The honorary Doctorate

Newly awarded the Honorary Doctorate: Dr Marius Herman Meyer

Tebogo Mofokeng

The guest speaker for spring 2018 graduation ceremony in the Faculty of Management Science was Thandi Thankge, Vice Chair-person for SABPP. She has added an M-Tech to her list of qualifications. She was honored to speak at the Vaal University of Technology’s graduation ceremony.

Thandi addressed the graduates and the house at large and gave the nuggets that the graduates can abide by when they have graduated. Firstly she explains the term         “graduate’’ as stepping into the unknown.  The first nugget that she addressed was of “yourself”. She said that you have to know what you want, and who you are. You need to be alive to be a long life learner, adapt and be aware of other people around you.

The second nugget she shared was “workplace”, you need to be disciplined in the workplace. You need to work harder to be trusted. She edged graduates to always ask themselves if they really did their best when they are in the work place. Never forget to learn from others in the workplace. The last nugget shared was that graduates should honor their families. They should let them know where they stand and how they feel about them.

Later in the ceremony Dr Marius Herman Meyer who just added the prefix of “Dr” to his name was honored today by the university with an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration. Dr Marius is the previous CEO of the SA board for People Practices (SABPP) and is an academic affiliated to Stellenbosch University. For the past 24 years, he has been an HRD practitioner, consultant, academic, board member and manager.

In his acceptance speech Dr Marius said that it is wonderful to see how VUT has successfully sustained the standard of the SABPP. He also mentioned that we need to bring humor in the workplace as we think of the people who lost their life in the workplace.