As we commemorate the extraordinary life of Professor Jakes Gerwel, I will begin by pointing out three points of convergence between his and my life. First, I spend a lot of time thinking about what it means for people to lead a good life, and what the right way of making this happen is. These concerns show up in both my work and study. My doctoral thesis looks at the intersection of ethics and public policy, and I am a Project Associate at the Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute. That’s the one set of commonalities I have with Prof Jakes.
The second set of commonalities has to do with our shared belief in the power and impact of words, of stories. Prof Gerwel invested and continues posthumously to invest, in emerging writers. It is also well known that he was a voracious reader and writer, having obtained his doctorate degree in literature and philosophy (magna cum laude) from the Free University of Brussels on a scholarship. His elegant command of the Afrikaans language in particular is well-known enough for me not to go into detail here.
The third and final intersection between my life and that of Prof Gerwel comes in the form of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation, the founder and benefactor of which is his wife Mrs Phoebe Gerwel. Founded to “further the legacy” of a man who “distinguished himself as educator, liberator, patron of the arts”, the foundation runs, among others, a programme for emerging writers. It was in 2020 that, through a chain of unexpected events, I was privileged to be included as one of the five emerging writers for that year’s cohort. I am a direct beneficiary of his vision and generosity.
Let me now proceed to describe Paulet House, as I imagine he would have me do.
Paulet House, as the Prof’s former Somerset East home is known, has a utopian quality about it. Simple white paint dresses the Georgian-style exterior. The roofing is red and, with the two rows of windows facing the street, it has the look-feel of a small boarding school- something like the ones C.S. Lewis describes in his recollections of boyhood in Belfast.
A towering canvas of a wall greets you once you’ve driven into the yard, and, like a small mouth on a rather spacious face, the front door beckons you in from here. Inside- rooms, lots of rooms, mostly wooden, mostly spacious. If you take a few steps in and turn left, you’ll enter what is probably my favourite of these rooms: a simple dining area with an in-built bookshelf as a backdrop. Most of the books are old, and if memory serves, most are in Afrikaans, but there are a good few in English too. And if you venture from your seat after a few sips of fine wine- for this is what we did as emerging writers once every four months- and open one of these books, you will likely come across pencil marks and little notes in the margins. Sometimes words are underlined or highlighted. It doesn’t take too fancy a flight of imagination to picture Prof Gerwel making these indentations, letting his mind run wild, nodding resolutely and forming ideas with quiet exhilaration, tongue sticking out.
If I had more space I would write about the garden, which is probably, for most visitors of Paulet House, the absolute highlight of the property. It has the beauty of a botanical establishment and the intricacy of a maze. It’s astonishingly well-kept.
But I must now move on to the thing Prof Gerwel was probably best known for: figuring out how to use political power to bring about good for people. What I left out of my description of this dining room at Paulet House is the numerous framed pictures on the wall. Two of these, in particular, have always stuck with me: one with former president Thabo Mbeki, and the other with former president Nelson Mandela.
It was by the latter statesman that Prof Gerwel was asked to be the first post-independence Director General (or Chief of Staff) in the office of the Presidency. Up to that point, he had been a pioneering academic at the University of the Western Cape, leading the institution as Vice-Chancellor and from being a tool in the hands of the apartheid regime to being “the intellectual home of left”. If there is any doubt as to whether he achieved this audacious vision, the renaming of UWC’s Main Hall on Thursday, 21 July 2022 after Jakes Gerwel suggests a firm nod in the affirmative.
As a political figure, his impact was profound both locally and abroad. At home, his tireless insistence on giving back to his community was evidenced by the decision of the local council to award him the Freedom of the Town of Somerset East. Abroad, his acumen as a sharp-minded and sensitive mediator came to the fore when, in 1999, he played a key role (as Mandela’s emissary, he insisted) in helping the United Nations bring to justice the two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie bombing incident. Libya would later confirm the magnitude of his efforts, awarding Prof Gerwel the Order of Good Deeds.
At this point, I am loathed to rattle off any more of his achievements and distinctions. There are many, and Prof Gerwel was, by all accounts, more concerned with making a positive impact than being in the spotlight.
Just like Paulet House, he had a statesman-like presence, dignifying whichever environment he occupied. Like Paulet House, Jakes Gerwel had many rooms- he wore many hats, and all of them with panache. Over time, just like his former home, Jakes Gerwel seemed to add more and more value to humanity, and evidently, his ability to do so lives on even on this tenth anniversary of his passing.
It seemed fitting to me to pay tribute to this intellectual and political colossus by offering small descriptions of his humble house, in a humble corner of the country. That was Jakes Gerwel’s way: slow, deliberate, methodical, and imaginative.
The emblem of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation is a turtle. He was said to love these creatures, and he seems to have emulated them too.
Drawing on an African proverb, the University of the Free State Chancellor Bonang Mohale quite aptly titled his treatise on ethical leadership Behold the Turtle.
Behold, indeed, the turtle. Behold Gert Johannes “Jakes” Gerwel.
Zama Moyo lives in Johannesburg. He completed his honours in international relations at Wits University. While busy with his honours, Zama was selected as an intern at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). He completed his MA in ideology and discourse analysis at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. Zama has always loved words and penned a number of reflective essays on his personal blog Thought Box. He has also written on a broad range of issues related to current affairs. In 2013 he was selected as a finalist in the Global Human Rights Essay Contest which focused on ‘Human Rights Cities’. He is currently working on his doctoral thesis – On the intersection of ethics and public policy – at the University of Pretoria.
