Education remains the most effective tool in bridging the chasm of inequality in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.The president was speaking at the weekend’s graduation ceremony held at the University of Mpumalanga in Mbombela as the first Chancellor of the varsity.

“It is through education that we can realise the goal of a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society,” Ramaphosa said.

He added: “Our society still bears the scars of its divided past. It is through education that we can give full expression to the rights enshrined in our Constitution.”

He said from the beginning of the 20th century, the struggle of black South Africans for equal and quality education “was indistinguishable from the struggle for freedom.”

When other terrains of struggle were shut down, schools and universities in this country became centres of resistance and defiance, he told the graduates.