About the Awardees and Award

A Place to Grow Hope

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UWC

CHANCELLOR’S DINNER AND OUTSTANDING ALUMNI AWARDS

2014

CONTENTS 2

Welcome

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Award Recipient Professor Russel Botman

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Award Recipient CONTENT Professor Brian Figaji PAGE

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Award Recipient Professor Gert Johannes ‘Jakes’ Gerwel

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Award Recipient Professor Jonathan Jansen

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Award Recipient Professor Nicholas Morgan

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Award Recipient Professor Brian O’Connell

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Award Recipient Professor Derrick Swartz

Award Recipient Dr Franklin Sonn

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About the Award

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Welcome It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the University of the Western Cape’s inaugural Chancellor’s Dinner and Outstanding Alumni Awards Ceremony.

The Chancellor’s Dinner and Alumni Awards Ceremony is one of UWC’s highlights for this year, and one of my personal highlights as well – an occasion where the Chancellor can engage with friends in business, NGOs, NPOs, community leaders and other notables on developments that are taking place at UWC. It is also an occasion where we honour some of our most deserving alumni – people who used what they learned at UWC to contribute to their fields and to South Africa. This annual event will recognise the outstanding achievements of alumni in their professional life – from culture and sport to business and community service.

From 2015 onwards, the Outstanding Alumni Awards will be based on nominations per faculty, with each of the seven faculties at UWC recognising their outstanding alumni.

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Chancellor’s Dinner and Outstanding Alumni Awards

But this year is a special year – as we celebrate 20 years

Morgan (University of Transkei and Walter Sisulu

of democracy in South Africa, we recognise that UWC

University), Brian O’Connell (University of the Western

has played a significant role in developing our country,

Cape), Franklin Sonn (Peninsula Technikon) and Derrick

from being part of the pre-1994 negotiations, to drafting

Swartz (University of Fort Hare and Nelson Mandela

our Constitution and other significant laws, to producing

Metropolitan University). And, in memoriam, we salute the

students who have gone on to discover new challenges

late – and great – Professor Russel Botman (Stellenbosch

and lead significant changes in our society.

University) and Professor Jakes Gerwel (University of the Western Cape).

This year we recognise alumni who went on to become Rectors and Vice-Chancellors, and who opened the

We thank you for the contributions you have made in

doors of learning to thousands of marginalised students

building an internationally respected higher education

during the apartheid years and beyond.

system, and also for being change agents at your institutions, empowering both young and old, and helping

Each of these Vice-Chancellors has made a significant

to transform us into a society of intellectual doers.

contribution to the institutions they served or are serving, and to the wider academic community and South Africa

I hope you will enjoy the ceremony today. Congratulations,

as a whole. Their contributions to higher education

and I wish you continued success.

cannot go unnoticed.

And so, for their service, we salute Professors Brian Figaji (Cape Peninsula University of Technology),

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba

Jonathan Jansen (University of Free State), Nicholas

Chancellor

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Award Recipient Professor Russel Botman The Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University (SU) from 2007 to 2014, the late Professor Russel Botman (1953-2014) obtained all his qualifications at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) – he obtained the degrees BA (1978), BTh (1979), BTh Licentiate (1981), MTh cum laude (1984) and DTh (1994).

He often said his time at UWC had a formative influence on his life, and particularly enjoyed relating to others his experiences as Public Relations Officer of UWC’s student representative council in 1976. It was the year of the Soweto uprising and he and his fellow students protested against apartheid’s laws. His activism continued, and in 1985 he was detained with many others at Victor Verster Prison during the State of Emergency.

Later in 1986, he and others – including Rev Allan Boesak – formulated the Confession of Belhar, a statement of faith adopted by the then Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) that rejected apartheid. For Prof Botman, this also had its origins at UWC. Ordained as a minister of religion in 1982, he served the Wynberg congregation of the DRMC until 1993. He played a key role in founding the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), and remained a strong proponent of church

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Chancellor’s Dinner and Outstanding Alumni Awards

unity within the Dutch Reformed Church family to the

Seminary’s Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in

end. He was President of the South African Council of

Theology and Public Life. In March 2014 he received

Churches from 2003 to 2007.

an honorary doctorate from Hope College in Michigan for leadership in higher education and the Reformed

He joined UWC in 1994 as a senior lecturer in practical

Church. He was posthumously awarded an honorary

theology, and became associate professor and Dean

doctorate by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

of the Faculty of Religion and Theology in 1999. From 2000 to 2002 he served as extraordinary professor in

At the time of his death he was Senior Vice-President

social ethics at UWC, and in 2002 he was appointed

of the Association of African Universities, Chairperson

extraordinary professor in Religion and Theology.

of World Design Capital Cape Town 2014, an executive committee member of Higher Education South Africa

In 2000, he was appointed a professor in missiology,

and a director of Media24 Limited.

ecumenism and public theology at SU, and was pivotal in the establishment of URCSA’s theological training at

Prof Botman was married to Beryl Botman and is

SU. In 2002 he became Vice-Rector: Teaching at SU,

survived by four children, Hayman, Lizelle, Ilse and

and in 2004 he received special recognition from the

Roxanne and three grandchildren.

Minister of Education for the successful incorporation of SU’s Dentistry Faculty into UWC. The first black Vice-Chancellor in Stellenbosch University’s history, Prof Botman was known for his role in promoting transformation, openness and unity, and being the driving force behind SU’s HOPE Project. The project was the vehicle for the university’s transformation.

In April 2013 he received the Princeton Theological

Award Recipient Professor Brian Figaji Professor Brian Figaji obtained his BSc at the Unversity of the Western Cape (UWC) in 1969 followed by a Diploma in Tertiary Education (with distinction), also from UWC. Prof Figaji is a graduate of Harvard University in the USA and has several other degrees from South African universities, and is the recipient of several honorary doctorates.

He served as Principal and Vice Chancellor of Peninsula Technikon from 1994 to 2004. During this time he provided for a significant expansion of the computer facilities on campus in an effort to realise the dream of the Peninsula Technikon becoming the MIT of Africa. He left higher education in 2004 because he was opposed to the merger of institutions as proposed by Minister Asmal.

Before joining Peninsula Technikon in 1980, Prof Figaji spent ten years working as a consulting civil engineer and as a site agent for a large civil engineering construction company. He also taught for a short while at a high school in Cape Town.

Prof Figaji is a Fellow of the SA Institute of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the SA Society for Professional Engineers, a Fellow of the Academy of Engineering and a member of the SA Academy of Science. He served two terms as a member of the Council on Higher Education (CHE).

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As a passionate community leader, he has played an important role in the transformation of many facets of South African society over the last twenty odd years.

He is a director of JET Education Services, the Table Mountain Fund and the newly formed National Education Collaborative Trust as well as a Board member of the National Scout Council. He has also served a four year term as South African representative on the Executive Board of UNESCO in Paris.

Prof Figaji became a director of the Nedbank Group in November 2002, and recently retired from this position.

He was also Non-Executive Chair of Irvin & Johnson (I&J) Ltd and a board member of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. He is still an active member of several boards and continues to serve his community in his retirement.

Award Recipient Professor Gert Johannes ‘Jakes’ Gerwel The late Professor Jakes Gerwel led the University of the Western Cape (UWC) as the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of UWC between 1987 and 1994. After earning a BA degree at UWC in 1967 and honours a year later, he continued his studies in New York and Brussels. He returned to UWC as a lecturer in 1972. After completing his doctorate in 1979, he rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming professor and head of department in 1980, dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1982 and Rector in 1984, when UWC achieved full autonomy. In 1987 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor.

Under his leadership, UWC earned the title of ‘an intellectual home of the left’ reflecting the University’s unambiguous alignment with the mass democratic movement at the time. His tenure was distinguished by the University’s open admissions policy (while society was still racially segregated), which enabled a growing number of African students to study at UWC. Prof Gerwel was committed to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society, and pursued a life-long dedication to education, anti-racism and political freedom. His appointment as the Director-General in the Presidency of Nelson Mandela, therefore came as no surprise.

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Chancellor’s Dinner and Outstanding Alumni Awards

Prof Gerwel also stood for radical change and had a

of Cape Town renamed Vanguard Drive, an extension

passion for Afrikaans as a unifying language, rather than

of the N7 from the N1 intersection to False Bay coast,

a source of racial division, and he was deeply committed

to Jakes Gerwel Drive after the Mandela Rhodes

to artists and creative workers. As UWC Vice-Chancellor,

Foundation – of which Prof Gerwel was the founding

Prof Gerwel supported the development of South Africa’s

chairperson – proposed the change.

first School of Public Health as he saw the need for UWC to focus on public health practices that led to measurable

Prof Gerwel was married to Phoebe Gerwel and is

improvements in people’s health. He was an inspiring

survived by two children, Jessie and Heinrich,

teacher who pioneered new approaches to literary

and four grandchildren.

studies. Prof O’Connell has said on occasion about him, “Prof Gerwel led UWC to articulating a confident vision of itself ... of where this university could go as an intellectual place, hospitable to socio-political visions.”

Prof Gerwel served as the Chancellor of Rhodes University, Chairman of the Human Sciences Research Council, Non-Executive Director of Naspers Limited and Old Mutual, and Chairman of Media24 Limited.

He received several honorary doctorates in law and humanities and was Honorary Professor of Humanities at the University of Pretoria.

He lived in Belhar from the early 1970s until his passing on 28 November 2012 at the age of 66. In 2014 the City

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Award Recipient Professor Jonathan Jansen Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), Professor Jonathan Jansen, obtained his BSc from UWC in the mid-1970s. An internationally renowned expert in education, in 2009 he was the first black Rector and Vice-Chancellor appointed in UFS’s history.

Professor Jansen is known for his strong views on transformation, peaceful reconciliation and unity, which he has pursued in earnest at UFS. Despite setbacks like the notorious Reitz Four video incident, under Jansen’s leadership, this former bastion of conservative Afrikaner learning is fast becoming a model of integration in South Africa.

Prof Jansen achieved his undergraduate education at the University of the Western Cape (BSc), his teaching credentials at UNISA (HED, BEd) and his postgraduate education in the USA (MS, Cornell; PhD, Stanford). Prof Jansen was a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University (2007-2008).

Prof Jansen attended UWC in the mid-1970s, when UWC was just a college in the shadow of the old CRC building next door.

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He remembers clearly how his understanding of UWC started to change, first with the courageous speech of Jakes Gerwel when he declared the institution “the home of the left”; then a bold presentation on the politics of liberation by Allan Boesak; and finally when the university opened its doors to all students and not simply those designated ‘coloured’.

He believes UWC has undergone great academic transformation, from an ethnic institution to arguably the best research performer in the group of historically black universities and now comfortably among the leading universities in South Africa. “The transformation has been remarkable. It is no longer necessary for UWC to go begging under the cloak of disadvantage as I see in the public sphere,” he says.

“UWC defied the apartheid project in every way and has now become a proud institution. There can be no more satisfying rebuttal of our dehumanising and unequal history in higher education and broader society.”

In recognition of his contribution to education Prof Jansen has received honorary doctorates in education from the United Kingdom and the USA, including one from the University of Edinburgh. Prof Jansen has published several books, is a columnist in leading newspapers in the country and has a large social media following.

Prof Jansen is married to Grace Jansen and they have two children.

Award Recipient Professor Nicholas Morgan Professor Nicholas Morgan is a proud alumnus of the University of the Western Cape and the former ViceChancellor of the University of Transkei and Interim ViceChancellor of Walter Sisulu University. Prof Morgan is a Fulbright Scholar, and also holds degrees from the University of Stellenbosch and Cornell University in the USA. Prof Morgan was one of the suspended student leaders who led the closure of UWC during the 1973 struggles against a hostile University Administration. His exposure at UWC and particular the leadership of Prof Gerwel and the community of collective leadership at the univesity prepared him for some of the most difficult challenges he had to face in his career in University leadership.

He was appointed Interim Vice-Chancellor of Walter Sisulu University in November 2004 and in this capacity was tasked with leading the institution through the integration phase of the merger between the three institutions that formed Walter Sisulu University – namely the former Border Technikon, Eastern Cape Technikon and University of Transkei – between July 2005 and December 2006.

He had the primary responsibility of ensuring good governance, financial stability, quality assurance and the smooth consolidation of the systems, structures and academic programmes.

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Chancellor’s Dinner and Outstanding Alumni Awards

Prof Morgan served as the Vice-Chancellor and Principal

Prof Morgan’s contributions in leadership have been

of the University of Transkei (UNITRA) from October

recognised by many institutions, including National African

2002. Prior to that he served UNITRA for a year in the

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Eastern Cape, the

role of Administrator, having been appointed by Minister

Asia Pacific Human Resources Management Congress

Kader Asmal.

for Leadership, Human Resources for leadership with Cornell School for Industrial and Labour relations (NYSILR

Under his management and leadership, UNITRA embarked

extension division).

on a successful restructuring exercise that enabled the university to regain financial and governance stability (in six

He has been involved in wide-ranging community

years, UNITRA’s finances were turned around from a bank

activities over a long period and continues to work on

overdraft of R97m to a positive position of approximately

the transformation of higher education as Vice-Rector:

R40m) and to take its place once again as a significant

Operations at the University of Free State.

contributor to the restructuring of the South African higher education sector.

During Prof Morgan’s tenure as Vice-Chancellor, UNITRA improved its research and publications output, demonstrated a return to good governance, and produced four consecutive unqualified audit reports.

Prof Morgan has also served as the Vice Principal: Academic at the former Technikon South Africa in Gauteng, and before that he served as the Dean of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Western Cape.

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Award Recipient Professor Brian O’Connell UWC’s retiring Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian O’Connell, obtained his BA degree in 1969, during the dark days of apartheid when the University was still the University College of the Western Cape.

Currently he holds a BA degree and Education Diploma from the University of the Western Cape, a BA Honours in History (cum laude) from UNISA, and MA and MEd degrees from Columbia University in New York. He is a Fulbright Scholar, and has also received study grants from the British Council and the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund. He has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Missouri, and will receive another one from UNISA in September 2014. He has served on the boards of scores of community and state organisations, including the Paarl Detainees Support Group, the Strand Community Forum (which he chaired for seven years) and the Harold Wolpe Trust.

During his student years as president of the Students’ Representative Council, he experienced first-hand humiliation by the University management and swore never to return after his graduation. Nevertheless, he did return to teach and later accepted the Vice-Chancellor’s post in 2001.

Prof O’Connell recalls, “At that stage, UWC had become a vibrant force against apartheid – as a centre of opposition

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Chancellor’s Dinner and Outstanding Alumni Awards

to the apartheid state in every respect – ideologically,

them that their recommendation was wrong and that

intellectually and politically – and had been transformed

UWC could be as great if not greater than it was in the

from the UWC it was in the ’60s. “I started believing that

struggle for this new challenge of building the intellectual

I would be at home here at the new, transformed UWC.”

power of a nation,” said Prof O’Connell.

Prof O’Connell played a leading role in preventing a

Since the crisis, Prof O’Connell has deservedly been

merger with Peninsula Technikon. But there were difficult

credited with leading the institution to its position among

challenges ahead. “The University struggled to come to

the top universities in South Africa and the continent.

terms with the changes taking place in a post-apartheid

Prof O’Connell received an honorary award from Her

South Africa; we lost a large number of students, because

Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium in 2013, Prof

all universities were now open to all students which

O’Connell was presented with the title of Commander

meant other universities – those with inherited money

of the Order of Leopold II for his tireless efforts in not

and that could offer attractive scholarships – drew bright

just strengthening ties between UWC and Belgium, but

young students.”

also in raising the profile of UWC, transforming it into the internationally respected institution it is today.

This situation plunged UWC into deficit, which resulted in a need to retrench staff and to repay a loan of R140

Prof O’Connell is married to Judith O’Connell and they

million. Worse, the new government was examining the

have two children, Amanda-Leigh and Bryan.

university system to determine which of the universities should be merged or closed. UWC was scheduled to be merged with Peninsula Technikon because the National Working Group believed it couldn’t be rescued.

“I managed to persuade the UWC community not to move to violent opposition to the state on this matter, but rather to engage with the government and convince

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Award Recipient Dr Franklin Sonn Well-known educational academic and community figure Dr Franklin Sonn is widely regarded as one of the stalwarts in the fight against Apartheid education and keeping alive the vision of a democratic future. He completed a BA degree and BA (Hons), at the University of the Western Cape in the late 1960s.

“Black students were restricted from entering universities in the early 1960s and those of us who matriculated mostly attended teacher training colleges, like the Hewat Training College and the one in Oudtshoorn”. He led a difficult campaign for the institution of part-time classes at UWC. He became principal of Silverstream High School in Manenberg at age 30 and soon afterwards, had the privilege as principal to help build the Spes Bona High School into one of the most prestigious schools in Cape Town. The school 6 years later was proud to produce four out of the top ten students in Matric.

Conditions for teachers in schools at the time were so severe that Sonn and a few colleagues decided to form a Teacher’s Union, with the object of improving the morale of teachers and inspiring them to resist the designs of Apartheid education.

Sonn devoted all his free time to his position as President of the Cape Professional Teachers Association, as well as the Union of Teacher’s Associations of South Africa. He was President of these associations for the next 15 years. As a result of student agitation he became Rector of the Peninsula Technikon in

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Chancellor’s Dinner and Outstanding Alumni Awards

1978. “These were trying times on our campuses and in

All in all, Sonn has received honorary Doctorates from no

the country at large.” He soon became known for his strong

less than 13 universities, national and international. Among

organisational abilities and for leading public marches

his many prestigious awards were the Order of the Disa

and sharing platforms, with inter-alia, Professor Jakes

(the highest award of the Province of the Western Cape),

Gerwel and Desmond Tutu. “In the process the UWC and

the National Order of the Baobab, from President Mbeki,

the Pentech campuses stood closely together and it often

and a special order of distinction from the Mayor of the City

happened that Jakes Gerwel and I had to take frontline

of Cape Town.

in the student’s strikes, facing rubber bullets, teargas and detentions. We did this as a mark of solidarity with the cause

Sonn is married to Joan Gelderbloem and they have two

of the students but also to protect our staff and the students.”

children, prominent businessman Crispin and Heather an investment banker and entrepreneur.

As school Principal, Rector and Teachers Union leader he succeeded in being a strong public voice against Apartheid while at the same time insisting on putting the interests of the students first. While organisations like the ANC were still banned, Sonn attracted attention by leading the teacher’s union to openly identify with the democratic struggle via the ANC while at the same time, ensuring a safe environment for students to continue their studies.

Former President Nelson Mandela in 1995 appointed Sonn as democratic South Africa’s first Ambassador to the United States of America. Upon his return, he was inaugurated as Chancellor of the University of the Free State, where he actively and successfully inspired transformation at the university.

Award Recipient Professor Derrick Swartz Port Elizabeth-based Professor Derrick Swartz currently serves as Vice-Chancellor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University from 2008.

He was Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Fort Hare University (1999-2007), where he is credited with leading a successful turnaround strategy. In 2005, under his leadership, the University was awarded the Supreme Order of Boabab (Gold Class) by the State President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki.

Prof Swartz started his academic journey at the University of the Western Cape where he obtained a BA degree (19791981), an MA and PhD degrees in sociology of development and in 2008 received an Honorary doctorate in Human Rights Law from Essex University.

UWC was to him a place of spell-binding speeches, vibrant intellectual discourse, readings in ‘alternative history’, debating Trotsky, Lenin and Cabral, listening to the poetry of Bertolt Brecht poetry, singing Pete Seegers/Joan Baez/Miriam Makeba/Bob Marley protest songs during the 1980 boycotts on UWC’s sprawling greens; the mystique of reading ‘heretical’ texts in secret; memories of the special chemistry amongst ‘Bush’ comrades and the deep sense of longing for a society not only free of the scourge of apartheid, but fully embracing a non-racial, equal and socially-just democracy.

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Chancellor’s Dinner and Outstanding Alumni Awards

It was a time for life-changing awakening for him,

currently serves on the Higher Education South Africa

deeply influenced by the ideas of black consciousness,

(HESA) board, Eastern Cape Planning Commission

liberation theology, Latin American socialism and post-

(ECPC), and several community and public trusts.

colonial African history.

In recent years, his interests have shifted to the role of He believes UWC today is carving out a distinctive place

Higher Education in socio-economic development, and

as a vibrant centre of scholarship in post-apartheid South

social experiments in the use of innovative technologies

Africa. “In recent years, under the visionary leadership

in promoting sustainability and agency by local

of Prof Brian O’Connell, UWC is earning a growing

communities and vulnerable groups.

reputation in research, teaching and engagement at the service of the democratic project. I am indeed proud of being associated with this wonderful university.”

Prof Swartz began his working life as a high school teacher, community researcher, and anti-apartheid activist. He helped build a network of civic-based movements that led to the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983. Towards the late 1980s he was forced to leave South Africa, and studied and worked in the United Kingdom, where he made significant contributions to thinking around democratic governance and the management of a post-apartheid civil service in South Africa.

Prof Swartz formerly served as board member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), and

About the Award US • UWC MN

US • UWC MN

R NOU S ALU O H 2014

The Outstanding Alumnus Award is presented to

The protea thus symbolises wisdom, diversity, cour-

those alumni who have made outstanding contribu-

age and transformation - the traits of an outstanding

tions in their fields of study and toward nation build-

student and alumnus.

ing. Awardees receive a gold lapel pin, a UWC blazer and a plaque of recognition.

The plaque of recognition represents the vision and mission of UWC within its African context, using the motif of the African continent to symbolise the role

NOURS ALU HO

that UWC graduates should play in bringing about hope and change in Africa through the knowledge they acquired at UWC. The design echoes the concept of the African Renaissance, and the notion of African cultural, scientific, and economic renewal.

The protea is a significant part of the UWC coat of arms and can be seen on the pin, plaque and blazer. The protea has symbolic meaning for UWC as it grows in the Western Cape and is also a national symbol. It was named after Proteus, the son of the Greek God Poseidon, who had the power to know all things past, present and future, and could change his appearance to avoid trouble.

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Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. – Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States.

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