Chancellor’s Installation and Inaugural Address
Warm response to Moloi-Motsepe’s election as chancellor
03 September 2019 | Story Helen Swingler. Photo Wikimedia commons. Read time 4 min.
There has been a warm response to the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) election of Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe as the university’s sixth chancellor, a position that she will take up from 1 January 2020. She will be the second black woman to hold the position and will take the reins from Graça Machel.
The chancellor is the titular head of the university and presides at graduation ceremonies, confers degrees, and awards diplomas and certificates in the name of the university. The role of chancellor requires an individual of stature with exceptional personal qualities and integrity.
Machel finishes her second term as chancellor at the end of 2019. Unusually, she served two terms, her first beginning in 1999. The chancellor is usually elected for a 10-year term.
Moloi-Motsepe was elected by an electoral college consisting of holders of UCT qualifications, academic and PASS (professional, administrative support and service) staff, and students on Friday, 30 August.
UCT’s chair of council Sipho Pityana welcomed the news.
“The university is privileged to have Dr Moloi-Motsepe serve as the chancellor of one of the leading institutions in the country and on the African continent. On behalf of UCT, I would like to thank the outgoing chancellor, Mrs Graça Machel for serving the university with remarkable distinction and great commitment for two 10-year terms, which spanned complex moments and incredible milestones.”
Moloi-Motsepe is a businesswoman and philanthropist who started her career in medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). She worked in various public hospitals in South Africa as well as at the Medical College of Virginia in the US. Together with her husband, Dr Patrice Motsepe, she founded the Motsepe Foundation in 1999, and in 2013 they became the first couple from Africa to join The Giving Pledge.
In addition to its development work in South Africa and across the African continent, the foundation has international partnerships with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Milken Institute and various other philanthropic organisations. Moloi-Motsepe established African Fashion International (AFI) in 2007. AFI’s mission is to aggregate the fragmented fashion and clothing industry on the African continent to make it commercially viable and sustainable.
Dr Moloi-Motsepe holds an MBBCh and a diploma in child health from Wits, as well as a diploma in women’s health from Stellenbosch University. Dr Moloi-Motsepe authored a resource guide for women across South Africa, The Precious Little Black Book, and has produced the Gender Responsive Budgeting Initiative South Africa.
Her professional associations include the Harvard Kennedy School’s Women’s Leadership Board and Center for Public Leadership Council, the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council and the Cancer Association of South Africa (past president).
UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi congratulated Moloi-Motsepe on being elected as the university’s next chancellor and said she was delighted to have her join the university.
“I look forward to working closely with her, the Council and Leadership Lekgotla in steering the academic project at this special institution.
“We look forward to working with her in moving the university to the next level in achieving excellence in transformation, research, teaching and learning, and social responsiveness. Our current chancellor, Mrs Machel, has been such a support and leader for me and the executive of UCT, and I would like to express our deepest thanks to her.
“I am excited by the next partnership we will build with Dr Moloi-Motsepe.”
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Chancellor’s Installation and Inaugural Address
On Friday, 10 December 2021, the University of Cape Town installed its sixth Chancellor, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe.
The Chair of Council of the University of Cape Town
Ms Babalwa Ngonyama
has the pleasure of inviting you to watch the installation and inaugural address of UCT’s Chancellor
Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe.
This event took place from 11:00 on Friday, 10 December 2021.
“The chancellor is the titular head of the university and presides at graduation ceremonies, confers degrees, and awards diplomas and certificates in the name of the university. The role of chancellor requires an individual of stature with exceptional personal qualities and integrity.”
– Chair of UCT Council
Previous UCT Chancellors
Today we are installing Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe as the sixth Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. We honour our previous Chancellors in this historical photo gallery:
Ceremony order of proceedings
The items collected together in this section of the feature page will help you to easily follow the order of proceedings during the ceremony.
It is tradition for a dedication to be read at the installation of a new Chancellor at UCT.
10 Dec 2021 - 1 min read
Duly elected
On 30 August 2019, Sipho M Pityana, then Chair of Council at UCT, was proud to announce that Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe had been duly elected as the new chancellor of the university, a position that she would take up from 1 January 2020. The new chancellor was elected by an electoral college consisting of holders of UCT qualifications, academic and PASS (professional, administrative support and service) staff, and students.
The chancellor is elected for a 10-year term and Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe’s term started on 1 January 2020. She has embraced the role, even as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020 and gained momentum in the months that followed.
“As I took up the reins as Chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) last year, I was inspired by the example the institution set during the pandemic and lockdown crisis. I saw the resolve of Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng and her colleagues to continue to care for their students and each other while lockdown forced everyone to remain at home. I saw the students’ resolve to continue their degree programmes, even under conditions of hardship.”
– Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe, UCT Chancellor
from her welcome message in UCT’s Year in Review 2020 publication
In the news
