Cape Town - The University of the Western Cape will start the new academic year next year with a new council chairman and a new vice-chancellor.
On Tuesday, the university announced that Mthunzi Mdwaba had been elected as the new council chairman at the council’s last meeting for the year.
He will replace Brian Williams, whose term ended last month.
Mdwaba who will serve a three-year term, is the chief executive of TZoro IBC, a former group chief executive of Torque IT and until recently served as one of the vice presidents of Business Unity South Africa.
In his acceptance speech, Mdwaba thanked Williams and vice-chancellor Professor Brian O’ Connell, who is retiring at the end of the year, for “bringing us to this point, so Professor Tyrone Pretorius, our incoming vice-chancellor, can take the baton and ensure the realisation of further milestones for this very remarkable university”.
He said these milestones could only be achieved through focused and strategic partnerships.
“Funding and sustainability are absolutely essential ingredients in ensuring that the community of the university focuses on doing what we need to do without pain.
“In this regard, we are going to have to come up with very clear focused ways of leveraging our networks.
“Partnerships are going to be absolutely key going forward, both in defending our territory to ensure growth of existing relationships, and also in acquiring new partnerships that can take us to new heights.”
Cape Argus