SA universities hailed for helping Rwandans after genocide

The South African government has been hailed for its role in helping to rebuild Rwanda in the post-genocide era, notably by making available scholarships to allow Rwandan students to study at different higher learning institutions in the country.

This, according to President Paul Kagame, has helped Rwanda to produce the workforce it needed to plug gaps left by the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in which about a million people were murdered, including employees of public and private institutions.

Kagame was speaking in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on 7 April at the start of the country’s 30th commemoration period to mourn and honour the victims of the genocide against the Tutsi. It will last for 100 days, symbolising the number of days of the genocide.

In his speech, Kagame praised various countries for supporting Rwanda in its national rebuilding process and assured them that Rwanda is a different country today [compared to what it was 30 years ago] with a history that will never be repeated. A notable example of solidarity, he said, came from South Africa.

He said that [in April 1994], as South Africa ended apartheid and elected Nelson Mandela as president [following the country’s first democratic election], the last genocide of the 20th century was being carried out in Rwanda.

South Africa’s contribution

“The new South Africa paid for Cuban doctors to help rebuild our shattered health system, and opened up its universities to Rwandan students, [where they were] paying only local fees,” he said.

“Among the hundreds of students who benefited from South Africa’s generosity [through offering them higher education] some were orphaned survivors; others were the children of perpetrators; and many were neither. Most have gone on to become leaders in our country in different fields,” he added.

In the pre-genocide era, a single university, L’Université Nationale du Rwanda (UNR), or the National University of Rwanda, could not enrol the number of students needed to serve as a workforce in the critical post-genocide period.

Many young students who had completed their secondary schooling or who worked at the university were transferred to South African universities to further their studies and, upon completion thereof, enabled to return home to serve their country.

There is a long list of Rwandans who are alumni of South African universities, who are now serving or have served in various top government institutions.

According to sources, hundreds of students, including those who worked for the then National University of Rwanda (NUR) as tutorial assistants as well as assistant lecturers, were enrolled in different universities in South Africa.

“Today, we have senior government officials including ministers, directors general from different institutions, those serving the judiciary and in the police, who are the products of the universities of South Africa. Some are still teaching as professors, among others,” a source from the University of Rwanda told University World News.

Former Rwandan students from different higher learning institutions in South Africa have expressed their gratitude on X, thanking South Africa for opening its doors to allow them to enrol and study in its universities.

Marie Claire Gasanganwa graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Currently, she works for the University of Rwanda as a lecturer in its College of Medicine and Health Sciences and is happy that she is imparting skills to the youth who are the future workforce of the country.

“I am a graduate of UKZN and ever grateful,” she said on X.

Speaking to the SABC during the commemoration event in Kigali, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the two countries have a long and special relationship despite some challenges faced in the past.

“South Africa embarked on a number of initiatives which President Kagame spoke about in his speech at the commemoration, applauding the help that post-apartheid South Africa gave to Rwanda and the solidarity that we pledged. [Kagame spoke about] how we helped Rwanda to rebuild its health system by supporting and paying for doctors from Cuba and how we opened our universities and colleges to Rwandese students to come to South Africa to learn,” Ramaphosa said.

At the time, South Africa paid US$1 million to Cuban doctors who worked in Rwanda to provide health care as the country struggled to train its health personnel, including those trained in South African universities.