Jakes Gerwel was a close confidant of Madiba.
Jakes Gerwel, 66, who died early on Wednesday at the Kuils River Hospital, was a brilliant intellect who was able to step from the closeted world of academia to take on squarely the practical challenges of a society in transition.
With his trademark prim goatee, he came across as reserved and studiously proper in a social manner. But this masked a keen perception and steely resolve that saw him emerge in the late 1980s and the 1990s into several powerful roles that gave shape to South Africa’s new all-race democracy.
He was drawn very close into Nelson Mandela’s inner circle during the anxious period immediately preceding transition, and filled influential positions of director-general of the president’s office and secretary to the unity cabinet after the 1994 democratic election.
Gerwel became a close confidant and friend of the grand old man and remained so after he retired and into his twilight years.
Prominence
He came to international political prominence when, as Mandela’s emissary, he helped broker the deal whereby two Libyans accused of involvement in the 1988 bombing of a PanAm flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, would be extradited to stand trial in Scotland.
Adept as he proved himself to be at politics, he was above all an academic and educationist, as borne out by his academic achievements and positions, and the high honours bestowed on him by universities.
Gerwel proved himself proficient in business, too, when he was appointed to the boards of several major companies after he left the public service when Mandela stepped down as president.
He remained in close working relationship with Mandela by serving as chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
Gerwel had humble beginnings. He was born in 1946 on a sheep farm in the Kommadagga district of Somerset East to parents who wanted their children to get the best possible education. His primary education was at a church-based farm school, and his secondary schooling was at Dower Memorial College in Uitenhage. He matriculated at Paterson High School in Port Elizabeth.
At the then University College of the Western Cape he completed, cum laude, a BA degree majoring in Afrikaans-Nederlands and sociology, and an honours degree in Afrikaans-Nederlands. He lectured in Afrikaans at the Hewat Training College in Athlone near Cape Town, before taking up a bursary from the Belgian government to study for a licentiate in Germanic Philology at the Vrije Universiteit of Brussels in 1971.
In 1979 the university awarded him a doctorate in Literature and Philosophy (magna cum laude) for a thesis titled “ Literatuur en Apartheid ” (literature and apartheid). It dealt with the way the Afrikaans novel had been a carrier of the racial ideas that would culminate in the apartheid state. He became a lecturer in Afrikaans and Nederlands at the University of the Western Cape, and in 1987 was elected to the post of rector and vice-chancellor.
He guided it through the upheavals of the 1980s. His role in transforming the institution set up in the Verwoerdian era as a separate college for “coloured” people, into an academic training ground for the approaching new society, earned him honorary doctorates from Atlanta’s Clark College, New York’s City College, as well as the University of Cape Town.
Gerwel took a leading role in preparing the ground for changes to the education system in line with the changes taking place in society. He chaired the National Education Policy Initiative that formulated educational policy for the ANC in the early 1990s, and served on the delegation in 1992 convened by Mandela that dealt with then president FW de Klerk on the education crisis. In 1993 he also chaired the Committee of University Principals.
His growing political profile saw him also serve on organisations such as the Kagiso Trust, the Careers Research and Information Centre in Cape Town, the Community Agency for Social Enquiry, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, the Equal Opportunity Foundation, the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, and the International Development Research Centre Mission “Towards a Science and Technology Policy for a Democratic South Africa”.
His rise to prominent government office under president Mandela was probably most decidedly precipitated by his part in setting up the National Education and Training Forum, that brought together government, business, labour and the liberation parties at the same time that constitutional negotiations were taking place.
Among the important positions he held were chairman of SAA and of the Human Sciences Research Council. He also served on the boards of a number of major companies.
Philosophy
His philosophy of life, of education, came to the fore when, on receiving an honorary doctorate of laws from Rhodes University, he said:
“Universities are both central agents for change and steady beacons of continuity and tradition.
“As we feel buffeted by the storms of change, their presence and functioning in society should provide a sense of succour and solace that our changes are underpinned by centuries-old traditions of reasoning and enquiry.
“When we get despondent about things not changing, they should provide assurance and encouragement that there are fresh and courageous minds of our intellectual elite grappling with and giving lead in changing our lives and our patterns of thought.”
Source: Daily News