Visitors to Cida City Campus have played an important part in its development.
Some make financial donations after a visit; others donate expensive equipment; some inspire the students through their own achievements; some come back and donate their time and skills; others simply spread the word about what is happening at Cida: a miracle that could be replicated throughout the country.
Stephen Koseff, CEO of Investec, Cida's most generous donor, brought first lady Zanele Mbeki to share the vision of Cida's staff, students and supporters. Mbeki told her husband, President Thabo Mbeki, about the infant institution. Speaking in parliament last year, the president told the nation about the campus that offers students from townships, poor rural areas and squatter camps a four-year bachelor of business administration degree.
"The education is designed to make students relevant, truly empowered, integrated citizens and leaders that are skilled and equipped to build the SA economy and society," said Mbeki.
Futurologists and management gurus see their dreams come true.
"When you introduce them to Cida, they are bowled over," says Llewellyn Bricknell of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has helped Cida provide high- level accountancy courses for its students. "It's almost an epiphany for them to see what they have been talking about, actually happening at Cida."
Suze Orman, an expert on personal finance, came and showed her enthusiasm for Cida's achievements by donating R1m . "I think what is going on here is extraordinary," she said.
Many South Africans come to witness this triumph of ingenuity over obstacles that routinely deter people who want to do more but don't know how.
Investec's Koseff described Cida as "an incredible place. The commitment of the students is an example to anyone who wants to see how this country can work," he said
Microsoft SA director Gary Hodgson "was stunned at the sheer audacity of the concept. I bought into it immediately."
"In my many years of tertiary education, I have never come across a higher level of commitment, innovation and creativity applied to a programme of adult learning," said Nick Binedell, director of the Gordon Institute of Business Science and professor at the University of Pretoria Business School.
Queen Thandi Zwelethini, the queen of the Zulu people, also visited Cida. So did Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert, founder of the Institute for a Democratic SA; futurologist Clem Sunter and former Miss SA Peggy-Sue Khumalo.
Many visitors come from abroad.
Among them was David Stern, a 25-year professor of education at Berkeley University, California. "Even a brief observation of your students, during a lecture and a test and brief conversations with a few students later, made it obvious to me that they are seriously and joyously committed to what they are doing," he said.
"In a single morning, a single hour, the Cida story has rekindled my optimism," said Tom Peters, author of Circle of Innovation and In Search of Excellence. "If I and my colleagues in the US had any sense we would shut down Harvard and Stanford Business School, bring you to the US and have you re-open them. And I suspect that in two and a half years you'd have a miracle there too."
The mayor of the City of London, Michael Oliver, came. And Edward de Bono, the thinking skills expert. So too did Ben Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra; KPMG professor of accounting information systems at Rutgers, New Jersey, Miklos Vasarhelyi; and Robert Jelly, education director of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, which has 65 000 students worldwide.
Many of SA's top business people have visited and are now Cida funders. They include First National Bank (retail) CEO Wendy Lucas-Bull; Dimension Data CEO Allan Cawood; T-Systems SA CEO Wolfgang Jakob; former Wooltru CEO Colin Hall who has run a leadership course for Cida students; African Bank CEO Leon Kerkinnis who is sponsoring hundreds of students and working with Cida to teach people country-wide about financial management; Malusi Mpumlwana CEO of the Kellogg Foundation, a significant Cida supporter; MTN CEO Sifiso Dabenga and businesswoman Irene Charnley; KPMG chairman and senior partner Tom Grieve; and Corpcapital CEO Jeff Liebesman.
For the visitors it was a matter of seeing is believing. They saw something that they wouldn't have believed without the evidence of their own eyes.
In fact, the Young Presidents' Organisation (YPO), made up of many of SA's young millionaires, who visited Cida last year, rated it "the most significant and important event in their history".
Cida CE Taddy Blecher describes it another way: " Seeing is believing - but really believing is seeing," he says.
