Prof Doyen Manganyi
POLOKWANE – PROF. Chabani Manganyi, the psychology, academic and literature luminary, has received the National Research Foundation’s(NRF’s) Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions during a career spanning over 45 years.
Manganyi, independent South Africa’s first Director General of Education,has been recognized at a ceremony held in Polokwane, the capital city ofthe country’s northern-most province.
Former President Kgalema Motlanthe, and current Science and Technology Minister, Naledi Pandoor, handed the accolade to Manganyi.
According to a citation from the NRF, the Southern African country’sforemost research agency, Manganyi, hailed for “his love of his country and its people”, was a deserved recipient of the award.
He was his usual humble self as he accepted the award.“It is an unusual privilege for one to have this kind of support andrecognition. I receive this recognition from the country’s premier researchinstitute with great humility and gratitude,” he said.
Fellow academic luminaries hailed the Lifetime Achievement Award winner for his humility, prowess and paying a key role in dousing tensions in a newSouth Africa in his role as the Director General of Education.
The education sector was then an emotive portfolio, with the studentprotests in 1976 having sparked a revolution that would years later play aprominent role in the demise of apartheid.Presenting the keynote, Pandor, hailed the strides made by localresearchers over the year.
She highlighted the country’s emergence from a pariah state, to attainmentof independence and subsequent “unity and diversity” as a globalbreakthrough.
“Through that, we have offered ourselves to the world as a sociallaboratory,” she said.Meanwhile, about 40 individuals and institutions of higher learning as wellas research institutions were honored at the National Research Foundation’sannual awards.
Some 27 researchers received A-Rated accolades after being voted for bytheir peers.Other prominent awards included the Hamilton Naki Award, which Prof.Lerothedi Leeuw of the University of South Africa (UNISA) received. It was handed to a researcher who defied the odds stacked against them to make a name in their respective fields.
UNISA claimed another key accolade in the “Excellaration” Award for South African Research Institutions.”University of Western Cape’s Prof. Jose Frantz was the recipient of the Development and Transformwation Award.
Dr Beverley Group Executive: Science Engagement and Corporate Relations ofthe (NRF), said the awards acknowledged and promoted excellence in researchand science.
“The accolades celebrate up-and-coming researchers and those with cuttingedge inventions and solutions that make a difference in the lives ofpeople,” she said.
– Guardian
