​Stellenbosch University learnt with sadness of the passing of Prof Adam Small, acclaimed poet and playwright.

Prof Eugene Cloete, Vice-Rector: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies, and currently acting Vice-Chancellor and Rector, said that South Africa did not only lose one of South Africa's greatest literary minds, but also one of the most poetic voices against apartheid.

Stellenbosch University bestowed an honorary doctorate upon Small at its graduation ceremony in December last year for "having shifted the boundaries of South African literature, enhanced the Afrikaans language, and sensitively though strongly articulated issues others hesitated to address, thereby becoming a voice for the voiceless."

At the ceremony the University stated that Small, as beloved and acclaimed poet and playwright, "has 'written himself into' the very being of the South African nation as our moral conscience, poignantly commenting on the destructive apartheid system."

• Click here for a video of the 2015 ceremony (incl a response from Prof Adam Small)
• Click here for a speech by Dr Michael le Cordeur.