The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is today conferring honorary doctorates upon four outstanding individuals; Professor Pitika Ntuli, the late Samora Machel, Bongi Dhlomo and Wouter Kellermen.
This prestigious recognition of these individuals serves as a testament to their exceptional contributions to their respective fields and to society at large.
Honorary doctorates hold an important place in the academic community and are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated exemplary achievement.
These individuals serve as inspirational figures: their work and accomplishments align with TUT’s values and our vision of being a university that makes knowledge, addressing the challenges of our time through cutting-edge teaching, learning and research.
Ntuli will be awarded with a degree of Doctor of Language Practice (honoris causa) from the Faculty of Humanities. He is a South African sculptor, poet, writer, and academic who spent 32 years of his life in exile in Swaziland and the UK.
Ntuli was born in Springs, Gauteng, and grew up in Witbank in Mpumalanga. He became active in the struggle against the apartheid government, as a result of which he was exiled. Ntuli is an expert in African indigenous knowledge systems. A regular political and cultural commentator on television and radio, he is also well-known as a poet.
Machel will be awarded posthumously with a degree of Doctor of Public Affairs (honoris causa) from the Faculty of Humanities.
The late Machel was a politician and freedom fighter. Revolutionary leader of the Mozambican liberation movement FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) and Mozambique's first President. For Mozambicans, he was the head of FRELIMO, the guerrilla army that, against great odds, brought freedom to their homeland, but on the international scene he was much more.
Throughout southern Africa, Samora was a hero to the oppressed. His military successes against a colonial regime buttressed by South Africa, Rhodesia, the United States, and its NATO allies enhanced his revolutionary reputation and inspired many in the quest to freedom and equality.
Kellermen will be awarded with a degree of Doctor of Arts and Design (honoris causa) from the Faculty of Arts and Design.
He is a two-time Grammy Award-winning South African flautist, producer and composer who has won nine South African Music Awards. Classically trained, Kellerman performs primarily World and Roots music. He received a Grammy Award at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards for his 2014 album Winds of Samsara.
Kellerman's Love Language (2015) received a Grammy nomination for 'Best Contemporary Instrumental Album’ and won a South African Music Awards (SAMA) for 'Best Instrumental and/or Classical Album'. It debuted at No. 1 on the World Music Billboard charts in July 2015.
Dhlomo will be awarded with a degree of Doctor of Arts and Design (honoris causa) from the Faculty of Arts and Design.
She is an artist, art educator and one of South Africa’s first black curators. Dhlomo began making art in the late 1970s as a response to life under apartheid. With a strong focus on the political, her aims include giving voice to the rural and urban histories of black women.