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SU honours prominent opinion-makers, business and academic leaders
Author: Corporate Marketing/Korporatiewe Bemarking
Published: 19/10/2016

Respected opinion-makers, business leaders, policy makers and prominent academics are among the latest group of recipients of honorary degrees from Stellenbosch University (SU).

The recipients are the opinion-maker, mediator and agent of reconciliation, Dr Franklin Sonn; the prominent music scholar and professor of Musicology and Music Theory at Princeton University – the foremost music scholar to have come from the African continent, Prof Kofi Agawu; business and higher education leader, Dr Johan van Zyl; Rwandan banker, policy-maker, campaigner for women's rights and former government leader, Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa; Namibian politician and "peace broker", Mr Dirk Mudge; and a pioneer in computing, satellite technology and engineering, Prof Jan du Plessis.

Each year, SU awards honorary doctorates to individuals who have excelled in various disciplines and are recognised as role models. The University Council approved the honorary doctorates at its meeting on Monday, 26 September 2016. The honorary degrees will be conferred on the recipients either in December 2016 or March 2017.

Prof Kofi Agawu will receive the Degree Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), honoris causa; Prof Jan du Plessis the Degree Doctor of Engineering, (DIng), honoris causa, Mr Dirk Mudge the Degree Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), honoris causa, Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa the Degree Doctor of Commerce, (DCom), honoris causa, Dr Franklin Sonn the Degree Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Dr Johan van Zyl the Degree Doctor of Commerce, (DCom), honoris causa.

Over a period of several decades, Dr Franklink Sonn has achieved widespread recognition as a principled and resolute leader. Despite the socio-political system in which he functioned, Dr Sonn never allowed his humanity to be defined by an unjust political order and a corpus of discriminatory laws. Through the integrity of his person and leadership, as well as his unfailing faith in the power of the reasonable argument rather than in the path of violence and disorder, he has made a decisive contribution, in his own, striking manner, to systematically turning the ship of South African society so that it could begin to sail in a new direction.

This educator, education leader, businessman, public figure and unwavering critic of race-based discrimination has already received 12 honorary doctorates. Among others, he has been a school principal, rector of the former Peninsula Technikon (now Cape Peninsula University of Technology), president of leading teacher associations and South Africa's first post-1994 ambassador to the USA.

Dr Sonn is also a business leader, company director, patron of non-governmental organisations and former president of the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut, as well as vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Industries of South Africa.

Ghanaian-born Prof Kofi Agawu, a professor of Musicology and Music Theory at Princeton University and the most prominent music scholar to have come from the African continent, is widely recognised as the leading authority on African music and his publications on African music have become the gold standard for scholarship in this field.

In his work, he crosses traditional boundaries in music research by bringing together perspectives from music theory, ethnomusicology and historical musicology. He has been able to straddle two very different musical traditions – those of 18th and 19th-century Europe and of West Africa – linking the two by exploring their respective structures and significance within their unique historical and social settings. In this sense, his work serves as a benchmark for all other, similar research. In addition, he has contributed ground-breaking research to the fields of semiotics and postcolonial studies. 

Cementing previous, less formal exchanges, Prof Agawu was recently appointed as extraordinary professor in the Department of Music at Stellenbosch University.

Dr Johan van Zyl is a well-known business leader who stepped down as Group Chief Executive Officer of Sanlam in 2015. Under his leadership, Sanlam was placed on a path of sustained growth and outperformance. Prior to his arrival, Sanlam had for just over 90 years been known mainly for life insurance in the white Afrikaans-speaking middle market. Van Zyl transformed the company into a diversified financial services group with a footprint across 34 African countries, substantial businesses worth several billion rand in India and Malaysia, and a niche focus in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, the USA and Australia.

Van Zyl was Sunday Times Business Leader of the Year in 2014, Media24/Die Burger Sakeleier van die Jaar 2012 and Cape Times/KPMG Personality of the Year 2006, as well as the recipient of the All Africa Business Leader Award in 2015 as the top business leader in Southern Africa.

In his earlier career, Van Zyl  was a highly respected academic and Rector of the University of Pretoria (UP) – a position he assumed in January 1997 at the young age of 40. He was also named as one of the top 100 academics on the UP's list when the university celebrated its centenary in 2008.

Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa, who obtained her master's degree (top of her class) and doctorate at SU, has held, at young age, two successive portfolios as a minister in the government of her native Rwanda. She designed and implemented policy initiatives that have contributed to the remarkable economic turnaround of her country over the past 15 years, and helped build government institutions that are now ranked among the best in the world. She is a brilliant scholar and an inspirational leader with a true commitment to improving society and the lives of African women in particular.

As minister of state for economic planning, she led Rwanda's economic development and poverty reduction strategy and formulated the country's first ever policy and legal framework for microfinance.

Five years later, she was appointed to the more senior cabinet position of minister of trade and industry. This appointment placed her at the centre of the country's strategy to transform its economy, making it more balanced and less agriculturally dominated.

She was awarded her PhD by SU in 2012, shortly after being appointed deputy governor of the National Bank of Rwanda. In this role, she is closely involved in monetary policy, financial regulation and the bank's research publications. With Dr Nsanzabaganwa's active participation as a minister and central banker, Rwanda's institutions of governance and economic policy have developed enormously since 2000 and are presently recognised for their exceptional quality, not only regionally but also internationally.

Mr Dirk Mudge played a pivotal role in facilitating the transition of the former South West Africa to a political democracy and could arguably be considered one of the main architects of Namibia's independence.

With exceptional visionary, strategic and transformational leadership, he not only served as "peace broker", leading his traditional support base onto a new path, but also played a significant role in facilitating reconciliation between white and black in Namibia. In many respects, he helped break through the post-World War II impasse on the status and position of this former mandated territory of South Africa.

Through his outstanding negotiating skills and sense of strategy, this SU alumnus has proven himself an exceptional leader of transformation, who not only helped steer Namibia towards independence, but certainly also paved the way for political transition in South Africa. His tireless leadership in service of his country, his innovation in search of alternative political solutions for Namibia and his extraordinary transition management capabilities are all qualities that SU seeks to instil in its graduates.

Prof Jan du Plessis has played a significant and pioneering role in the development of both computer and satellite technology in South Africa. He has also had a strong, formative influence on generations of electronic engineering students at SU.

He was responsible, among other things, for the importation and installation of the first minicomputer at a university in South Africa during the 1970s and was also the driving force behind the acquisition and installation of the first laboratory of microcomputers at Stellenbosch University in 1977, the same time as the first Apple 1 and PET personal computers were introduced in the USA. In 1986, he established the first modern personal computer laboratory with network connections – believed to be the first in South Africa. This introduced the era of computer user areas for students.

In the early nineties of the previous century, Jan du Plessis, along with Arnold Schoonwinkel and the late Garth Milne, was the initial driving force behind the development of the SUNSAT microsatellite – Africa's first satellite. Its successful launch by NASA in February 1999 made the world properly take notice of the university.

He was also involved with SunSpace, the spin-off company that was established to build more satellites. He has played a major technical role in the design and construction of satellites built by SunSpace, with SumbandilaSat being the best known one. Du Plessis can rightly be regarded as one of the "fathers" of space science and in particular of the satellite industry in South Africa, to which he made great technical contributions.