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M U T

S P I R I T

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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0

LOCKDOWN GRADUATION

MUT caps 2 539 students at its ‘virtual’ graduation

ceremonies

Saturday, 27 June 2020, was just another day for many across South Africa. But for

2 539 MUT students graduating at the University’s 2020 graduation, it was a day they

were going to make history. They were the first graduates to be capped at MUT’s first

‘virtual’ graduation in line with the country’s social distancing and lockdown regulations.

The Faculty of Engineering graduated 809 students,

while the Faculty of Management Sciences graduated

1 279 students. The Faculty of Natural Sciences

graduated a smaller number of 451 students, but this

included three Master’s students – an extra cause for

celebration.

The three ceremonies were available for viewing on

the MUT virtual graduation microsite from 10h00 on

the graduation Saturday. The ceremonies started with

the constitution of the congregation and introductory

remarks by MUT Chancellor and Minister of Human

Settlements, Water & Sanitation, the Honourable

Lindiwe Sisulu (MP), who was the first to send in her

recorded message. Sisulu’s introduction was followed

by an address by the Acting Vice-Chancellor &

Principal, Professor Marcus Ramogale. The conferral

of qualifications followed immediately after Professor

Ramogale’s address. Sandile Dlamini, President of

MUT Convocation, then welcomed graduates to the

Convocation of MUT before Sisulu dissolved the

congregation.

Opening the ceremonies as she would during face-

to-face graduation, Honourable Minister Sisulu

expressed her disappointment at not being able to join

the University’s graduates in person. “As you know,

the MUT graduation is very close to my heart,” said

Sisulu. “There is a sense of uniqueness to the MUT

graduation which makes me appreciate how far we

have come as a country to bring access to education

to people from all walks of life.”

Sisulu further reminded graduates that they needed

to find ways to soldier on with their lives as the

coronavirus would be part of them until a vaccine was

discovered and distributed.