Join former vice-chancellor, others in receiving Rhodes honorary doctorates

JAZZ maestro Hugh Masekela and public protector Thuli Madonsela are among five prominent South Africans to be awarded honorary doctorates at Rhodes University next week (9-11 April 2015).

The others are former Rhodes vice-chancellor Dr Saleem Badat, artist David Koloane and scholar Professor Frances Lund.

They will be honoured during the Grahamstown university's three day graduation ceremony that starts on Thursday.

The honorary doctorates recognise people who have shown leadership and made valuable contributions in different sectors in society.

Masekela will receive an honorary music doctorate for his contribution to social campaigns through music.

Rhodes University spokesman Zamuxolo Matiwana said the university was best placed to acknowledge the jazz maestro's appreciation of the struggles of ordinary people in their movement between town and country.

"It is located in the Eastern Cape, the source of the migrant labour depicted in his song Stimela, an area that forcibly or otherwise recruited labour for the urban centres of South Africa for at least two centuries," he said.

The honorary doctorate will acknowledge Madonsela's contribution to the human and civil rights movement, over about 30 years.

She was one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people last year and has had some clashes with government officials in her tenure as public protector.

"Representing the best of South African decision-makers, of its citizens and public officers, Advocate Thuli Madonsela is an unflinching champion of the constitution of South Africa," Matiwana said.

Badat left Rhodes last year to head the International Higher Education and Strategic Projects programme at the New York-based MelIon Foundation, which includes a South Africa programme and international grant-making in higher education.

He has authored and contributed to several books, journals and magazines and has directed and written various policy reports on South Africa's higher education.

Koloane has made significant contributions as an activist, intellectual, writer and critic in the arts industry, making it his mission to empower local artists through education.

"Koloane's work has reflected the consistent pursuit of a social justice agenda which has promoted the growth and education of South African artists during and after the apartheid era,” Matiwana said.

Lund is well known for having chaired The Lund Committee on Child and Family Support, which led to the establishment of the child support grant, in former president Nelson Mandela’s administration.

“The Child support grant has along with other government grants, fundamentally transformed the way in which impoverished citizens survive in South Africa,” Matiwana said.

By Zandile Mbabela

Source: The Herald newspaper