Deceased 2016

Staff Members

Roger Adams - 10 December 2016 - Head of Sport, Warden at Jan Smuts House and the Deputy-Dean of Students. 

Prof Arthur Noble (1965) - Professor of Education and Dean of the Faculty of Education - Obituary

Prof Emeritus John Duncan - 20th June 2016 - Former Dean of Research, founding head of department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and one of the pioneers of Biotechnology at Rhodes University - Notice

Prof Thomas Rodney Hope Davenport (1943) - 2nd July - 2016 - Old Rhodian and former staff member of the History Department from 1965 until 1990 and Professor and HOD from 1975 - 1990

Prof Patrick Alister Mcallister (1976) - 21st September 2016 - Old Rhodian and former staff member in the Department of Anthropology from 1981 to 1989, and then Director of the ISER from 1991 to 1996.

Dr Michael Skinner (1985) - 18th October 2016 - Notice

Prof Philip van der Watt - 24th December 2016 - Notice

Old Rhodians

Mariette Ruth (Varder) Murphy (1939) - 7th July 2016 -  Notice

Grosvenor Rex Davis (1940) - 7 July 2016 - Obituary

Shirley Patricia (Wild) Waddington - 7 July 2016 - Daughter of Rhodes's first professor of psychology, Prof EH Wild.  Survived by her husband Charles,  three daughters, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Eleanor Frances Barker (1951) - 22nd June 2016 - Notice

Trevor Wallington Teeton (1952) - 4th April 2016 -  Notice

Ann Isabel (Scott) Waugh (1955) - 21st January 2016

Charles Anthony (Tony) Arnott (1956) - July 2016

Duncan Charles Baker (1956) - 12th March 2016 -  Notice

Rosemary (Shaw) Libby (1957) - 25th March 2016 - Will be sorely missed at our annual Luncheons.

Vivien Payne (1957) - 1 November 2016

Anthony Rhys Evans (1961) - 19 August 2016

Gillian Hilary Gane (1961) - 10th June 2016 - Notice

Timothy John Couzens (1962) - Obituary

Ivan Zartz (1964) - 16th September 2016

Diana Vernon (Lewis) Sutherland (1965)  - 12th April 2016 - Beloved wife of Terry Sutherland - Obituary

Brian John Manicom (1968) - 25th February 2016 -   President of the Rhodes SRC in the late 60's and early 70's. Brian died in Pretoria  after a prolonged illness

David Arthur Fish (1970) - 14th May 2016 - Dave suffered a heart attack and passed away suddenly.  He leaves behind his wife, Judy and son Simon and daughter Amber.

Rev Dr Theocritus Gqubule (1970) - 25th May 2016 - Notice

Mr Harold Nevile Bodmer (1974) - 20th July 2016 - Notice

Peter Michael Colvile Croeser  (1976) - 29th October 2016 - Notice

Michael Stuart Erskine (1981) - 2016

Rev Dr Martin Young (1983) - 2nd April 2016 - Notice

Jacqueline (Tawse) Jooste (1984)- September 2016

Mr Gavin Horsman (1987) -  2016

Kesayne Reed (2009) - 8th May 2016

Wesley James Day (2013) - 2nd June 2016 - Notice

Anelisa Dulaze (2014) - 9th January 2016

Nikhil Maharaj (2015) - 24th September 2016

 

 

Last Modified: Thu, 23 Feb 2017 13:56:19 SAST

Hugh Lewin

Journalist, author and anti-apartheid activist Hugh Lewin has died, aged seventy-nine.

Lewin passed away at his home in Killarney, Johannesburg yesterday.

Born in Lydenburg in 1939, to English missionary parents, Lewin attended Rhodes University before beginning his journalistic career at the Natal Witness in Pietermaritzburg. He also worked at Drum magazine and Golden City Post in Johannesburg.

In July 1964, when he was twenty-four years old, Lewin was sentenced to seven years in prison for his activities in the African Resistance Movement, a small group of activists that executed acts of ‘protest sabotage’ against the apartheid state, targeting, as Lewin wrote in his 2011 memoir Stones Against the Mirror, victims ‘made of metal and concrete, not flesh and blood’.

Lewin served the full term of his sentence in Pretoria, before leaving South Africa on a ‘permanent departure permit’ in December 1971.

During his years in prison, Lewin secretly recorded his experiences and those of his fellow inmates in the pages of his Bible, and on his release these writings were published in London in 1974 as Bandiet: Seven Years in a South African Prison. Hailed as a classic of prison writing, the book remained banned in South Africa for many years, until it was published by David Philip in 1989.

Lewin spent a decade in exile in London, where he worked as an information officer of the International Defence and Aid Fund and as a journalist for The Observer and The Guardian, followed by another ten years in Zimbabwe, where he became a founding member of the Dambudzo Marechera Trust, before returning to South Africa in 1992. He took up the post of director of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg and founded Baobab Press. He was also a member of the Human Rights Violations Committee of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In 2003, he was awarded the Olive Schreiner Prize for his memoir, republished in South Africa, with the addition of new material, as Bandiet out of Jail.

 

In 2012, Lewin won the Alan Paton Award for Stones Against the Mirror, with the judges described the book as ‘a beautifully written and intensely personal story of friendship, betrayal and struggle’.

Nadine Gordimer called Stones Against the Mirror ‘a book that was waiting to be written’, adding:

‘There have been many accounts of life in the active struggle against the apartheid regime but this one is a fearless exploration into the deepest ground – the personal moral ambiguity of betrayal under brutal interrogation – actual betrayal of the writer by the most trusted associate and closest friend; and the lifetime question of whether one would have betrayed that same friend under such circumstances, oneself. Hugh Lewin is the man to have faced this with the courage of a fine writer. Unforgettable, invaluable in facing now the ambiguities of our present and future.’

In addition to his non-fiction, Lewin was also the author of the Jafta series of children’s books and the young adult novels Picture That Came Alive and Follow the Crow.

In one of his final public appearances, last February, Lewin was honoured at St John’s College in Johannesburg, which he attended from 1948 until 1957, and whose school history block is now named after him.

~~~

Read Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Foreword to Bandiet out of Jail:

Quite often in the public hearings of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission I remarked that the revelations of a spirit of forgiveness led us into the presence of something holy. I used to say that we were standing on holy ground and should metaphorically remove our shoes. In South Africa we are blessed by some truly remarkable people of all races, and each one is a person of extraordinary nobility of spirit. Many were involved in the struggle against apartheid and they paid a very heavy price for that involvement.

One such is Hugh Lewin, whose passionate commitment to justice and freedom led him to oppose injustice and oppression with every fibre of his being. For this he paid a heavy price: seven and a half years of incarceration and twenty-one years in exile. This book describes what happened to him and his associates in apartheid’s jails and his encounters with the dreaded Security Branch. Some readers might feel that he is exaggerating when describing the methods of the police, that torture was rare, indulged in only by what some political leaders were to tell the TRC were ‘bad apples” the exceptions in a Force that otherwise behaved impeccably. Hugh Lewin went through sheer hell and emerged, not devastated, not broken, and not consumed with bitterness or a lust for revenge. He amazed, he humbled with his gentleness, his generosity of spirit, his willingness to forgive, when he could have been otherwise, and made a telling contribution to the work of the TRC as a member of its Human Rights Violations Committee. He is endowed with ubuntu – humanness, the very essence of being human. He revea ls another quality of many who suffered: a resilience that prevented him and his fellow ‘politicals’ from going to pieces when they had the stuffing knocked out of them. Instead, they staged plays and found ways to beat the system and to laugh, even at themselves. 

Enriched by Hugh’s reflections on postapartheid South Africa, this book reveals again his way with words. He writes like a journalist who is a poet. Or should that be the other way round? And his gentle wry humour is a bonus. 

This deeply moving account reminds us where we come from and how high a price has been paid for our freedom. Let us cherish it.

 

Last Modified: Mon, 21 Jan 2019 12:32:43 SAST

Sydney Brenner

ddd

Last Modified: Thu, 11 Apr 2019 16:47:57 SAST

Stewart Young

Stewart Young started  studying  the physical sciences at Rhodes in 1959. After 1st year he switched to his real love classical music. He studied under Professors Gruber and Mayer. He sang in the Rhodes University Choir which toured Europe at that time.

During his B Mus he switched to UCT and he then lived in Cape Town for the rest of his life. He completed a D Mus on the current incorrect perception of the tempi  in the music of Beethoven. He was at the height of his fame last year when he was invited  to London to hear a performance  of Beethoven's 9th symphony based on his discoveries. Sadly he died in late September/early October last year. 

Prior to that Stewart was a concert pianist. However  his job was as a successful teacher of music at a high school in Cape Town.

 

Last Modified: Thu, 23 May 2019 13:23:09 SAST

Khanyisile Melanie Mboya

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of former student and outstanding student leader, Khanyisile Melanie Mboya, who passed away on Sunday, 13 October 2019.

Her funeral will take place this Saturday, 19 October in Nqancule village in Ngqamakhwe.

Khanyisile completed an Honours Degree in Industrial and Economic Social Development in 2016. She joined Rhodes University in 2013, to pursue a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Industrial and Economic Sociology and Political and International Studies. 

She inspired many students and staff with her energy, intelligence, and her orientation towards social justice. This was particularly visible in her extensive engagement in student politics and community engagement. From 2013 – 2016, she was part of the Rhodes University International Office’s International Week task team, responsible for organising projects and events on diversity and internationalisation. In 2015, she was elected into the Student Representative Council as the Sports and Societies Councillor. She was an active volunteer in the Community Engagement Division as part of the Rotaract Club. In 2015, she represented Africa as the Next Generation Service Exchange ambassador in Switzerland, to build national and regional fellowship for Rotary International. She was an active member of the Black Student Movement (BSM) in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, she was selected as the student representative in a team that facilitated negotiations between students and university stakeholders. It is based on her involvement in BSM that she was later invited to make a contribution to the Jacana published book, “We are no longer at ease”.

In 2016, Khanyisile served as the Project and Events Coordinator of the International Office, heading projects and events on diversity, transformation, education and entertainment. 

After graduating from Rhodes University, Khanyisile worked as a consultant in the diversity and transformation of institutions, with clients such as the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics, the Standard Bank Thuthuka foundation, and various private schools in the area, such as the Diocesan School for Girls. She also served as the Regional Analyst for the think tank Political Economy in Southern Africa (PESA).  In 2018, she joined the Access Music Project in Makhanda as project coordinator. She then joined the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg as the Anzaisha Prize Coordinator. In April 2019, she joined IBIS Consulting Environmental Services as an environmental sustainability consultant in Johannesburg.

She maintained that "my passion for people, innovation and service have propelled me in different directions but ultimately all of them make me the social scientist that I am."

Khanyisile is survived by her mother, Nomakhwezi Valentia Mboya; and her older brother, Siviwe Mgwali. 

Sally Matthews

Associate Professor and Head of Department

Political and International Studies

Last Modified: Fri, 18 Oct 2019 09:06:20 SAST