Festival pays homage to Gerwel

The life and contribution to society of former UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jakes Gerwel, will be celebrated at this year’s Suidoosterfees when a lecture series is held in his honour.

In addition to its action-packed programme, the festival will again include the Jakes Gerwel Lecture Series in its line-up, which will see at least three UWC alumni deliver talks at the 11th annual event which kicks-off on 28 January 2014 and runs until 2 February 2014 at the Cape Town City Hall, the Artscape and the Fugard Theatre. These alumni are Professor Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Free State, his Stellenbosch University counterpart and chairman of Cape Town World Design Capital 2014, Professor Russel Botman, and Professor Rachel Jafta, Chairperson of Media24 Limited. Professor Ciraj Rassool will be attending the eventon Saturdayon behalf of the Rector and will be a participant in theBridging the Dividetalk.

Jansen and Jafta will participate in the discussions entitled Twenty years of Democracy:the sweet and the sour, from 7h00 to 9h00 on Friday, 31 January, while Botman will feature in the Bridging the Divide talks from 10h00 to 12h00 the day after. Their topics will revolve around South Africa’s 20th year of democracy, with a focus on education, the economy and politics, as well as the various themes of the Cape Town World Design Capital 2014 project.

Gerwel, a UWC alumnus himself, was a world renowned activist, academic and executive, and served as chairman of the board of the Suidoosterfees since the festival’s inception. He passed away in November 2012.