Cape Town - The award of an honorary doctorate will motivate Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. It is an affirmation of the work that she and the Public Protector’s Office is doing, she said on Thursday.
Madonsela was among three people who received honorary doctorates at the University of Stellenbosch on Thursday.
“I see this as not only an affirmation of the work that I'm doing, it’s an affirmation of the work that is done by the public protector team as a whole. It takes a collective effort to achieve everything we have achieved today.
“I am extremely delighted and honoured by the award,” Madonsela said.
The university said Madonsela’s contribution as a developer and custodian of South African constitutional democracy and the rule of law has ensured her a permanent place in South African legal history and her commitment to the constitution, and her integrity and moral courage represented a beacon of hope and warranted the awarding of her Doctor of Laws degree.
“Awards such as this motivate me and the team to continue what we’re doing, because they say at least a huge contingency of our country believes that we are on the right track,” she said.
Acting rector and vice-chancellor Professor Leopoldt van Huyssteen said the doctorate awardees were role models for all South Africans.
Esteemed mathematical physicist Neil Turok was awarded a Doctor of Science for his contribution to education and development.
Turok, born in Joburg, was trained at Churchill College, Cambridge, and Imperial College in London. In 1994, he was a professor of physics at Princeton University, and chair of mathematical physics at Cambridge University.
In 2008, Turok exchanged Cambridge for Canada, and is now a director of the leading Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
He is also a professor of physics at Stellenbosch University as well as a visiting fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study.
“I’m very excited to be involved in supporting the development of science in South Africa,” Turok said.
Banking industry entrepreneur Michiel Scholtz du Pre le Roux, who initiated the Capitec Bank, received a Doctor of Commerce.
He joined Distillers Corporation in 1973 with BCom (Law) and LLB degrees. From 1993, he spent five years as managing director of the then Boland Bank, and laterof NBS Boland and BOE Bank. He later established Capitec.
Cape Times