honorary doctorate in south africa 2024-2025

By bestowing honorary doctorates, universities seek to link themselves with outstanding people, yet this practice frequently sparks controversy and causes problems for university officials.

Honorary doctorates bring to light difficult but crucial issues regarding the mission of higher education and its contribution to sustaining socioeconomic inequity.

The history of honorary doctorates and their function

Universities bestow honorary degrees (often, but not necessarily, doctorates) in recognition of exceptional work in a particular subject or community service.

The majority of Australian institutions have maintained the old system in which a variety of degrees may be conferred honoris causa, despite the fact that certain universities have created specific honorary degrees, such as the “Doctor of the University” at Griffith University. This indicates that while no degree is actually pursued, the nominee nevertheless obtains the honor in the name.

President Nelson Mandela and Chief Justice Ishmail Mahomed received honorary LLD degrees (honoris causa) from the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Law on December 4th, 1997.

Since that time, the following honorary doctorates have been granted:

9 April 2002 – Prof William Alexander Jardine Watson
18 April 2002 – Prof Walter Joseph Kamba
15 April 2004 – Prof Christopher John Robert Dugard
3 May 2006 – Prof SA Strauss
13 April 2007 – Justice Arthur Chaskalson, former Chief Justice of South Africa and the first president of the South African Constitutional Court
22 April 2008 – Justice Yvonne Mokgoro of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
10 December 2009 – Ms. Navanethem Pillay
11 May 2011 – Judge Frans Heinrich Grosskopf
9 December 2011 – Adv George Bizos SC
10 December 2013 – Justice Johann Vincent van der Westhuizen
16 April 2015 – Prof Karl E Klare and Dr. David Joseph Padilla
7 December 2018 – Retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
10 December 2019 – Retired Justice Zak Yacoob of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
April 2021 – Professor Katharina Renate Susanne Dorothee Boele-Woelki and Professor Yash Pal Gai

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honorary doctorate in south africa 2024-2025

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