By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe has graduated with a Master of Business Administration degree.
Mantashe, 65, managed to juggle his time between government, party and school work to achieve his master’s at Mancosa.
He said the MBA required discipline more than intelligence as well as hard work and ability to meet deadlines.
“When you achieve your MBA, you don’t feel the length of the journey, you enjoy the qualification and you go about telling people that I’ve got a new qualification, the MBA. It takes courage and it’s quite an important qualification,” Mantashe said.
Because of Covid-19 Mantashe graduated virtually from the comfort of his home. He used his graduation speech to encourage young people to study.
“For young people and other people who want to do it I would encourage them to do that because it will give them tools of execution which is what the strength of the MBA is rather than theory.”
He was congratulated by many South Africans on social media including his colleagues whom he serves with in the cabinet.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has on Sunday congratulated Mantashe for obtaining his Master of Business Administration (MBA).
Ramaphosa said that Mantashe achieved demonstrated that education remained the ‘most powerful weapon’ for transforming the future.
“We are proud of you Mqwathi for this academic achievement, and we remain inspired by your unwavering commitment to lifelong learning.”
The President joins the African National Congress in congratulating it’s national chairperson.
In a statement released on Saturday evening, the ANC said this was Mantashe’s second Masters qualification, having previously completed a Master of Arts from the University of Witwatersrand (WITS) in 2008.
“The ANC congratulates its National Chairperson, Comrade Gwede Mantashe, for successfully completing the Master of Business Administration (MBA) with MANCOSA.”
Meanwhile Mantashe has denied in an affidavit that he was involved in the evaluation of the bids for emergency power, the lion’s share of which was won by a company majority owned by the controversial Turkish company Karpowership.
An unhappy bidder, DNG Power Holdings, has asked the high court in Pretoria to set aside the determination of the preferred bidders and wants to be selected in place of Karpowership SA.