Community worker and the mother of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, Epainette Mbeki and free speech advocate Raymond Louw are among those to whom Rhodes University will award honourary doctorates at its 2012 graduation ceremonies next weekend.
Community worker and the mother of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, Epainette Mbeki and free speech advocate Raymond Louw are among those to whom Rhodes University will award honourary doctorates at its 2012 graduation ceremonies next weekend.
The honourary degrees recognise individuals who have shown leadership and made contributions to various sectors in society, such as education, social development, business and science. The other recipients will be Mike Bruton, Geoffrey de Jager and Leymah Gbowee.
Prof Mike Bruton
Rhodes graduate and former head of the university's Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Sciences, Bruton has helped popularise science through the development of science centres in Cape Town and Durban. As well as increasing access to science, he has also raised public awareness of the roles played by scientists in Africa and the Islamic world.
Geoffrey de Jager
After graduating from Rhodes in 1973 de Jager went on to be part of the Rand Merchant Bank's directorship and launched a distinguished career in business. A committed philanthropist, he has also displayed substantial support to education, heritage, social justice and the environment. He served on the Rhodes Trust for close to a decade and has personally donated many thousands of pounds in support of the university's activities in the UK.
Leymah Gbowee
Gbowee is the Executive Director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa in Accra, Ghana, which works with women in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. In 2002 she worked as a social worker in her native war-torn country, Liberia and organised the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement which saw Christian and Muslim women pray for peace and hold non-violent protests. Gbowee led a delegation of Liberian women to apply more and more pressure on warring factions in Ghana and went on to organise the Women in Peace building Network (WIPNET), which brought an end to the second liberal civil war in 2003 and led to the election of the first female president in Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She also worked as a Commissioner Designator for the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2004 to 2005.
Raymond Louw
Louw has been a passionate and effective advocate for the advancement of free speech and press freedom in the broader public for decades. He's also known internationally for championing media freedom beyond South Africa. He has been a member of International Press Institute (IPI) Resolutions Committee for more than 25 years and has played a role in activism across Africa. In 1998, he journeyed to Cameroon to persuade their despotic president Paul Biya to release the jailed editor Pius Njawe. He also worked with the World Press Freedom Committee in making representations to the King of Morocco, calling for a pardon for an editor jailed for four years for criticising royalty. He has also been appointed to IPI delegations promoting media freedom to the governments of Indonesia and Israel.
Epainette Mbeki
Affectionately known as MaMbeki, she is a profound South African symbol of exceptional human endeavour and unwavering commitment to educational advancement and social development. As a teacher in the 1940s she observed the plight and impoverishment of poor, rural people and undertook volunteer work for Child Welfare. During the 1930s and 1940s she participated, with her husband Govan Mbeki, in the vibrant cultural renaissance among urban black people, before Govan was imprisoned on Robben Island and their children were exiled. Now living in Idutywa, at the age of 92 Mbeki continues to support and encourage a number of local projects and women’s organisations in the area. She is also a prominent force in the Linda Mbeki Hospice. Furthermore, she has established the Nomaka Mbeki Technical Senior Secondary School and owns the Goodwill Trading Store which she runs herself.
