St Augustine College of South Africa Linden
- 53 Ley Road, Victory Park 2195 Johannesburg
- P O Box 44782 Linden 2104 RSA
- +27 (0)11 380 9000
- The GPS co-ordinates: S26o08.356′ E28o00.303′
St Augustine College of South Africa Linden, In mid-nineties, at the time that the foundation of St Augustine Private Tertiary Institution was mooted, South Africa was on the brink of its first ever truly democratic elections. Anticipating vast economic, political, and social changes, a group of Catholic academics, clergy, and business people recognised the need for a South African Catholic university that could make a significant moral and academic contribution to the development of the country. Their discussions bore fruit in 1999 when St Augustine’s, South Africa’s only Catholic institution of higher education, welcomed its first postgraduate students. From the very beginning emphasis was placed on the education of ethical leaders for Africa through offering high quality degrees in the Humanities.
St Augustine College of South Africa Linden, Even though St Augustine first opened its doors to students in 1999, the story begins earlier, in 1993, when Professor Emmanuel Ngara, then the Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Fort Hare University circulated documents about the possibility of starting a Catholic university in South Africa. Dr Edith Raidt, a member of the Schoenstatt Sisters, hosted the first meeting of a thirteen member planning group to gather at the Schoensttat Family Centre in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, for its first meeting on 28 August 1993. Five months later on 29 January 1994, a symposium was held that gave impetus to the founding of what was envisioned as a Catholic University of Southern Africa. The report prepared by Prof Emmanual Nagara and Fr Buti Tlhagale, OMI, for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference about this meeting articulated three areas of special responsibility of the university: ‘to its students, to the Kingdom of God and the Church.’ There was a concern that the university have a regional character so that it could ‘facilitate contact and exchange of ideas and make a significant contribution to regional integration and co-operation; and to the development of higher education in the region’.
