Peter Hain, former exiled anti-apartheid activist and British cabinet minister will be speaking at Rhodes University on Thursday (3 September).
Peter Hain, former exiled anti-apartheid activist and British cabinet minister will be speaking at Rhodes University on Thursday (3 September).
He's here in his capacity as chair of the Donald Woods Foundation Trust which works in health and education in some of the poorest areas of the Eastern Cape.
His visit to Grahamstown is, in part, inspired by Rhodes Education Project's own shared focus on improving the quality of education.
“I am very impressed with Rhodes’ achievements, including the outreach work with deprived communities – absolutely vital since South Africa’s school system sadly is massively underperforming and failing far, far too many children.”
This trip, he says, has health and education at its heart, “The Donald Woods Foundation is delivering some of the very best health projects tackling especially HIV-Aids and TB, as well as school projects, in a very poor part of the Transkei.
I see very close synergies with Rhodes’ own impressive work and the scope for even greater collaboration".
The son of anti-apartheid activists, Adelaine and Walter Hain, Hain became politically aware and active at an early age.
“Growing up under apartheid, with my parents under constant surveillance and harassment before being banned and then exiled, made me passionate about social justice, liberty and equality.
That’s what drives me still,” he says. His family went in to exile to the UK in the 60s and, from 1969 when he was just 19, Hain led the campaign of direct action in Britain which successfully stopped the all-white South African rugby, cricket and other sports tours.
Two decades later he became a Labour MP for Neath (in Wales), was the Leader of the House of Commons from 2003 to 2005 and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007 in Tony Blair's government.
During this time he was an integral part of the negotiations that brought an end to many decades of violence and conflict in the province.
As a fellow of Swansea University, Mr Hain sees further potential for collaboration between the two institutions in terms of Rhodes’ focus on not only improving curricula and educational quality, but also on producing graduates properly qualified to address our huge educational challenges.
“I would love to see exchanges of students, including Rhodes graduates, undertaking PhDs at Swansea under the South African Government’s new programme for sponsoring postgraduates who wish to return and become academics,” he says.
His visit also has personal significance as, he says, he has “always had a soft spot for Rhodes and Grahamstown because my mother was born in Port Alfred and went to Victoria Girls High School".
Peter Hain's talk – "From Pretoria to London: Freedom, Struggle and the Future of South Africa" – is at 6pm on Thursday 3 September at Eden Grove Blue. It is open to the public.
