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Architects in Democracy

Two great South Africans pass away. Arthur Chaskalson and Jakes Gerwel. On Arthur Chaskalson retirement from the Constitutional Court in 2005, former president Thabo Mbeki called him a "giant among the architects of our democracy", saying he had "worked with distinction to restore the credibility of a judiciary that had been totally discredited in the eyes of the majority, during the apartheid years" and had "steered the judiciary at a time when it was grappling with defining its proper role in a democracy. Professor "Jakes" Gerwel, was a quiet South African, but one who thought and acted with nobility and courage. This was clear in his visionary, successful attempts to transform the University of the Western Cape (UWC) from an apartheid "bush university" into the "intellectual home of the left" during his time as rector there in the 1980s.

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