The Rixaka Heritage Forum in Limpopo says the move to construct a Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) campus in Giyani is long overdue and it did not hijack the idea from the Bapedi royal family.
The advocacy organisation told Sunday World this week that the idea of building an institution of higher learning campus in Giyani goes back to the early 2000s when former
minister of education Kader Asmal declared Giyani College of Education a subdivision of the University of Venda.
Last week Sunday World reported that the Bapedi Royal Kingdom pointed a finger at TUT principal and vice-chancellor Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, accusing him of hijacking the idea to build a campus in their area.
A senior member of the royal council, Mampuru, accused Prof Maluleke of hijacking the project despite the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2021, directing it to
Giyani, where he hails from.
This week Rixaka Heritage Foundation spokesperson Joshua Maluleke said by 2010, the Khatsani Education Foundation had made representations to government to revisit the idea of opening a university campus in Giyani to replace both the defunct University of Gazankulu and the dysfunctional section of the University of Venda.
Maluleke said in 2021, the foundation and the Royal Leaders Union joined hands to further lobby the government.
According to Maluleke, the National Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) under then minister Blade Nzimande agreed to carry the project forward.
“Meetings were then held between the DHET and TUT to establish the Giyani Campus and site visits were made to assess the facility. At that stage, Professor Lourens van
Staden led the process as the vice-chancellor of TUT.”
He said he was aware that the Bapedi Royal Kingdom in Sekhukhune was also waiting for the construction of a TUT campus in their region.
“[Prof Tinyiko] Maluleke had no association with the university whatsoever at the time. By the time Prof Maluleke joined TUT as vice chancellor in 2022, the decision to establish a university campus in Giyani was ready for announcement. Indeed, in July 2022, minister Ndzimande went to Giyani to publicly announce the decision of his ministry to establish a campus in Giyani.”
However, Mampuru warned that if the matter was not handled properly, it had the potential to cause a serous rift between the two Limpopo communities.
This is a planned sponsored sabotage and let me point out that it has got nothing to do with pitting the alleged communities in question,if something happen in Sekhukhune and not in Giyani how does affect this community over the other.
We need to have shared developments but not competing amongst ourselves as communities,I have to ask this question based on Mr Mampurus allegation on his comment in this publication some 2cweeks ago alleging that a campus at Giyani and not Sekhukhune is tantamount to tribalism,what parameter did he use to indicate that it is tribalism when at Giyani and not when at Sekhukhune?
Mr Mampuru is a hired proxy who’s main task is to attack and deny Giyani developments because him and his handlers are not copying about Giyani developing as a district head quarters hence the want it playing second fiddle to other district.
Chest pains because the campus might unlock other more developments.
South africa doesn’t deserve a proxy of Mr Mampuru’s calibre.Giyani will develop further and the same to Sekhukhune will happen regardless of this hired developments assassin that is Mr Mampuru.
Giyani Campus was long over due prior to JZ launching a new University of Mpumalanga, Mampuru must understand that public sector infrastructure development will never be part of his comradeship on development
Greediness has killed so & so, why it turns sour when development is made in Giyani for all the people living in South Africa and abroad, people who suffer from the old n new tribalism must learn to wean from it because it is a venom to our human kind development and progress we deserve in our life span now and forever.