Confidante to Mandela family who was like a son
JAKES Gerwel’s calm and calculated approach to challenging situations was a safety net for former president Nelson Mandela’s family, a memorial service heard on Saturday.
“He was a pillar of strength for our family … He had unconditional love for all of us,” said Mandela’s wife, Graça Machel, in a message read out by Planning Minister Trevor Manuel at Gerwel’s memorial service at the University of the Western Cape.
Machel said Gerwel had become part of Mandela’s everyday life for the past 18 years.
“He was no longer an adviser, but a confidante and a son,” she said.
Gerwel, an academic and executive died in the Kuils River Hospital, in the Western Cape, on Wednesday morning.
In 1967, Gerwel studied at the same university and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree and later completed his honours.
He returned to the university later in life to take up a post as a lecturer. In 1980, Gerwell was appointed a professor and just two years later a Dean of the Arts Faculty. He was appointed vicechancellor of the university five years later.
Fellow academic Njabulo Ndebele, who served as Gerwel’s deputy rector at the same university, said the shock of Gerwel’s death was still raw.
Ndebele first met Gerwel in Soweto in 1976, a month after the June 16 student uprising over language policy.
“His afro hairstyle showed him as an activist with a purpose,” said Ndebele.
He recounted how he had seen Gerwel’s afro change over the years to a “pushed back silvery grey”.
Ndebele said his friend had helped change the university to a new kind of institution in South Africa.
“He lived by a far-sighted philosophy that young people and students are made to test the world and push boundaries.”
Musician and playwright David Kramer later came on stage to pay his respects, not with a speech, but through song.
Kramer played his guitar and harmonica, and broke out into a lively Afrikaans tune, to remember his good friend.
Rhodes University vice-chancellor Saleem Badat said Gerwel should be honoured for his ethos of professional conduct and service to the human race.
Badat said his fellow academic valued knowledge and took intellectual work very seriously.
“Sadly today knowledge and intellectual labour seem to be disdained even at our highest levels of leadership.”
Gerwel served as global chairman of Aurecon, a provider of engineering, management and specialist technical services.
Aurecon CEO Paul Hardy said Gerwel touched the lives of over 7 000 staff employed at the company.
“Some people we remember and some we wish we could forget.
“Very few, in my experience, you meet who have such an impact on you that they change you forever.”
Former head of communications in the Mandela presidency Joel Netshitenzhe said Gerwel brought a calm order into the new democratic transition in 1994.
On a lighter note, he told mourners Gerwel often had to mediate between Mandela and his security detail.
He recalled one incident where a fuming Madiba had complained that his bodyguards had prevented him from wearing a shirt because he had worn it the previous day. Mandela insisted it was not dirty.
Gerwel had to tell Madiba: “If you change that shirt today, you can still wear it tomorrow”.
Gerwel’s son Hein told mourners his father was his best friend who may not have been “demonstrative” when it came to his emotions, but always displayed an “invincible morality”.
“To me he was not a hero of the people, he was an example of how moral values can carry one through the most trying situations,” he said.
His fondest memories were cricket games played in the backyard of the family home.
The memorial service was closed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Before bowing his head, Tutu joked that he had not been invited to deliver a speech but to lead a prayer.
“I’ve been put here because I have a hotline to you know who.”
By Sapa
Picture by: Halden Krog
CLOSE: Professor Jakes Gerwel and Nelson Mandela concentrating during a speech.
Source: Daily Dispatch