Honorary doctorates will be conferred on five exceptional individuals at the upcoming graduation ceremonies of the Stellenbosch University (SU).
The recipients are Nobel Laureate and internationally acclaimed author Prof Abdulrazak Gurnah, disaster management expert Colin Deiner, entrepreneur Chris Otto, pioneering social scientist and epidemiologist Dr Olive Shisana, and innovator Dr Tjaart Johannes van der Walt.
SU annually confers honorary doctorates upon extraordinary individuals who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields and made a significant contribution to society.
These candidates were selected through an extensive governance process with each nomination having been approved by both the SU Senate and the SU Council. The latest cohort of honorary doctorates were approved by the university’s Council on Sunday 29 September.
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Deiner and Otto, along with Prof Salim Abdool Karim whose honorary Doctor of Science (Medicine and Health Sciences) award stands over from 2024, will receive their degrees in December while the other recipients will receive theirs at the March 2026 graduation ceremonies.
“SU is honoured to recognise these outstanding individuals whose work – spanning literature, law and entrepreneurship, disaster risk and engineering innovation, and public health – has made a significant impact. Their achievements lift communities, deepen understanding, and help build a safer, fairer world,” said Prof Deresh Ramjugernath, SU rector and vice-chancellor.
“In celebrating them, we affirm our mission to advance knowledge in service of society and our ambition to lead from Africa, for Africa and the world.”
More about the recipients receiving their honorary degrees
Prof Abdulrazak Gurnah is an internationally acclaimed writer and literary scholar who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021. He will be awarded the degree Doctor of Literature (DLitt), honoris causa. Gurnah has a longstanding relationship with SU. He is a Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) Fellow and was in residence at STIAS in 2018 while working on his novel Afterlives. He currently serves on the scientific committee for the Nobel in Africa Symposium in Literature, “Retrieving Pasts, Imagining Futures: Creative Forms in African Writing”, to be held at STIAS in November.
Colin Deiner is the chief director of Disaster Management and Fire and Rescue Services in the Western Cape. He is internationally recognised for his extensive expertise in disaster management and response. Deiner will be awarded the degree Doctor of Engineering (DEng), honoris causa. He has led South African search and rescue teams to disaster affected areas across the country and abroad. Deiner also coordinated the drought disaster campaign (Day Zero) in the Western Cape and the non-medical component of the Covid-19 provincial response.
Chris Otto, an SU alumnus and entrepreneur, will be awarded the degree Doctor of Laws (LLD), honoris causa. He is a co-founder of the PSG Group and Capitec Bank. Otto is also the founding chairperson of the Stellenbosch Law Faculty Trust, which assisted with the establishment of the Chair in Social Justice, the Gys Steyn Chair in Financial Regulation Law and the Chair in Urban Law and Sustainability Governance.
Dr Olive Shisana, a pioneering social scientist and epidemiologist, will receive the degree Doctor of Science (DSc) (Medicine and Health Sciences), honoris causa. She served as the director-general in the Department of Health, where she played a central role in the post-apartheid reconstruction of public health. Shisana is the chairperson of the board of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), which is co-founded by SU. Under her tenure, AIMS expanded its reach and reinforced its commitment to women in STEM, innovation and transdisciplinary research.
Dr Tjaart Johannes van der Walt will be awarded the degree Doctor of Engineering (DEng), honoris causa. He is regarded as a pioneer of digital banking on the African continent and a thought leader in the ethical application of technology for societal benefit. An SU alumnus, he co-founded TymeGroup and helped establish TymeBank, South Africa’s first fully digital retail bank. He was also instrumental in launching the TymeCube programme, a collaboration between TymeGroup and SU, that provides high-potential postgraduate students in engineering and actuarial science with mentorship and research opportunities.
Prof Salim Safrudeen Abdool Karim, a renowned epidemiologist, will be awarded the degree Doctor of Science (DSc) (Medicine and Health Sciences), honoris causa. During the Covid-19 pandemic he was a leading contributor to the Covid-19 response, providing scientific guidance on genetic mutations in SARS-CoV-2 leading to new variants. Abdool Karim is the director of the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (Caprisa) and Caprisa professor of Global Health at Columbia University in New York. He is also pro vice-chancellor of research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
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