UWC’s Student Representative Council (SRC) President, Mcntosh Khasembe, at the first Autumn Graduation Session. Image by Shelley ChristiansThe first graduation day at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) was a celebration of perseverance, purpose and pride.
As the graduands took the stage it also became something even more profound - an affirmation of leadership, community and the power of dreams - in part, thanks to the address by UWC’s Student Representative Council (SRC) President, Mcntosh Khasembe.
Speaking to a packed Jakes Gerwel Hall, Khasembe reminded graduates that their academic achievement is not just a personal triumph, but a social contract to elevate others.
"This degree is not just a scroll," he said. "It is a key - to opportunity, to responsibility, and to building legacies that stretch beyond yourself," he said. Drawing on his own lived experience - being raised in a household of five siblings, by an unemployed mother and a hardworking father - Khasembe’s words were heartfelt and personal.
His speech resonated with the struggles many UWC students face: financial challenges, mental health issues and the fight for access in a transforming higher education system.
He challenged the graduating class to consider a critical question: "What is a future worthy of South Africa’s potential?"
Urging his peers not only to seek employment but to create it, Khasembe called on them to build “ecosystems of opportunity,” rooted in the communities that raised them.
“Lift as you rise,” he declared. “Do not forget the teacher who paid for your printing, the cleaner who prayed for your exams, or the aunt who sent you R100 each month. That is your umbilical cord. That is your home.”
The Autumn Graduation at UWC will conclude on 17 April 2025.
