This first lecture in the series celebrations was couched in the University’s 25th Anniversary theme of “Creating Futures”. Senator Holland expressed her sadness at Zimbabwe’s recent election, which in her view saw almost one million citizens prevented from voting and a small ruling elite retain power, but at least this time was peaceful. Her overall message was one of hope and peace.
Senator Holland said: “Peace for us in Zimbabwe has been achieved by the hard work of the Organ for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration (ONHRI) which gave Zimbabwe an infrastructure for peace with Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) which laid down cross party structures from village through to wards, districts, provinces to the national and the Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) process which gave us the new constitution is a real accomplishment, one my colleagues in ONHRI, JOMIC and COPAC and I are still basking in. For four and a half years we worked so hard towards this goal and we achieved it.”
The day after delivering her thought-provoking lecture, Sen. Holland was awarded an UTS Honorary Doctorate: Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) in the Engineering, Information and Technology Department from Chancellor Vicki Sara. Chancellor Sara expressed her pride in presenting Sen. Holland with this accolade. “I tell all UTS students at graduation, to go out and change the world. Sekai, I don’t know if anyone ever told you, but you certainly have gone and done just that.”
Well deserved recognition!!