Doctorate of Commerce (Honoris Causa) Acceptance Address
Address by Dr Reuel J. Khoza at the University of the Witwatersrand I 14 July 2026
Madam Chancellor, Dr Judy Dlamini; Vice Chancellor, Professor Zeblon Vilakazi; Professor Maurice Radebe and your esteemed colleagues at the Wits Business School; Revered Members of Council; Members of Senate; Members of Staff - both academic and administrative; Fellow Graduates; Parents and Guardians; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen:
I rise before you today with a heart overflowing with gratitude, a spirit humbled by honour, and a mind sharpened by reflection. To be conferred with the Doctorate of Commerce honoris causa by this august institution - the University of the Witwatersrand - is homage beyond measure. It is a recognition I accept not as a solitary achievement, but as a collective triumph of all who have walked with me, guided me, and believed in me.
This day is not mine alone. It belongs to my family, my mentors, my colleagues, and indeed to the communities that have nurtured me. It belongs to Africa herself - Africa, the lion rising from slumber, shaking off the dust of history, and striding boldly into the future. Africa, whose soil has taught me resilience, whose skies have inspired vision, and whose people have instilled in me the sacred duty of stewardship.
Allow me to extend my heartiest congratulations to my fellow graduates. Today marks a defining moment in your lives - a moment of culmination, but also of commencement. Graduation is not the end of learning; it is the beginning of becoming. You now step into the world of work, a world replete with challenges: of employment and unemployment, of enterprise and entrepreneurship, of uncertainty and opportunity.
Of moral degeneration where might is considered right; where human rights and the dignity of the human personality are trampled upon with gay abandon; where whole populations – even nations – are exterminated in mounting numbers.
As this carnage consumes the civilised world, decadent putative leaders are either the instigators or largely indifferent bystanders.
As you graduate and swell the ranks of the intelligentsia, it behoves you to take a solutionist stand with a bias for action. As Robert J McCraken advises: “The world is not perishing for the want of clever or talented or well-meaning men (people). It is perishing for the want of men of courage and resolution who, in devotion to the cause of right and truth, can rise above personal feeling and private ambition.”
Embrace this reality with courage. For, every individual is in the process of becoming - becoming either anachronistic, irrelevant to the future, or becoming a harbinger of that future. The choice is yours. If you apply your education with diligence, with efficacy, and with integrity, you will find the challenge immensely rewarding. Nothing is more liberating than becoming the author of one’s own destiny. Bravo, fellow graduates - bravo! You are the eagles taking flight into the winds of destiny, the drummers of progress beating the rhythm of Africa’s renewal.
Graduates, today you step beyond these gates, but you do not leave the university behind. You carry it within you - as ideals, as conscience, as flame.
As the Xhosa proverb declares: “Inyathi ibuzwa kwabaphambili - wisdom is sought from the elders.” Now you are called to be elders-in-the-making, guiding society with wisdom, courage, and conscience.
Go forth as beacons of wisdom, sanctuaries of conscience, and engines of transformation. For in your flourishing lies the destiny of nations, the dignity of peoples, and the promise of humanity itself.
May I return, briefly, to the significance of this day for me personally. To be honoured with a Doctorate of Commerce by Wits is to be embraced by a premier, top-tier institution of higher learning, ranked among the top 1% of universities globally. Wits is renowned for its academic excellence, prolific research output, and cutting-edge innovation. You can all appreciate why I am so rapturously delighted to be counted among this university’s newly capped graduates.
I undertake, solemnly, to conduct myself in a manner befitting the stature of this great institution. To uphold its values, to advance its reputation, and to embody its spirit of excellence.
Madam Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, distinguished faculty, honoured guests, and fellow graduates: I accept this honour with profound gratitude, with humility, and with a pledge - to continue striving for commerce that is humane, leadership that is principled, and scholarship that is liberating.
May this day remind us all that the true measure of success is not what we accumulate, but what we contribute. Not what we possess, but what we pass on. Not how loudly we speak, but how faithfully we serve.
I thank you.