This year’s Africa Day at MUT is being celebrated with students from the University of Limpopo (UL) to strengthen intercultural communication across students. Young people are the future and even this year’s Africa Day theme, “Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa”, takes cognizance of the place for young people now. The team from UL is led by Malusi Lebelo, Practitioner for International Student Integration and Welfare at UL. The team includes Priscilla Boabeng, Vice-President, University of Limpopo International Student Organisation (ULISO), Katlego Mtshweni, SRC Deputy Secretary General and Mologadi Madisha, SRC Vice-President. “We are here to share with MUT students at a very intellectual level a few insights on how we as young people can start thinking about preserving our cultures and languages. Our province, Limpopo, has three official languages; there is mutual respect across all different cultures. This is intentional and me, being associated with the international office, am very aware of the importance of intercultural communication”, said Malusi. Malusi added that they were at MUT to learn about the cultures in KwaZulu-Natal. “We do know that some of the people are never prepared to learn other languages. We come here as versatile people when it comes to learning other languages. As South Africans we need to accept that our country is very cosmopolitan; we need to start appreciating the rich cultural heritage and unity to commemorate our continent”, she added.
The team agrees that it is never too late to learn a new language and this they believe is in line with the importance of education. ‘You are never too late learning a new language’. The MUT Radio show included a few language lessons for both UL and MUT students.