You’re not spectators waiting for a better future, Khampepe tells graduates

Retired Constitutional Court judge and chairperson of the TRC inquiry justice Sisi Khampepe has told graduates at the University of Johannesburg that it is now their job to make SA’s democracy real in the lives of ordinary people.

Speaking on Wednesday, moments after receiving an honorary doctorate from the university, Khampepe said her generation’s task was to dismantle an unjust political order and lay the foundation of a constitutional democracy, and that the graduates’ task was different.

“Each generation is called upon to meet the demands of its own time,” she said. “You may feel the need to fulfill that calling, or you may betray it through indifference, complacency, or silence. Your calling is to make the promise of that democracy real in the daily lives of our people.”

She urged the graduates not to wait for a better future to arrive. “You are not spectators waiting for a better future. You are among its purpose.”

Khampepe, born in Soweto in 1957, earned a Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Harvard Law School in 1982 and became one of the first black South African women to graduate from the institution.

She spoke about how studying abroad shaped her and that it showed her that injustice did not last forever. “What Harvard gave me was exposure to different constitutional ideas, to scholars and students from across the world and the intellectual distance from which to see my own country more clearly.

“Apartheid was not natural, it was a political system made by human beings, and it could therefore be unmade by human beings,” she said.

“I returned home knowing that things could be different, that knowledge mattered. Once you have seen that another identity is possible, it becomes much harder to accept the claim that the present is permanent.“

Then-president Nelson Mandela appointed Khampepe commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995. She later served on its amnesty committee, which addressed some of the most sensitive questions surrounding SA’s transition to democracy.

She told the graduates that although much had been done, much remained to be done, and that they were entering a hard job market. “You enter a society in which many young people feel anxious about their future. They confront high unemployment, systemic inequality, violence, corruption, and climate crisis, whose burdens will be carried long after the present generation of leaders are gone.

“I will not pretend that optimism alone can solve these problems, nor will I tell you that every obstacle is merely a failure of personal effort.

“Structures matter. History matters. Opportunity is still distributed profoundly and differently, along social, racial, and gender lines. But agency is not the denial of injustice. Agency is the refusal to surrender your ownership to it,” she said.

Khampepe said she would cherish the honour from UJ. “I receive this honorary doctorate with deep gratitude and humility. To be recognised by a university that bears the name and the energy of this great city is deeply meaningful to me.”

The university’s vice-chancellor and principal, Professor Letlhokwa George Mpedi, praised her contribution to strengthening democracy. “The values that Justice Sisi Khampepe embodies align with those of the University of Johannesburg, including commitment to justice, integrity, community engagement and ethical leadership.

“Her legacy is one of quiet courage, rigorous integrity and profound empathy, and her work reflects an unwavering belief in the transformative potential of the law and the necessity of justice for building a dignified and inclusive society,” said Mpedi.