By Mr Tito Mboweni, Governor of the  South African Reserve Bank, at the Graduation Ceremony, University of the North, Sovenga, Pietersburg. Chancellor of the UniversityVice-ChancellorDeans of FacultyHeads of DepartmentsProfessors and LecturersPresident of the Student UnionGraduandsParents and Friends of GraduandsFriendsLadies and Gentlemen, Twenty-one years ago, I registered as a B.Com student here. Sounds today as if it is a long time ago. Maybe it is.On my second year of study at this University, I suspended my studies and left South Africa for Lesotho as an angry twenty-one year old young man, proceeded to the National University of Lesotho and after four years of study, graduated with a BA honours equivalent majoring in Economics with Political Science as a minor. Another year of study at the University of East Anglia in England led to an MA in Development Economics in 1987. In between then and now, I have been a trainee soldier in Umkhonto we Sizwe, activist in the ANC underground, policy facilitator in the ANC, Minister of Labour and now Governor of the South African Reserve Bank. As you can hear, I never graduated at Turfloop, the first ever university I attended in my life. And although I never graduated here, my heart is firmly embedded in this institution. I follow very closely your trials and your tribulations. You are always in my prayers. I consider "Turf" to be my university, my home. So it was with a measure of excitement that I received an invitation to join you on this grand occasion today, celebrating yet another achievement in the lives of those who have burnt the midnight oil for so many a year. Unlike the prophets of old, I cannot discern exactly what the future holds in store for all the graduands, but life has taught lessons that have created opportunities and challenges never thought of. There is a lot of value in formalised education – let no-one doubt that. I need to emphasise this because most of us who have toiled relentlessly to obtain some qualification, might falsely believe and courageously proclaim, "I have arrived, educated and ready, to take on the world and to cure this planet of all its poverty, diseases, injustices and miseries." Yes, I too once thought that the world would be at my command, but I have learnt, almost immediately, that my formalised education was merely a foundation on which to face gratifying challenges and sometimes a fulfilling career. It is, I must confess, the most difficult, pain staking, and when achieved, most exhilarating first step. I would be the first to congratulate all of you, for having taken up the challenge, having stayed the course and having emerged victorious. As proud South Africans, we salute you and invite you all to put your shoulders to the wheel with all of us, so that together, we may elevate our people, our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, the poor, destitute and infirm to a level of existence that our forebears only dreamt of. Welcome to our place of work, where creativity and innovation separate the "Rockerfellas" from the "other-fellas", where getting the favourable break in life amounts to being adequately qualified, adequately skilled, taking calculated risks and being at the right place at the right time. My being here at Turfloop today is being at the right place at the chosen time. I’ve returned home, getting back to my roots as it were, retracing part of the path of my life, searching for the place of my initiation and Turfloop is the place. Memories, memories! Like many a pilgrim, I too, am held accountable, to return home, and warn those that follow in our footsteps, about the dangers that linger along our pathways. Unlike you, I was not informed or enlightened. The atmosphere was repressive. Like the children of Israel who roamed the wilderness for forty years in search of the promised land, I too, was destined to search for a path of hope and freedom, often having to leave behind loved ones and close friends in this our beloved country, to wander through strange and sometimes hostile lands, in search of the promis