Jakes Gerwel, activist, academic and right-hand man to former president Nelson Mandela during the critical years of democratic transition, has died after heart surgery earlier this week.

Condolences and tributes are pouring in following the news that Prof Gerwel had passed on in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

President Jacob Zuma sent "heartfelt" condolences to friends and family of the man born in Somerset East in the Eastern Cape in January 1946 and raised on a sheep farm.

From those humble beginnings Prof Gerwel went on to be the first director-general in the first democratic presidency in South Africa under Mr Mandela.

His condolences to Prof Gerwel’s family were conveyed on his behalf by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.

"We will deeply miss ‘Prof’, as we fondly refer to him."

Also paying tribute to Prof Gerwel was the Human Sciences Research Council whose board he chaired from 1999 to 2009, "during a pivotal time of transformation".

Brimstone, where he was nonexecutive chairman, said: "His death leaves a large void and we will sadly miss his personification of a dedicated, unselfish colleague, mentor and friend."

Mr Zuma said South Africans would remain "eternally grateful to Prof Gerwel for laying a strong administrative foundation concretising the new ethos of a free and nonracial South Africa and for leading a team of dedicated heads of departments to drive the government’s vision of reconciliation as well as reconstruction and development at a crucial time in the history of our country".

The African National Congress (ANC) said it was "shocked and saddened by the untimely" death of Prof Gerwel, who was elected a member of the party’s Western Cape regional committee in 1991.

"The ANC will always cherish the contribution that Prof Gerwel made to the ANC and the people of SA in general," said party spokesman Jackson Mthembu. The ANC would publish the details of his funeral as soon as the family had finalised them. A memorial service had been set for the main hall at the University of the Western Cape on Saturday afternoon.

Former president FW de Klerk said it was "with the greatest sorrow" that he learned of the death of Prof Gerwel, who served in a host of leadership positions, including chairing Media24, the Institute for a Democratic SA (Idasa), and the Human Sciences Research Council.

Idasa said he was responsible for making "the transition from its founding director, Dr Alex Boraine to Prof Wilmot James".

Mr de Klerk also said Prof Gerwel had made a constructive contribution to higher education, first as vice-chancellor of the University of the Western Cape and subsequently as chancellor of Rhodes University.

In 1967, Prof Gerwel graduated from the University of the Western Cape to which he returned as a lecturer in the ’70s. He was appointed a professor in 1980 and after a scant two years was appointed dean of arts.

Democratic Alliance national spokesman Mmusi Maimane said the party was saddened by Prof Gerwel’s "untimely death" and offered sympathy to his widow Phoebe and the family.

"Most of all, we will remember him as a person of wisdom, love and gentle caring."

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said of the academic who cut his political teeth in the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko: "Jakes epitomised the right combination of philosophy, discipline and humility — he was a renaissance man."

Written by:  Wyndham Hartley

Picture credit: http://www.bdlive.co.za

• This article was published on Business Day online (http://www.bdlive.co.za).