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Legendary Matie academic Professor Sampie Terreblanche dies
Author: Ronel Beukes
Published: 18/02/2018

Legendary Matie academic and political economist Professor Sampie Terreblanche (84) passed away on Saturday following a battle with brain cancer.

The name of Professor Sampie Terreblanche has become synonymous with the history of the Department of Economics at Stellenbosch University. When he retired in 2011, Prof Sampie concluded an uninterrupted career of 54 years as lecturer in economics.

Resigning from the then National Party in 1987, he became a fierce critic of it. As founder member of the then Democratic Party, he became this party's first economic adviser. He wrote several books, including History of Inequality in South Africa, 1652 - 2002, and other publications, and served on various national bodies, which allowed him to be involved in policy making.

He also received many accolades for his lifelong contribution to economics as study field and for the leading role he played in a deepened understanding of the political economy and of South Africa's economic history. This includes an honorary degree from SU.

On a website dedicated to Prof Sampie, his daughter, Christelle Terreblanche, said, "His progression from an Afrikaner nationalist, to an advocate of its demise, to an ANC supporter, to a fierce critic of the ruling party was certainly spectacular and often dramatic.

"But each step in his fifty years as public intellectual and political economist was preceded by deep soul-searching and intense discussions with his close friends and family about how to best serve the common good.

"Sampie may ultimately be remembered for his fearlessness in speaking truth to power, and a public intellectual who constantly reminded apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa of the injustice inherent in economic inequality."