First Lady, Zanele Mbeki (Image: Financial Mail)

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Zanele Mbeki appointed chancellor of CIDA First Lady, Zanele Mbeki, will be inaugurated as the first chancellor of CIDA City Campus, an institution committed to uplifting students from poor areas, on Saturday, 12 August. August 11, 2006 By Tabisa Mntengwana CHAIRPERSON of the Women's Development Bank Trust and first lady, Zanele Mbeki, has been appointed as the first chancellor of CIDA City Campus. Her inauguration will take place on Saturday, 12 August during the campus's third graduation ceremony. According to a press release, Mbeki accepted the chancellorship, praising CIDA's efforts of creating an institution that is responsible to the marginalised. CIDA offers students from townships, rural areas and squatter camps a four-year Bachelor of Business Administration degree, through scholarships. "CIDA is fundamentally founded on principles of sustainable poverty alleviation, offering development for those who would not otherwise get access, so as to extricate larger numbers of families from abject poverty as quickly as possible," said Mbeki. "I know that education offers economic freedom for more of our people," she said. Mbeki has been associated with the campus since 2002 and will now work closely with the CEO of CIDA City Campus, Dr Taddy Blecher. "We are thrilled to have Mbeki as our chancellor, given her demonstrated commitment to the marginalised in our society," said Blecher. Mbeki also commented on CIDA's positive impact on employment creation, economic growth, community development and empowerment. She holds a Masters of Science degree from the University of London. She completed her BSc degree at Wits University. In 1974, while in England, she married President Thabo Mbeki, and briefly worked in the US for the UN High Commissioner for refugees. Later that year she moved with her husband to Zambia, where she worked as a social worker, helping refugees and as a gender activist. Returning to South Africa in 1990, Mbeki established the Women's Development Bank Trust, where she served as a director before being appointed as chairperson. She was also part of the South African delegation to the Beijing Women's Conference in 1994, chairperson of the Trust Fund for South African Women's Economic Empowerment and is involved with the South African Women in Dialogue programme. Mbeki is a trustee and director of several national and international boards, promoting social and economic development in poor areas. The inauguration ceremony will also see Class Daun, a German industrialist and substantial foreign investor, donating R10 million to the university, which will be used to finance scholarship education. The campus will also announce 500 scholarships for 2007 valued at R25 million. After the inauguration of Mbeki as a chancellor of CIDA City Campus, 253 students will be awarded their Bachelor in Business Administration degrees. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za