UWC Greats - A Celebration of Excellence and Distinction

UWC GREATS

A CELEBRATION of EXCELLENCE AND DISTINCTION

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN…

The University College of the Western Cape, as it was known, opened its doors in February 1960. A decade later, the institution gained independent university status and was allowed to award its own degrees and diplomas. On 9 February 1990, UWC’s first logo was registered with the Bureau of Heraldry – elements of which are evident in the current UWC crest.

TABLE of CONTENTS

MESSAGE FROM THE CHANCELLOR 04 MESSAGE FROM THE RECTOR 05 MEMORABLE MILESTONES 06

THE DIMINUTIVE ARCH THAT TOWERED OVER US

– ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS DESMOND MPILO TUTU 08 HONORIS CAUSA RECIPIENTS 1981 – 2021 12

NOTABLE WOMEN HONOUREES 16

– GRAÇA MACHEL 16

– DOROTHY ZIHLANGU 16

– PATRICIA GORVALLA 17

– ALBERTINA SISULU 17

– FRENE GINWALA 18

– RHODA KADALIE 18

– JUSTICE YVONNE MOKGORO 19

– PROFESSOR MARLEEN TEMMERMAN 19

THE HOUSE THAT JAKES BUILT 20 HONORARY DOCTORATE 23

HONORARY DOCTORATE RECIPIENTS 2021 24

– DR ALLAN AUBREY BOESAK 24

– PROFESSOR ZOË CHARLOTTE WICOMB 25

– WILLIAM KENTRIDGE 26

HONORARY DOCTORATE RECIPIENTS 2022 27

– PROFESSOR KWESI KWAA PRAH 27

– DR IMTIAZ SOOLIMAN 28

GOLD MEDAL 29

GOLD MEDAL RECIPIENTS 2021 30

– ADVOCATE AB MAHOMED 30

– DEREK JOUBERT 31

– PETER TAKELO 32

GOLD MEDAL RECIPIENTS 2022 33

– SEAN PATRICK LANCE 33

– PETER WILSON 34

– DR PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA 35

MESSAGE from THE CHANCELLOR ARCHBISHOP THABO MAKGOBA

It has become increasingly rare to find those who do without asking, give without expectation and invest in others without payment. Yet, the men and women we honour today have done just that – not only in South Africa, but globally.

They say it takes a village to raise a child and our honourees form a vibrant village that has raised and elevated communities of scholars, young people and those in need. Their work has made this world a better place and I am privileged to share in bestowing the University of the Western Cape’s highest honours on them.

I congratulate Advocate AB Mahomed, Mr Derek Joubert, Mr Peter Takelo, Mr Sean Lance, Mr Peter Wilson and Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on receiving Gold Medals for their contributions to their diverse communities.

I also congratulate Dr Allan Boesak, Prof Zoë Wicomb, Mr William Kentridge, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman and Prof Kwesi Kwaa on receiving honorary doctorates in recognition of their sterling contributions. We thank you for sharing your talents and abilities with the world.

MESSAGE from THE RECTOR

PROFESSOR TYRONE PRETORIUS

This is a very special occasion in the history of the University of the Western Cape. While we have conferred many honorary degrees and medals that recognised the extraordinary contributions of individuals, this is the first time that we are holding a special gala event to honour excellence and distinction. Those who are being honoured for their contributions are indeed worthy of this recognition because they exemplify creativity, scholarship, selflessness and the courage of their convictions in making a difference in society. The 2021 recipients are Dr Allan Boesak (theologian, author and political activist), Prof

Zoë Wicomb (author and academic) and William Kentridge (artist).

The honourees for 2022 are Dr Imtiaz Sooliman (humanitarian and founder of Gift of the Givers) and Prof Kwesi Kwaa Prah (internationally recognised Africanist thinker, author, sociology professor and founder of the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society).

The Gold Medal is bestowed on individuals who have made a significant and extraordinary contribution to the upliftment of the community through exceptional leadership, community involvement and related activities. The following individuals are being recognised: Advocate AB Mahomed (respected law practitioner and founder of Al Baraka Bank), Mr Derek Joubert and Mr Peter Takelo (for their commitment to arts education and for nurturing the potential of the rural child in Barrydale), Mr Sean Lance and Mr Peter Wilson (for establishing the African Leadership Institute that invests in the young leaders of Africa through the Tutu Leadership Fellowship) and Dr Phumzile MlamboNgucka (for her contributions as South African deputy president, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, and many other public roles).

These recipients are indeed worthy of our recognition and abiding appreciation for their national and international contributions to all spheres of society and for their roles in the upliftment of people through the arts, literature, law, humanitarianism, academia and advocacy. As a university community, we are deeply privileged to be associated with such incredible role models.

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MEMORABLE MILESTONES

UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE

1960

The University College of the Western Cape opens its doors as a college of the University of South Africa.

1975

Prof Richard van der Ross is appointed as UWC’s first black Rector.

1987

New Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Jakes Gerwel, declares UWC is the ‘university of the left’. The University deracialises and opens its doors to African students.

UWC inaugurates its longest-serving Chancellor, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who would serve for more than 25 years.

1994

UWC’s leadership takes part in writing the higher education policy for the incoming government. The South African interim Constitution and final Constitution are drafted at UWC.

1995

UWC launches its first website – joining the internet age before other universities in the Mother City.

UWC launches the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) to engage in research, training, policy development and advocacy in relation to land reform, rural governance and natural resource management.

1970

The institution gains independent university status and is allowed to award its own degrees and diplomas as the University of the Western Cape.

1978

UWC’s Cape Flats Nature Reserve is declared a National Monument (now known as a provincial heritage site).

Prof Erika Theron is invested as Chancellor, the first female Chancellor of a South African university.

1990

UWC is the first university to award the late President Mandela an honorary doctorate upon his release from prison.

1994

Many academics from UWC join President Mandela’s government and are appointed to ministerial and advisory positions, including its Rector, Prof Gerwel, who became the Director-General in the Presidency.

2002

Under the leadership of Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brian O’Connell, UWC successfully resists being merged. Instead, its Dentistry Faculty is merged with that of the University of Stellenbosch, making UWC the only dentistry faculty in the Western Cape.

2003

UWC acquires the first protein X-ray crystallography facility in South Africa (funded by the Carnegie Foundation), boosting research capacity development in biotechnology.

2008

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship is introduced to UWC, promoting an international postgraduate education experience. The first cohort of Fellows is accepted in 2009.

2010

Ten SARChI chairs are awarded to UWC, the highest number awarded to any university in SA that year (UWC hosts 18 SARChI Chairs, as of 2019).

2012

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba is inaugurated as Chancellor of UWC.

UWC is declared Africa’s Greenest Campus in the inaugural African Green Campus Initiative Challenge.

2014

UWC is recognised as a top-tier university by the Department of Higher Education and Training.

UWC graduates its first master’s students as a hub of the National Nanosciences and Technologies Platform.

2016

UWC’s Centre for Humanities Research is awarded the Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities by the NRF.

UWC is ranked number 1 in Physical Science in South Africa and in Africa as a whole in the 2016 Nature Index.

2018

The Faculty of Dentistry launches a state-of-the-art video conferencing system that allows students to watch live surgeries in class or at home – a first for South Africa.

2019

UWC Rugby makes its debut in the Varsity Cup. The team makes history by becoming the first from an historically disadvantaged institution to qualify for the premier university rugby competition.

2020

UWC celebrates its 60th anniversary.

2009

South African writer Meg Vandermerwe initiates UWC Creates, the only creative writing programme in South Africa operating across three languages (English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa).

2013

UWC signs the Berlin Declaration on Open Access in the Sciences and Humanities.

2014

For the first time, UWC awards over 100 PhDs and over 4 000 degrees in one year.

2017

A group of UWC students, led by Prof Nico Orce, conducts the second major African-led experiment at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Switzerland.

UWC’s former Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brian O’Connell, receives the National Research Foundation’s highest honour, the NRF Lifetime Achievement Award.

2022

UWC Main Hall is renamed the Jakes Gerwel Hall.

UWC launches its first television platform called “UWC on Air”.

Born: 7 October 1931

Hometown: Klerksdorp, South Africa

Studied: King’s College London

Occupation: Bishop of Johannesburg, former General secretary, South African Council of Churches, and anti-apartheid and human rights activist

Died: 26 December 2021

ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS DESMOND MPILO TUTU

MY HUMANITY IS BOUND UP IN YOURS, FOR WE CAN ONLY BE HUMAN TOGETHER.

THE DIMINUTIVE ARCH THAT TOWERED OVER US

ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS DESMOND MPILO TUTU

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu was 17 years old when the National Party took power and began implementing its version of fascism and 63 when the first democratic government was elected.

Having literally spent his adult life under the yoke of arguably the most enthusiastically prosecuted system of State oppression since Nazi Germany, it would have been understandable if he had felt the urge of retribution. Yet the world never saw a trace of bitterness.

or watching a policeman demonstrate on an actual victim how he waterboarded detainees, Tutu still urged reconciliation and forgiveness.

“Having looked the beast of the past in the eye, having asked and received forgiveness and having made amends, let us shut the door on the past – not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us,” he wrote. Tutu’s exhortation in the TRC Report that we should “close the chapter on our past” probably had detractors and admirers in equal measure but his sincerity was beyond reproach.

During the second day of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, he was left distraught when confronted with the banal yet horrific details recounted by Singqokwana Malgas of his torture at the hands of the police. In his foreword to the final TRC Report, it was clear that the entire TRC journey had been equally fraught.

“It’s been a gruelling job of work that has taken a physical, mental, and psychological toll. We have borne a heavy burden as we have taken onto ourselves the anguish, the awfulness, and the sheer evil of it all,” Tutu wrote.

Yet, even after two years, 22 000 victim statements, 7 000 amnesty applications and 2 500 amnesty hearings, even after hearing how apartheid’s assassins “enjoyed” a braai while burning a victim’s remains

Franklin Sonn, Desmond Tutu and Jakes Gerwel lead a protest march from St George’s Cathedral in 1989. Image credit: Benny Gool

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Tutu was born on 7 October 1931 in Klerksdorp. After completing high school, he trained as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and taught in a local high school while completing a Bachelor of Arts degree through Unisa, awarded in 1954.

Around the time of his marriage to Leah in 1955 he decided to become a priest and, after completing his studies in theology, took up duties as a deacon in 1960 and was ordained as a priest in the following year. With the help of bursaries and a scholarship he moved his young family to London in 1962 and enrolled at King’s College, University of London. His master’s followed in 1966, after which he taught at the Federal Theological Seminary at Alice in the Eastern Cape and served as the Anglican chaplain at the University of Fort Hare.

Having experienced life in a freer society, he sympathised with student protests. After a short stint lecturing at Roma University in Lesotho, he accepted a post as Associate Director for Africa of the Theological Education Fund and moved back to London in 1972. The new job required intensive travel in developing countries, including in Africa.

He returned in 1975 to become the first black Dean of Johannesburg and the Rector of St Mary’s Cathedral. He became Bishop of Lesotho in 1976, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1978 and rector of St Augustine’s in Orlando West in 1981.

By this time, he was preaching against apartheid and becoming a vocal critic of government policies. In reaction, the government withdrew

his passport and began harassing the SACC. After his passport was returned, he travelled to the USA where he addressed audiences on the South African struggle and raised funds for several non-governmental organisations. He helped found the United Democratic Front in 1983 and was elected a patron. The following year he won the Nobel Peace prize and was appointed Bishop of Johannesburg, followed by Bishop of Cape Town in 1985 and Archbishop in 1986. At his invitation, Senator Edward Kennedy visited South Africa in January 1985. The US media accompanying Kennedy relayed constant images and reports of oppression and poverty in South Africa, which incensed the government.

Tutu spent much of the 1980s addressing meetings, funerals and protest marches as the struggle intensified, culminating in the Defiance campaign of 1989. Several times during the 1990s negotiated transition period, as at the funeral of Chris Hani, his persuasive oratory and moral standing kept the process from derailing.

He retired as Archbishop in 1996 and took on the challenge of chairing the TRC hearings despite a cancer diagnosis. Much of his energy in retirement was expended in healthcare advocacy around HIV and tuberculosis (he had suffered TB as a child), fundraising for charitable causes and promoting peace initiatives as the chair of The Elders group. US President Obama recognised his work with the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

After retiring from public life in 2010, Tutu stepped down as UWC Chancellor, having inspired the institution for 25 years.

Images by Benny Gool

Honoris Causa RECIPIENTS 1983 – 2021

1983

S. Motsuenyane

Doctor Commercii

M. O’Dowd

Doctor Commercii 1984 E. Theron

Doctor Legum 1987 B. Breytenbach

Doctor Litterarum

1989

J.C. de Villiers

Doctor Scientiae

G. Mbeki

Doctor Philosophiae 1990

1991

R. Alexander Simons

Doctor Commercii

1993

G. Boonzaier

Doctor Litterarum

B. Head

Doctor Litterarum (posthumous)

1995

R. van der Ross

Doctor Educationis

Author, educationist, social activist and the first black rector of UWC.

N.R. Mandela

Doctor Legum

Rivonia trialist, political prisoner, ANC President and President of the first democratically elected government of South Africa. One of four South Africans to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

O.R. Tambo

Doctor Legum

G. Machel

Doctor Legum

First Mozambican Minister of Education and Culture, member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group and The Elders, and an international advocate for human rights.

D. Mitterrand

Doctor Litterarum

D. Zihlangu

Doctor Educationis

A. Ibrahim

Doctor Litterarum

Famous as Dollar Brand before his conversion to Islam, he is an awardwinning, innovative jazz pianist, composer and international recording artist.

E. Mancoba

Doctor Litterarum

G.J. Gerwel

Doctor Educationis

UWC lecturer and department head who became Rector in 1987.

P. Sonn

Doctor Legum 1996

G.H. Brundtland

Doctor Legum

T.N. Chapman

Doctor Commercii

J.J. Durand

Doctor Philosophiae

P. Gorvalla

Doctor Commercii

Image

1997

B. Davidson

Doctor Litterarum

E.L. King Doctor Theologiae

1997

R. Turner

Doctor Educationis (posthumous) 1998 J. Derrida Doctor Litterarum

M. Nuttall Doctor Theologiae

M.A. Oduyoye Doctor Theologiae

I. Mohamed

Doctor Scientiae

Mathematician and antiapartheid activist. While head of the Mathematics Department at UWC in 1976, was detained and held in Victor Verster prison for 15 weeks. Aside from an illustrious career at several African universities, he made important contributions to group theory.

B. Naudé

Doctor Theologiae

J.N. Scholten

Doctor Legum

J. Reddy

Doctor Educationis

Served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Durban-Westville, Chair of the Durban University of Technology Council and Director of the United Nations University International Leadership Institute.

2001

V. Faigle Doctor Theologiae

G. ‘t Hooft Doctor Scientiae

2002

D. Philip Doctor Litterarum

M. Philip Doctor Litterarum

2004

K. Asmal Doctor Legum

E. de Keyser Doctor Commercii (posthumous) G. Fitzgerald Doctor Litterarum

P.N. Langa

Doctor Legum Served as Constitutional Court judge (1994–2001), Deputy Chief Justice (2001–2005) and Chief Justice of South Africa (2005–2009).

A. Small Doctor Litterarum

W.H. Gray Doctor Philosophiae

C. Hirschsohn Doctor Philosophiae

T. Manuel Doctor Commercii

D.M. Tutu

Doctor Legum

General secretary of the SA Council of Churches, Bishop of Johannesburg and Archbishop of Cape Town. Nobel Peace prize recipient in 1984. He was Chancellor of UWC from 1987 to 2011.

2003 K. Mokhele Doctor Scientiae

T.D. Fredericks Doctor Educationis

P-D. Uys Doctor Educationis

A. Omar Doctor Legum (posthumous)

An advocate who defended many antiapartheid activists, he was the leader of the Unity Movement before becoming a patron of the UDF. He served as democratic South Africa’s first Minister of Justice and as Minister of Transport.

2004

A. Sachs

Doctor Litterarum

2005

E.K.M. Dido

Doctor Litterarum

T. Jones

Doctor Philosophiae

J.J. Fagan

Doctor Legum

I. Mahomed Doctor Legum (posthumous)

2006

2007

E. Abrahams

Doctor Philosophiae

E. Braune

Doctor Philosophiae

2007

2009

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A. Sisulu

Doctor Curationis

Founding member of the ANC Women’s League and FEDSAW. She was the co-president of the UDF, a Pietermaritzburg treason trialist in 1985 and later a member of Parliament.

W. Sisulu Doctor Legum (posthumous)

2005

A. Achmat

Doctor Philosophiae

C. Bundy Doctor Philosophiae

F.N. Ginwala

Doctor Administrationis

After serving the ANC in exile for 30 years in various capacities, she was the Speaker of the National Assembly from 1994 to 2004 when she retired. In her retirement, she served as the first Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

A. Chaskalson

Doctor Legum

A member of the defence team at the Rivonia treason trial, he was President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005.

D. Jordaan

Doctor Philosophiae

R. Kadalie

Doctor Litterarum

P. Mlambo-Ngcuka

Doctor Philosophiae

Deputy minister in the Department of Trade and Industry (1996–1999), Minister of Minerals and Energy (1999–June 2005), Deputy President of South Africa (2005–2008), and Executive Director of UN Women (2013–2021).

Y. Mokgoro Doctor Legum

V. Shubin

Doctor Philosophiae

2008

W. Morrow

Doctor Educationis

P. Govender

Doctor Legum

Author, feminist and anti-apartheid activist, member of the National Assembly (1996–2002) and SAHRC Commissioner and Deputy Chair (2009–2015).

2010 A. Adebajo Doctor Philosophiae

M.S. Dien

Doctor Philosophiae (posthumous)

B. Fanaroff Doctor Philosophiae

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2010

P. Olufemi-Kayode

Doctor Philosophiae

R. Simonsen Doctor Philosophiae

P.K. Tergat Doctor Philosophiae

D. Tulu Doctor Philosophiae

2011

2011

S. Isaacs

Doctor Educationis

P. Magrath Doctor Litterarum

M. Shear Doctor Philosophiae

2012

B. Gawanas

Doctor Legum

E. Moosa Doctor Legum

R. Reddock Doctor Philosophiae

H.D. Shaper Doctor Philosophiae (posthumous)

A. Sheiham Doctor Philosophiae

2013

2013

A. Jones Doctor Philosophiae

J. Matthews Doctor Philosophiae

G. Gutiérrez Merino Doctor Theologiae

2014

2016

S.B. Biko

Doctor Philosophiae (posthumous)

An anti-apartheid student activist and leader of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa during the late 1960s and 1970s who was murdered by apartheid police in 1977.

M. Temmerman

Doctor Philosophiae

Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aga Khan University Hospital Nairobi, Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women, Child and Adolescent Health (AKU East Africa) and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Ghent University in Belgium.

R.P. Wolff Doctor Philosophiae

H. Howa

Doctor Philosophiae (posthumous)

A co-founder of the South African Cricket Board of Control who advocated the sports isolation of apartheid South Africa under the slogan ‘no normal sport in an abnormal society’.

A. Haron

Doctor Philosophiae (posthumous) The Imam of the Al-Jamia Mosque in Claremont, Cape Town. He established the openly anti-apartheid community newspaper Muslim News 2015

A. Jedaar Doctor Philosophiae

2016 H. Adams Doctor Philosophiae

F. Robertson

Doctor Philosophiae

Co-founder of Brimstone Investment Corp and Chair of the UWC Foundation. M. Tsedu Doctor Philosophiae

2017 A.M. Lapsley Doctor Philosophiae 2018 Z. Skweyiya Doctor Philosophiae (posthumous) 2021 Z. Wicomb Doctor Philosophiae

A. Boesak Doctor Philosophiae

W. Kentridge Doctor Philosophiae

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Notable WOMEN HONOUREES

GRAÇA MACHEL

DOCTOR LEGUM, 1991

Graça Machel is a former Frelimo guerrilla and the first Mozambican Minister of Education and Culture (1974–1989). She is the widow of President Samora Machel (1975–1986) and Nelson Mandela (1998–2011). An international advocate for human rights, particularly women and children’s rights, she founded the Foundation for Community Development (1994) and the Graça Machel Trust (2010) through which she does development work in Mozambique. She has served the United Nations as an independent expert on the impact of armed conflict on children (1994) and as a member of the High-level UN Panel on the post-2015 development agenda (2012–2013).

DOROTHY NOMAZOTSHO ZIHLANGU

DOCTOR EDUCATIONIS, 1991

Dorothy Nomazotsho Zihlangu (1920–1991) joined the ANC as soon as membership was opened to women (1943) and later also joined the ANC Women’s League. Zihlangu took part in the ANC’s campaigns in the 1950s and was among the organisers of the Congress of the People that adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955. She also participated in the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest the extension of the pass laws to include women. In 1960, despite being pregnant, she was detained for six months. She was banned and put under house arrest after her release. In the 1980s, she was a prominent leader of women’s and civic organisations and active in the UDF.

Image credit: Government Communication and Information System

Police arrest United Women’s Organisation (UWO) members in 1985, Cape Town. Image credit: Rashid Lombard

PATRICIA GORVALLA

ALBERTINA NONTSIKELELO SISULU

DOCTOR COMMERCII, 1996DOCTOR CURATIONIS, 2004

Patricia Gorvalla née Scott (1930–2013) was an astute businesswoman who founded 11 companies and three close corporations after starting with just a single taxi. A qualified teacher, she had to give up teaching after marrying her husband, fellow teacher Phiroze Gorvalla. To augment his meagre salary, they acquired a car in 1955 and began ferrying people in the Bellville area. She secured contracts to transport hospital patients and her business expanded to a fleet of taxis serviced by Pat’s Motor Spares, Pat’s Service Station and Pat’s Body Works. She also expanded into property development. Gorvalla was appointed to the UWC Council in June 1990 and served on several sub-committees until March 2012.

Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu (21 October 1918–2 June 2011) was a leader in the anti-apartheid struggle and wife of Walter Sisulu. A nurse, she was radicalised by the racial prejudice she witnessed from white staff in hospitals. She was a founding member of the ANC Women’s League and later co-founded the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). She helped organise the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. Her constant harassment by the government during Walter’s imprisonment included being banned for 18 years, the longest banishment in apartheid history. She was the copresident of the UDF, one of the Pietermaritzburg treason trialists in 1985 and a member of Parliament.

FRENE NOSHIR GINWALARHODA KADALIE

DOCTOR ADMINISTRATIONIS, 2006DOCTOR LITTERARUM, 2007

Frene Noshir Ginwala (born 1932) completed her LLB degree at the University of London. After its banning, she worked as an ANC official, journalist and broadcaster in Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and the UK. She headed the Political Research Unit in the office of Oliver Tambo, where she conducted research focusing on the transfer of military and nuclear technology. She obtained a doctorate in history from Oxford University. As Speaker of the National Assembly between 1994 and 2004, she oversaw many significant changes in Parliament, including opening up public access. After her retirement, she served as the first Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Born in District Six in 1953, Rhoda was the daughter of Pastor Fenner Kadalie and Joan Kadalie and the granddaughter of Clements Kadalie, the first black trade union leader in South Africa. She earned degrees in library science and anthropology from UWC and a master’s from the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. An outspoken gender and human rights activist, Kadalie founded the Gender Equity Unit at UWC. She was a member of the first democratic Parliament and a Human Rights Commissioner. She also founded Impumelelo, an organisation that presents annual rewards to identified development programmes and partnerships between government and the private sector.

JUSTICE YVONNE MOKGOROPROFESSOR MARLEEN TEMMERMAN

DOCTOR LEGUM, 2007DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE, 2011

Yvonne Mokgoro obtained a Bachelor of Jurisprudence (B Juris) degree at the University of Bophuthatswana (now North-West University) in 1982, a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in 1984 and a Master of Laws (LLM) in 1987. She obtained a second LLM degree in 1990 at the University of Pennsylvania. She lectured in Law in the Department of Jurisprudence, University of Bophuthatswana (1984–1991). She served as an Associate Professor in Law at UWC (1992–1993). Mokgoro was a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from its inception in 1994 until the end of her 15-year term in 2009.

Professor Marleen Temmerman is a recognised global leader in women’s, child and adolescent health who chairs the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women, Child and Adolescent Health (AKU East Africa) and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Ghent University in Belgium. Having served as an elected Senator in the Belgian Parliament and as the WHO’s Director for the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, she has considerable academic and clinical expertise and is an experienced and passionate champion of the rights of women and girls.

Image credit: Nickay Photography

THE HOUSE that JAKES BUILT

It was one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments. Four years in the making, the excitement was palpable on campus and among staff tasked with organising the renaming ceremony on Thursday, 21 July, of the University of the Western Cape’s Main Hall.

Now known as the Jakes Gerwel Hall, it is a full-circle representation of every UWC graduate’s time at the institution: it’s the first place they encounter when they arrive for orientation and also where they’ll graduate and wave goodbye to campus life. The event was live-streamed to enable alumni and friends across the world to virtually attend.

Under the glare of the media’s cameras, a who’s who of academia and society gathered in the Jakes Gerwel Hall for the renaming event, including celebrated actress Sandra Prinsloo, acclaimed poet and academic, Prof Antjie Krog, and members of the Gerwel family. Phoebe Gerwel, the widow of the late revolutionary, helped unveil the plaque on permanent display outside the Jakes Gerwel Hall.

It was fitting that this important space should be renamed after the late Professor Gerwel. The legendary Prof had a decades-long relationship with UWC, a relationship so long and celebrated that it’s hard to think about one without remembering ties to the other.

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The late Prof wore many hats – student, lecturer, rector, anti-apartheid stalwart – and was variously described as a planner, organiser, intellectual, troubleshooter, revolutionary and iconic leader. Perhaps one speaker described him best, as “a man undaunted by the upheaval of our times”.

Chorus, the award-winning Cape Town orchestra, dazzled on stage and their incredible performance earned several standing ovations. An engaging panel discussion focused on important everyday issues facing South Africans that would undoubtedly have absorbed Prof Gerwel, including poverty, inequality, non-racialism, leadership and the worrying spike in violent crime.

UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Tyrone Pretorius, described the renaming of the Hall as “a vital act of acknowledgement”. The renamed building is not merely a celebration of his visionary leadership of the institution, but an acknowledgement of Prof Gerwel’s immense contribution to UWC’s growth as a centre of academic excellence.

As Prof Pretorius generously and aptly put it: “This is the house that Jakes built”.

HONORARY DOCTORATE

According to the UWC Statute (2018), the University may without examination, by resolution of the Council passed on the recommendation of the Senate, confer an honorary degree of doctor in any faculty upon any person who has rendered distinguished services in the advancement of any branch of learning, or who the Council may deem worthy of such degree, provided that such a person exemplifies the values and purposes of the University.

reflecting the core value of eminence in a field of scholarship in the course of a career. To be considered for the conferral of an honorary degree, the nominee should reflect the following criteria:

• outstanding intellectual contributions in the course of a career, in some field of scholarship;

• a substantial contribution, with national or international impact;

• rendered service of excellence or distinction in wider society;

The decision to confer an honorary degree of doctor in either the Council or the Senate requires that two-thirds of the members present (inperson or electronically) at the meeting vote in favour of the proposal.

The focus for awarding an honorary doctorate is to ensure alignment with the core values of the University, as well as teaching and learning scholarship. Recognition of intellectual contribution is paramount,

• application of the values espoused by the University, and in so doing having contributed towards the transformation of society; and

• outstanding contribution as a public intellectual.

The award of an honorary degree does not entitle a person to practise any profession nor use the title of Doctor.

Honorary Doctorate RECIPIENT 2021

DR ALLAN AUBREY BOESAK DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE

Dr Allan Aubrey Boesak is a world-renowned anti-apartheid activist, scholar, cleric, liberation theologian and civil society and justice activist. He graduated from the Dutch Reformed Church Theological Seminary at the University of the Western Cape in 1967, and completed his doctorate at Kampen in the Netherlands in 1976.

From 1976 to 1985 Boesak served as the student chaplain at UWC, Peninsula Technikon and Bellville Teachers’ College. Boesak has served as Vice-President of the South African Council of Churches and as President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. As Moderator of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, Boesak led the Church’s stance against apartheid and its efforts towards unification and co-authored the Belhar Confession.

He was a founding patron of the United Democratic Front and later served on an independent international commission on the future of the United Nations. In recognition of his outstanding scholarship, the Christian Theological Seminary and Butler University in Indianapolis appointed him as the Desmond Tutu Professor for Peace, Global Justice and Reconciliation Studies in 2013. The University takes great pride in awarding the title of Doctor Philosophiae to Dr Boesak for his sterling contributions.

TOP – Image credit: Ross Jansen/African News Agency (ANA) BELOW – Dr Allan Boesak at the funeral of the “Cradock Four,” July 1985. Image credit: Rashid Lombard

Honorary Doctorate RECIPIENT 2021

PROFESSOR ZOË CHARLOTTE WICOMB DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE

Zoë Wicomb is one of the most significant authors of late-apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, and one of the country’s most accomplished writers.

Wicomb left South Africa for the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Other than a brief period in South Africa in the 1990s when she taught at UWC and regular visits, she has lived abroad. She taught at the University of Strathclyde until retiring as Professor Emerita. Wicomb received the prestigious Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prize from Yale University in the prize’s inaugural year in 2013.

Wicomb’s creative oeuvre includes the 1987 linked-story collection, You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town, the novels David’s Story (2000), Playing in the Light (2006), October (2014) and Still Life, and numerous short stories.

Wicomb has been a chronicler of the effects of the apartheid regime on South Africa’s social and cultural life, and has unstintingly critiqued the dangers of the hegemonic discourses of a new post-apartheid nationalism. Her work speaks bravely and honestly to South Africa’s present. It is a testament to the place that formed her, and it is fit and proper that UWC accords her its highest honour.

Honorary Doctorate RECIPIENT 2021

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE

William Kentridge is one of the most celebrated artists globally. Over more than four decades, he opposed apartheid through his artistic work and cultural interventions.

Kentridge inspired the formation of the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects that enabled partnerships between UWC and the world-famous Handspring Puppet Company. His life’s work partly motivated the proposal for the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance held by Professor Jane Taylor at the UWC Centre for Humanities Research. Kentridge’s production of Ubu and the Truth Commission, co-written with Jane Taylor, was performed around the world.

Kentridge has been one of the most sought-after public voices on questions around visual culture, aesthetics and the human. His lecture performances have attracted global interest and are generating a profound aesthetic and political renewal as he draws together questions about the history of science, colonialism and aesthetic theory. The Standard Bank Young Artist in 1987, he has won numerous other awards, including the Kyoto Award and the Carnegie Prize. This honorary degree was awarded jointly by UWC, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and Ghent University on 17 November 2021.

Honorary Doctorate RECIPIENT 2022

PROFESSOR KWESI KWAA PRAH DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE

Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah is internationally recognised as an Africanist thinker whose ideology is built on African sociology, anthropology and anthropological linguistics. He has won multiple awards for his work on language and the economic, social, historical, political and cultural aspects of Africa’s development.

Prah founded the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) in 1997 after he retired as Senior Professor in UWC’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, having joined the department in 1992. CASAS focuses on the sociological and anthropological significance of African languages. It has a reputation for quality research and for publishing sociological, anthropological and African language materials such as dictionaries, graded readers and grammars. In 2018, CASAS was donated to UWC and is housed in the Arts and Humanities Faculty.

Prah has led research in the restandardisation and harmonisation of orthographic conventions, leading to spelling systems that make it possible to efficiently produce written material and educational material in over 80% of the languages in Africa. He has published widely and many of his much-cited works have been translated into Arabic, Shona, Chinese and French.

Honorary Doctorate RECIPIENT 2022

DR IMTIAZ SOOLIMAN DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE

Dr Imtiaz Sooliman’s humanitarianism is driven by the same principles that led to his becoming a medical doctor – respect, care, professionalism and dedication. Sooliman qualified as a medical doctor at the University of Natal Medical School in 1984 and ran a general practice for some years before he founded Gift of the Givers in 1992.

The organisation has developed into one of the most respected international humanitarian agencies, providing disaster relief, primary healthcare clinics, feeding schemes, water purification and water wells, bursaries, educational support (including HIV/AIDS and skills development workshops), agricultural self-help schemes, counselling services and drug rehabilitation. Gift of the Givers is able to rally a network of doctors, nurses, relief workers and other professionals to swiftly dispatch humanitarian aid to disaster areas. Its support in more than 43 countries thus far has been valued at R3,2 billion.

Sooliman has received the Presidential Order of the Baobab (silver), as well as nine honorary doctorates. His selfless and colour-blind response to all in need reflects the values of UWC and is contributing to building a new generation of visionary moral leadership from which a better Africa will emerge.

GOLD MEDAL

According to the UWC Statute (2018), the University may, by resolution of the Council passed on the recommendation of the Senate, award a UWC Gold Medal to any person who has rendered distinguished services in the advancement of any branch of learning or who the Council may deem worthy of such a medal, provided that such a person exemplifies the values and purposes of the University.

made a significant and extraordinary contribution to the upliftment of the community through exceptional leadership, community involvement and related activities. In considering a nomination for the award of a Gold Medal, nominees are required to reflect:

• Meritorious or outstanding contributions to public life or of significant benefit to society;

The decision to award a UWC Gold Medal by either the Council or the Senate requires that two-thirds of the members present (in person or electronically) at the meeting vote in favour of the proposal. The focus in awarding a UWC Gold Medal is to ensure alignment with the core values of the University and demonstrated service to the community. The Gold Medal is awarded to individuals in the community who have

• Contributions that are innovative, exceptional, self-initiated and/or self-directed.

A UWC Gold Medal cannot be bestowed on persons currently holding public office, in the current employ of the University or involved in a body directly affiliated with the University.

Gold Medal RECIPIENT 2021

ADVOCATE AB MAHOMED

Advocate AB Mahomed is a community activist who established and supported many institutions in the fields of law, business and education. Mahomed served with distinction on the UWC Council in the Jakes Gerwel era.

He was the first national chairperson of the Muslim Youth Movement (MYM) and editor of its newspaper, Al Qalam. Mahomed was also a founding member of the Islamic Medical Association that now has a membership of over 1 500 medical practitioners.

In 1986 he began to seek an Islamic alternative to the conventional banking system and persuaded a reluctant South African Reserve Bank that Islamic banking based on participation finance without interest should be sanctioned. The comprehensive licence was approved in 1989. Al Baraka, aided by an eponymous global bank largely owned by a foreign partner he had secured, commenced business in 1990 with capital of R10 million.

Under Mahomed’s leadership, bank deposits grew to the present R7 billion. The fully Sharia-compliant bank employs over 300 staff. It has provided direct grants and interest-free loans to more than 1 000 NGOs, valued at more than R200 million and committed R50 million to tertiary student bursaries.

Gold Medal RECIPIENT 2021

DEREK JOUBERT

Arts educator and community activist, Derek Joubert, taught at the Community Arts Project (CAP) for many years and now oversees the financial management of Net Vir Pret.

Joubert develops and manages relationships for Net Vir Pret across the funding sector, the performance arena and education. He oversees the demands of the annual puppetry parade and production and is as equally at ease with patrons of the programme as he is with educators, artists and young children. He provides educational support to matriculating scholars, assisting them with applications for study at university and career choices. These endeavours make a meaningful contribution to new models of thinking about the arts in teaching and learning in rural settings.

MOTIVATION BY THE CENTRE FOR HUMANITIES RESEARCH (CHR)

We are fortunate to have so dedicated and resourceful a partner as the arts education NPO, Net Vir Pret. Over the past ten years, the CHR has worked with Net Vir Pret in Barrydale to induct children into the world of learning through arts education. From the initial programme that ran for two months before the December 16th puppetry parade and performance, the partnership has become a substantial multipronged and cutting-edge arts programme.

Gold Medal RECIPIENT 2021

PETER TAKELO

Peter Takelo is a deeply committed arts educator and the director of Net Vir Pret, which presents daily arts classes for several hundred children, arts-based after-care and holiday care, and feeding programmes in the area. Takelo established a recording studio at Net Vir Pret and a programme with NICRO that helps to rehabilitate youth who have been involved in crime. Net Vir Pret operates a toy library for children and Takelo has established mathematic literacy projects for children with learning disabilities, using drumming techniques. He teaches children from Barrydale music and dance, including competitive ‘riel’ dancing. Takelo is passionately interested in ecological education and conservation.

MOTIVATION BY THE CENTRE FOR HUMANITIES RESEARCH (CHR)

The CHR works with Net Vir Pret in the programme, which ends in a puppetry and arts production at the end of the year. The children learn musical skills, reading, narrative construction, visual design, sound design, puppetry design and manipulation and performance skills. The CHR’s team of dedicated artists facilitates this process, in which Peter Takelo and Derek Joubert are indispensable. We nominated them for Gold Medal awards for their commitment to arts education and nurturing the potential of the rural child.

Gold Medal RECIPIENT 2022

SEAN PATRICK LANCE

Sean Patrick Lance was Chief Executive-designate at Glaxo Wellcome before serving as President and CEO of biotechnology company, Chiron Corporation. He has led key organisations in the international pharmaceutical industry, is a past president of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa and the Proprietary Association of South Africa and chaired the Board of Directors of Global Alliance TB Drug Development (GATB), an organisation that sought to bring affordable tuberculosis drugs to the poor.

As a co-founder with Peter Wilson of the African Leadership Institute and its Tutu Leadership Fellowship, Lance contributes to developing new generations of ethical young leaders in Africa. The Institute only offers 20 spaces but receives more than 300 nominations annually for the Tutu Leadership Fellowship.

In supporting their nominations, Piyushi Kotecha, CEO of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, commented on the fellowship:

“The Tutu Fellows are living advocates of the Archbishop’s values and will certainly perpetuate his legacy through their conduct, work and service. This network of Tutu Fellows holds the promise of a better future with its business leaders, scientists, civil society leaders, and policymakers in agriculture, healthcare, education and many other spheres.”

Gold Medal RECIPIENT 2022

PETER WILSON

Former Rhodes Scholar Peter Wilson has made a significant contribution to the advancement of the continent through the work of the African Leadership Institute and its Tutu Leadership Fellowship, delivered in partnership with Oxford University. Along with cofounder Sean P Lance, he has committed time, energy and passion to establishing the Institute.

Wilson holds a Master’s in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Cape Town and a Master’s in Management from Oxford University. He spent 20 years in various positions at Shell before establishing PRB Consulting in 1992, which focuses on the pharmaceutical industry and scenario and development planning, particularly in African countries.

After his retirement, he decided to establish the African Leadership Institute to build leadership capacity. The Tutu Leadership Fellowship, a part-time six-month programme, is administered by the institute with classes in South Africa and at Oxford University. Fellows develop both group and individual community projects. Nominations for the fellowship have grown to include more than 300 entries annually from 30 countries. The Fellows of the Tutu Leadership Fellowship have proved to be leaders of significant calibre in many sectors, including business, academia and government.

Gold Medal RECIPIENT 2022

PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is a former United Nations Under-SecretaryGeneral and Executive Director of UN Women (2013–2021) who has had an illustrious career in public service.

Mlambo-Ngcuka has a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Cape Town (2003) and a doctorate in Technology and Education from Warwick University (2013). She was inducted as a Hauser Leader at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership and awarded the Vanguard Award by Howard University for her role in promoting human rights, equality and justice for women and girls. She was the coordinator at the World YWCA in Geneva, where she established a global programme for young women (1984–1989) before returning to Cape Town to head TEAM, an ecumenical organisation that focused on upskilling women.

Her political career included election to Parliament (1994–1996) and appointments as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry (1996–1999), Minister of Minerals and Energy (1999–2005), and Deputy President of South Africa (2005–2008). Mlambo-Ngcuka continues her work through her affiliations with the Umlambo Foundation (founder), the Global Partnership and Fund to End Violence Against Children, the African Leadership Academy and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

A HISTORICAL OCCASION

Those who were honoured for their contributions are indeed worthy of this recognition because they exemplify creativity, scholarship, selflessness and the courage of their convictions in making a difference in the society that they inhabit.