Tribute to a legendary leader

April 1, 2011 0 Comments

Dr Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert was a very special man. This is evident in the high esteem in which he is held by friends and acquaintances.

Vier persone

At the unveiling of a photo collage in honour of Dr Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert were Mr Rudolf Gouws, Mr Breyten Breytenbach, Dr Alex Boraine and Prof Russel Botman

Mr Rudolf Gouws, an economist and friend of Dr Slabbert, on Tuesday, 29 March 2011, gave a moving tribute to SU’s late Chancellor, after whom the University’s new Institute for Student Leadership Development is named. He was the guest speaker at the launch dinner of the Institute.

He struggled to hold back the tears when he pointed out the similarities between Breyten Breytenbach’s tribute to Dr Slabbert, ‘My Kaptein!’ [Click here for the pdf], and a poem by Walt Whitman.

“But I think we all, when Van Zyl died (on 14 May 2010), felt something of what drove Walt Whitman to write ‘O Captain, my Captain’, when the message of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination reached him.”

Breytenbach wrote ‘My Kaptein!’ for Dr Slabbert’s farewell event at SU on 15 October 2009 after he decided to step down as Chancellor due to health reasons.

“Thank you, my friend. Thank you for everything. Look after yourself. We appreciate you. We honour you. We love you, Oubaas,” reads an excerpt.

With a lump in his throat Gouws spoke of how much he and his family miss Dr Slabbert. “It was always a pleasure to be with Van Zyl, whether you were philosophising, telling jokes, watching sport, singing together or just listening to  his unparalleled wealth of anecdotes.”

“Jane Slabbert can attest to the fact that everybody wanted a part of this man. There was always a stream of people at their house who wanted, in one way or another, to be led by him.”

Mr Jan-Jan Joubert, political editor of Rapport and a former Matie, said earlier the same day at the Institute’s seminar on Pragmatic and Ethical Leadership that he saw Dr Slabbert as a hero.”One of the reasons why Dr Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert was such an esteemed and beloved leader, was because he never forgot that leadership is about people, humanity and compassion.”

Dr Gouws recalled Dr Slabbert’s days in Stellenbosch. In the 1960s and 1970s he studied and taught at SU and was resident warden of Majuba and Simonsberg.

“The role he played as housemaster to establish good values in students – without being prudish and bigoted – was the stuff of legend.”

Gouws, also a former Matie, called on alumni and on friends of the University and Dr Slabbert to support the Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert (FVZS) Institute for Student Leadership Development.

“This is a unique and important initiative, which will need wide financial and other support from outside the University, to ensure that there is a practical legacy (and not only fond and admiring memories) of the great man.”

Prof Russel Botman, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, extended the following invitation to alumni and everyone else who supports the objectives of the FVZS Institute: “You can share your expertise with our students and become ambassadors of the Institute.”

According to Dr Leslie van Rooi, Head of the FVZS Institute, courses are being presented to develop Maties’ leadership skills and to emphasise their role as leaders in Africa and in a world context.

The following excerpt from Breytenbach’s ‘My Kaptein!’ is being used by the FVZS Institute in marketing materials: “It would be an institute which encourages young people to cross the boundaries between the academy and public life, between knowledge and power and finance and community life, between South Africa and the greater continent; an institute that encourages them always to turn history on its head and regard it critically, from all sides, so that we can be sure that old or new orthodoxies do not calcify our memories and rewrite our dreams. All of this should be underpinned by concepts and principles that speak to a healthy and questioning spirit of scepticism, a search for excellence, for concretisation in practice, and for human dignity, underscored by a need to serve, and to love other people as oneself.”

Speeches, videos and audio files:

Simposium:

Evening function:

Further information on the FVZS Institute:

 

Corporate & Alumni, Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert Institute for Student Leadership Development, General, HOPE Project, Press Releases, Student Success, Students

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