campuses — central, northern and southern.

Diplomas in business management, information and communications technology and a Bachelor degree in education would be offered in 2014.

Photograph: Tristan McLaren Photography

Updated 19/09/2016

19 September 1877, Cecil Rhodes writes his second – and most peculiar – will.
19 September 2013, A new University (pictured) launched in the Northern Cape, the first since true democracy.

DID YOU KNOW

On 19 September 2013, Sol Plaatje University (SPU) was formally launched with its seat in Kimberley and as one of the first truly South African universities.

This was an important milestone for South Africa because this is a university that is completely free from the usual adjectives such as “previously disadvantaged”, “historically white” or “bush” university.

Here is a university that must be judged on how it acknowledges and responds to the social damage of apartheid, without asking to be excused because of that brutish past. But SPU also intends to develop a strong sense of its place in the city of Kimberley and in the Northern Cape, and through this local relevance speak as equals with the finest minds in the world.

During the planning stages, it was strongly argued that the university must be located inside the city. This was purposely done to ensure that it becomes a part of the economic, political, cultural and intellectual life of Kimberley and its citizens.

Of course, this raises questions about the relationship between SPU and the city as well as the possibilities – or even preconditions – for their mutual development. Also, this association between the university and the city should be much more than the relatively short-term benefits of the infrastructure development. SPU was truly conceived as a future knowledge partner to the development of the city of Kimberley and to the Northern Cape.

It is easy to recognise that Kimberley cannot and should not envisage itself as a future “university town” such as Grahamstown, Stellenbosch or Oxford. Instead, SPU prefers to think of Kimberley as an attractive future city where it will be exciting to live and work – like any of the great cities in the world.

And an important characteristic of a great city is that it also has a good university. (Written by Professor Y Ballim, the Vice-Chancellor of Sol Plaatje University).

From Kimberley Calls and Recalls on Facebook By Steve Lunderstedt

Update 19/09/2016

19 September 1877, Cecil Rhodes (pictured) writes his second will.

Today in Kimberley History 19 September

Cecil John Rhodes & Sol Plaatje

19 September 2013, A new University launched in the Northern Cape, the first in South Africa since true democracy.

DID YOU KNOW

Cecil Rhodes is best remembered worldwide for the Rhodes Scholarships. In his final will he left the majority of his fortune in establishing this Trust, whereby candidates for the scholarships were to be selected on the basis of character qualities as well as by intellect. His aim was to provide future leaders of English speaking nations with an education that would develop their talents and broaden their views, and with this in mind, chose Oxford University as he believed the environment there was the best any university could offer. Personal experience provided the basis for this deduction. The qualities that he sought were reflected in his will:

“My desire being that the students who shall be elected to the scholarships shall not merely be bookworms I direct that in the election of a student to a Scholarship regard shall be had to (i) his literary and scholastic attainments (ii) his fondness of and success in manly outdoor sports such as cricket, football and the like (iii) his qualities of manhood truth courage devotion to duty sympathy for the protection of the weak kindliness unselfishness and fellowship and (iv) his exhibition during school days of moral force of character and instincts to lead and to take an interest in his schoolmates for those latter attributes will be likely in afterlife to guide him to esteem the performance of public duties as his highest aim.”

The original will stated that there would be 52 such scholarships annually – 20 for countries forming the British Empire, two for Canada, six for Australia, five for South Africa, three for Rhodesia, and one each for New Zealand, Newfoundland, Bermuda and Jamaica. 32 scholarships were for the United States. In a codicil to the will, he stipulated that if English was made compulsory in German schools, there would be added a further five German scholarships.

Rhodes estate, when wound up in 1907, was worth £3 345 000, and by the end of the year 1996, the Rhodes Trust for the scholarships was valued at £145 638 000. The number of scholarships had also risen to 87 annually.

Up until 1977 only men were entitled to the scholarships but the various equity acts in the United Kingdom saw the abolishment of men only awards and Rhodes stipulation as such was nullified. Scholarships were awarded for a three year period with all expenses paid, plus pocket money for the students. By the end 1996 there had been 5900 Rhodes Scholars, with the most famous being former USA President Bill Clinton (1968 Rhodes Scholar), J.W. Fulbright (1925), Bob Hawke (1953), Julian Ogilvie Thompson (1953), and Kris Kristofferson (1958). Kimberley pupils who became Rhodes Scholars are: Ivor Bradley (CBC 1918), Gilbert Webb (CBC 1920), W.E.N. Kelley (CBC 1922), Daniel van Jaarsveld (KHS 1925), Ian MacPherson (CBC 1928), William Stoops (KHS 1937), and William Yeowart (KHS 1959). Other pupils from CBC who were Rhodes Scholars, but not known in what year awarded, were: J.P. Stratten, W.H. Cairns, J.A. MacPherson, D.H. Craighead, J.P. Hogan, and C.E. Beck.

Deneys Reitz, author of that wonderful book ‘Commando’, and son of former President F.W. Reitz of the Orange Free State, always said that it was at a function after the opening of the railway line reaching Bloemfontein in 1890, where Rhodes had first had the idea of his scholarships. At the function were many former students of Grey College who showed great loyalty to both Sir George Grey and to their alma mater, and Rhodes had been impressed by the devotion and spirit of the former students. At a speech in Kimberley shortly afterwards he said as much and stated that he wished to start a similar institution in Cape Town.

From Kimberley Calls and Recalls on Facebook

By Steve Lunderstedt

Aeon Computer Kimberley

About Steve Lunderstedt

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