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Putting people first: Prof Mosa Moshabela’s strategy for UCT’s future
01 September 2025 | Video Production Team Boikhutso Ntsoko, Ruairi Abrahams and Nomfundo Xolo. Photo Lerato Maduna.For Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela, the first year at the helm of the University of Cape Town (UCT) has been as much about people as it has been about policy. In a conversation with journalist Nikiwe Bikitsha on 13 August 2025, he reflected on the paradox of time, a year that felt both fleeting and weighty, and the challenge of leading an institution defined by its diversity, yet often fractured by it. His answer has been to put people first: “The essence of a university is people, their minds, their hearts, their motivations.” Listening, kindness, and ubuntu, he insists, must guide UCT forward.
This ethos underpins Strategy 2030, UCT’s renewed five-year plan for 2026 to 2030. While the strategy retains Vision 2030’s core purpose, “to unleash human potential for a fair and just society,” it also expands UCT’s mission to include innovation and entrepreneurship alongside teaching, research and social responsiveness. Moshabela says, the real measure of success will not be rankings or reports, but whether students and staff can see themselves in UCT’s future. His call is clear: to transform complexity into unity, and diversity into a strength that shapes generations to come.
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In his first year as UCT Vice-Chancellor, Prof Mosa Moshabela has championed a people-first approach to Strategy 2030, calling for listening, kindness and ubuntu to transform the university’s diversity into a unifying strength for future generations.
01 Sep 2025
