In Memoriam

1961-2021

[BA Hons 1987, PhD 1997]

Bhekizizwe Peterson

One of South Africa’s foremost humanities scholars and much loved member of staff at Wits, Professor Bhekizizwe Peterson died on 16 June 2021.

A towering intellectual, Professor Peterson was born in 1961 in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. He started his career at Wits as a junior lecturer in 1988, and progressed to full professor from 2012 to 2021. He served twice as the head of the Department of African Literature during his career at Wits. In addition to his Wits qualifications he held a BA in drama and African studies from UCT, and an MA in southern African studies from the University of York.

Professor Peterson was an award-winning film writer and producer; a leading practitioner of working-class theatre; a literary critic and a public intellectual. He was also known for being a generous mentor to numerous young people in various spheres of the arts and academia. He easily crossed between academia and the creative arts, producing high-impact creative works such as feature films (Fools and Zulu Love Letter) and feature documentaries (Born into Struggle, Zwelidumile, The Battle for Johannesburg and Miners Shot Down), many of which won local and international awards.

A National Research Foundation B-rated scholar, he was acknowledged for attaining considerable international recognition for the high quality and impact of his research output. He was invited to serve as a John Cadbury Fellow in 1999 at Birmingham University, and as a Southern African Research Fellow at Yale University in 1993. He also participated in the Mellon Postgraduate Mentoring Scheme for several years. The recipient of a National Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences Book Award, Professor Peterson also received a ViceChancellor’s Teaching Award, among others.

A colleague for over 30 years, Professor Isabel Hofmeyr, described him as follows: “A systematic builder, he eschewed the limelight and would have no truck with careerism, academic vanity or posturing. For similar reasons, he was repelled by social media with its speed and superficiality, its dialogue of the deaf. He, by contrast, was an exceptional listener. For anyone who ever had a serious conversation with him, one will always remember the deep sense of being heard, seen and understood.”

Professor Peterson is survived by his wife Pat, and two children Neo (a lecturer in the Television Studies Department at Wits) and Khanyi (BMus 2019).

Sources: The Conversation, Wits University

1952-2021

Michael Cross

[MEd 1986, PhD 1994] 1952-2021

Professor Michael Cross, the founding director of the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies at the University of Johannesburg died in a Johannesburg hospital in the early hours of 6 June 2021, after becoming infected with the COVID-19 virus.

Previously attached to Wits as a lecturer at the Faculty of Education from 1986 till 2012, he also served in several initiatives, such as the Governance Task Team of the National Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Committee on Norms and Standards for Educators. He was involved in reviews across the continent, including the Tertiary Education Linkages Project and Finnish Aid to Developing Countries (Finland, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Bosnia, Bolivia and Nepal).

He assisted with the quality assurance of postgraduate programmes in Tanzania and Mozambique, and played an important role in programmes of the Association for African Universities, and in the development of the Rwanda Higher Education Sector Strategic Plan. He was a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Stanford and Stockholm Universities, and the University of Picardy Jules Verne. He amassed an impressive publication record and he coordinated first-rate postgraduate programmes throughout his academic career.

Professor Cross’s passion was mentoring young researchers and he received the first award from the Association for the Development of Education in Africa in 2012 as the most Outstanding Mentor of Educational Researchers in Africa. He was also a co-founder and co-editor of a book series on African Higher Education: Developments and Perspectives with Brill/Sense Publishers, and Higher Education Transformation with African Sun Media.

Professor Cross played a key role in post-1994 education policy development in South Africa, which he regarded as his civic duty. Integrating his intellectual skills with programmatic interventions, he systematically worked towards the promotion of education.

He is survived by his wife Albertina, daughter Eunice (BA 2001, BA Hons 2003, LLB 2003, LLM 2011) and son Michael.

Sources: Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation

1951-2021

Ian Graham Shapiro

[BCom 1973, LLB 1975]

Ian Shapiro was the third of the Shapiro brothers to graduate from Wits in the 1970s, the others being Harold (BCom 1967, CTA 1970) and David (BCom 1969, CTA 1971).

Shapiro spent an idyllic childhood growing up in “baby-boomer” Greenside where neighbouring children would join the four Shapiro boys (Eric was the youngest brother) on their front lawn to play World Cup Soccer or Test Match Cricket depending on the season. Shapiro’s future wife, Anna Louise (Tatz), with whom he shared 38 years of marriage, lived only a few houses away in Mowbray Road.

Unlike his three brothers who joined their legendary father, Archie, in stockbroking, Ian Shapiro chose to go into law. He joined I Mendelow and Browde in 1977, becoming a partner in 1981, and remained with the firm in its numerous guises until he joined Fluxmans in 2012.

While Shapiro was recognised as an outstanding attorney with several of his litigation matters reported in South African Law Reports, his colleagues and clients remarked on his calm, soft spoken, and dignified manner in both his personal and business dealings. In 1991, he was instrumental in causing an amendment to the Divorce Act regarding religious and civil divorce proceedings and, in 2001, he won a major divorce case resulting in the ruling becoming law. The biggest litigation case of his career and one of the biggest wins for his firm was the November 2010, ground-breaking Constitutional Court matter, “Bengwenyama Minerals (Pty) Ltd and Others v Genorah Resources and Others”. He successfully represented the Bengwenyama community in the case which concerned administrative fairness in the allocation of prospecting rights. The case was widely reported both locally and internationally.

Shapiro was a devoted husband, father and grandfather. Together with his beloved wife, Anna Louise, he loved nothing more than to be with his three sons, Daniel, Joshua, and Ilan, two daughters-in-law and six grandchildren.

He had an amazing organised mind and was extremely methodical in everything he did whether it was his music, photography, or stamp collections. His taste in music was eclectic ranging from classics and jazz, to the Beatles and Bob Dylan. He was an outstanding sportsman.

His untimely passingin January as a result of complications from COVID-19 robbed him and his immediate family, and the broader world, of a caring soul who still had much to offer.

Sources: Harold Shapiro and family

1968-2021

Moloantoa Geoff Makhubo

[BCom 1992, PDM 2016, MM 2020]

The former mayor of Johannesburg, Moloantoa Geoff Makhubo died on 9 July 2021 at the age of 53 from COVID-19-related complications. He was described as “a gifted technocrat” who “garnered both respect and mistrust” during his political career.

Makhubo was born in Soweto on February 1968 and became involved in politics as a teenager, joining the Congress of South African Students and serving as the chairperson of the African National Congress Youth League. At Wits he earned a BCom degree and before graduating in 1990 he joined the Black Students Association and the then Azanian Students Organisation, which changed its name to the South African Students Congress.

He later completed a management advancement programme at Wits Business School in 1997. He also earned a certificate for leadership in local governance from the University of Cape Town. At the time of his election to mayor, he was studying for a master’s degree at Wits.

Makhubo leaves his wife Dikeledi and two daughters behind.

Makhubo was the co-president of the Metropolis Global Funds for Cities’ Development. He had held leadership roles in the ANC’s Greater Johannesburg Region. He was the regional treasurer before he became the regional leader in July 2018. Appointed as the caucus leader of the ANC in the city council after the resignation of Parks Tau in May 2019, he was nominated mayor following Herman Mashaba’s resignation.

Sources: Sunday Times and Wikipedia

1958-2021

Jabulane Mabuza

[DCom honoris causa 2017]

Entrepreneur and business leader Dr Jabulane “Jabu” Mabuza passed away from COVID-19 complications on 16 June 2021 at the age of 63.

Mabuza was born on 4 February 1958 in Waterval Boven, Mpumalanga. His family was later forcibly resettled in White River and he lived with an aunt in Daveyton on the East Rand of Johannesburg. While in secondary school he was expelled for participating in the 1976 student uprising. He matriculated from Ohlange Missionary School in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal and later worked as a court clerk. In 1980 he began driving taxis to raise funds for a law degree at University of the North, which he did not complete.

Over the years, as Mabuza navigated through the worlds of business, advocacy and leadership, he distinguished himself as a man of conviction with a deep sense of commitment to South Africa. He started as a taxi driver and built a successful taxi business in Daveyton, championing recognition for township income generators and was a founding member of the Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services in 1988, becoming CEO in 1990.

Mabuza developed a close relationship with SA Breweries chair Meyer Kahn, who appointed him groupadvancement director. This culminated in the company backing black business leaders to obtain licences for casinos in South Africa. It is how he engineered the formation of Tsogo Sun, of which he became group CEO, as well as being deputy chair of Tsogo Sun Holdings. He was on the board of Sun International and chair when he died. He spent more than nine years on the board of South African Tourism, which he chaired for six years.

At the height of the #FeesMustFall crisis in 2016, a group of business, academic and civil society leaders met for a weekend of talks on the higher education funding dilemma. The convener of the meeting, former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke (LLD honoris causa) asked Mabuza to provide the institutional and logistics support for the meeting.

Mabuza’s high-profile leadership roles for the country were at Telkom and Eskom. He played a key role in the restructuring and turnaround of Telkom as its chair from 2012, serving two terms. President Cyril Ramaphosa turned to Mabuza in January 2018, appealing to him to intervene in the crisis at Eskom. He resigned from the board in January 2020, having served a year longer than he had committed to.

In July 2017 Wits conferred on him an honorary doctorate of commerce for his “leadership in business in the cause of creating a successful economy that creates a better life for all”.

Sources: Sunday Times, Wits University archive, Daily Maverick

Ivor Sarakinsky

[BA 1986, BA Hons 1987, MA 1992, PhD 2001]

Respected public intellectual Ivor Sarakinsky, associate professor in the Wits School of Governance, and most recently director of the School, passed away on 17 September 2021. He was an integral part of Wits, serving in numerous committees, and as a political philosopher taught public governance and the green economy. He had a wealth of public sector experience and served as chief director for the Green Economy in the then Economic Development Department. He also engaged in numerous consulting projects ranging from helping develop the governance assessment methodology for NEPAD’s African Peer Review Mechanism, to working with implementation processes. He was a prolific writer who published in local and international journals on different aspects of governance, public policy and ethics. He was often able to analyse a situation and make connections that few saw and was a sought-after media commentator.

He was described by friends as a “generous spirit”, the “go-to guy”, despite being an intensely private person. His candour and wit were appreciated and he was often called upon to moderate academic and public events, volunteering his time and expertise to advance the public good. Friends loved his conversation at the dinner table because the conversation sparkled around him. He lived the agony and ecstasy of being an ardent Arsenal supporter.

He leaves his wife Revil and daughter Hannah.

Source: Wits, Sarakinsky family

1926-2021

Bernard Levinson

[MBBCh 1951, Dip Psych Med 1959, PhD 1970]

Dr Bernard Levinson, world-renowned psychiatrist and sex therapy pioneer, died at the age of 94 on 1 April 2021.

He influenced a generation of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists who idolised him for his willingness to challenge mainstream assumptions. He was ahead of his time and was able to talk frankly about sexuality and embrace diversity.

Dr Levinson was born on 5 May 1926 in Johannesburg to a land surveyor father from Argentina and a Russian mother. They emigrated to Chicago, United States after he was born and the family was rendered destitute by the Great Depression. The only job his father could get was tapping pipes to stop them freezing in the winter. They lived on peanut butter and Dr Levinson had to sleep on chairs.

They returned to South Africa when he was 14 and he attended King Edward VII High School. His first medical experience came when he was 17 and serving as a medical orderly on the hospital ship in the Mediterranean in the last two years of World War II.

After graduating from Wits in 1951, he was a GP in Battersea in London, and in False Bay in Cape Town, until 1958, when he returned to Johannesburg and joined Tara Psychiatric Hospital as a registrar. He qualified as a psychiatrist in 1960 and was a part-time lecturer in the department of psychiatry at Wits from 1960 to 1980, lecturing on various aspects of general psychiatry.

From 1965 to 1975 he was the director of the Alpha House Family Centre, a 20-bed unit catering for adolescents who were drug-dependent. In this role he toured and lectured in adolescent rehabilitation centres in Canada, the US, England and Israel. In 1979, he was approached by a team of lawyers responsible for defending a man who had been condemned to death. The Hanging Machine (Premier Book Publishers, 1990) grew out of Dr Levinson’s meetings with the condemned man and his observation of the man’s increasing fear as the day of his execution drew closer.

In 1980 he began practising exclusively as a sexologist and lectured the topic at Wits until 1995. He was one of the first psychiatrists to take seriously people who felt they were the wrong gender.

He was the founding president of the South African Sexological Society, editor of the South African Sex Journal for 10 years and editor-in-chief of the Sexology Journal of Africa for 15 years.

A well-travelled storyteller and poet with an insatiable curiosity, Dr Levinson was prepared to try everything. He started tai chi at the age of 50 and learned jazz saxophone when he was 85. Until his early 90s, when he was diagnosed with colon cancer, he never missed a Saturday morning lesson if he could help it. He read audio books for the blind for 20 years and stopped practising as a psychiatrist when he was 90.

Dr Levinson is survived by his second wife, painter Sheila Jarzin, and three daughters, who kindly submitted this poem he wrote in 2020:

Obituary

I keep looking/ for my obituary in the Wits Review./ Curious./ A paragraph? An entire page?/ Will anyone smile/ at my age? /This for sure /when life demands /so be it – /I’m not dying to see it…

(from Collected Poems, Hands-On Books, 2020) https:// www.africanbookscollective.com/books/collected-poems

Sources: Sunday Times and Wits archives

1956-2021

Graeme Bloch

[MA 2011]

Democratic struggle stalwart, educationalist and activist Graeme Bloch died at Constantiaberg Hospital on the morning of 9 April 2021. He had an uncommon brain disorder affecting his movement and developed progressive palsy seven years after his diagnosis in 2015.

Bloch was the second of seven children born to Rosalie and Cecil Bloch. His late father was a professor of plastic surgery at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and his mother was an attorney and member of the Black Sash, the Women’s Peace Movement and the Detainees Parents Support Committee in the 1970s and 1980s. Bloch matriculated from Westerford High School and continued further studies at UCT. He kept up the family tradition by fighting for a non-racial South Africa and he was among those who led the formation of the End Conscription Campaign. As a member of the United Democratic Front (UDF), he was detained and arrested numerous times for his involvement in the democratic movement. He was banned from 1976-81.

In 1990 Bloch married fellow activist Cheryl Carolus and in 1998 Carolus was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve as high commissioner to the UK, and they lived in London until 2001.

Bloch was a former visiting adjunct Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public and Development Management and a senior researcher at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection. He was a policy analyst at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. He taught in the education faculty at the University of the Western Cape, and was project manager for youth development at the Joint Education Trust. He also worked as head of Social Development in the Department of Welfare, and as director of Social Development in the Joburg Metro.

In 2011 he attained his second master’s from Wits, in creative writing. He was a member of UCT Council, served as director on Lafarge Education Trust, was on the Board of Equal Education, the Advisory Board of Elma Philanthropies, the advisory council of PUKU Children’s Literature Foundation and a patron of Bitou10 in Plettenberg Bay. Bloch wrote and published widely, in particular on education, in both academic and more popular publications.

The Western Cape Students Congress wrote in a tribute that he was “a soft-spoken and gentle soul who provided us with a kind of mentorship that was firm and decisive yet never demanding. He didn’t only care about us and our wellbeing, he consciously and patiently went on to shape our lives, not wavering from this commitment he made to us.”

Bloch’s brother, Lance, described him as a man of courage and a true renaissance man. “They could break his bones, torture him in all kinds of ways, including making him stand for 48 hours at a time during interrogation, but they never broke his spirit.”

He is survived by his wife Cheryl and siblings.

Sources: Daily Maverick, Business Day and EWN

1947-2021

Clare Walker

[BA 1968]

Clare Walker, the former deputy university librarian at the Wartenweiler Library, passed away on 24 May 2021. Walker retired from Wits in April 2010. One of her lasting contributions to the university is the electronic classroom and the Library Education and Training Unit that currently plays a key role in the transition to digital teaching and learning. In her retirement she took up a role as an honorary research fellow, enabling her to write a history of the Wits libraries.

She was the only child of medical doctors and grew up in Forest Town in Johannesburg.

Kathy Munro (BA 1967, Honorary Associate Professor), who met Walker as a student at Wits, paid tribute to her saying: “She was the person who oiled the wheels of the library and solved problems, big and small. Clare was approachable and kind despite the exterior appearance of being somewhat formidable. She was a highly intelligent person who had a wonderful, broad grasp of what a University library should be. She aspired to make the Wits Library system the best possible.”

The University statement read: “Across the profession and the country, she will be remembered for her professional advocacy role as attested to by the many professionals who went through her training programmes.”

She leaves behind her family and companion Elizabeth Robertson who said: “She derived her support from her lively objection to the pompous or authoritarian. Her steady judgement made her not too impressed by the self-important. She tended to laugh at the over-serious people.”

Sources: Wits University, Kathy Munro, LIASA