TUT confers honorary degree on ABC Motsepe
THE mood was jovial in Building 21 of the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in Pretoria yesterday, as the father of mining magnate and CAF president Patrice Motsepe was honoured with a doctorate degree.
Chief Augustine Butana Chaane (ABC) Motsepe died at the age of 92 at his home in Sandton in June 2007, and was conferred posthumously at the institution of higher learning.
Present were his children, First Lady Tshepo Motsepe, Patrice Motsepe, ambassador of the Pan African Parliament Bridget Motsepe, former Miss SA Veronica Motsepe, and Fanuel Motsepe.
TUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Tinyiko Maluleke said it was an honour to add the name of ABC Motsepe as the university’s alumni.
“Very few people would epitomise what the TUT stands for like he did. In him he is combined as a teacher, a sports lover, as well as an entrepreneur.
“What is it that a country needs today more than entrepreneurship … more than students who are able to love mathematics which is what he was passionate about … the subject that was in short supply in its profession because many students tried to avoid moving away from it, and yet all the problems that we have in the country cannot be solved without mathematics and those are the reasons we wanted to honour him because he is such an inspiration long after he has passed on,” he said.
ABC Motsepe’s eldest daughter, Tshepo, said the family was honoured that TUT chose to honour their father.
“I remember as a child, there was a time when our mom used to stay at the hospital because she was a nurse, and we looked after our dad. And that was in Mathibestad, when he was a teacher.
One thing our dad did, if you ask me what I’m grateful for, from a very young age, is that when he was a school principal he used to listen to us.
“I knew while I was young that I was going to be a doctor. My dad would say about my other brother that because he liked arguing and debating he would become a lawyer, and the one who used to count money, he always knew she would become a businesswoman.
“He took interest in all seven of us, and he became our role model. The one thing he always stressed is that we become educated.
“He used to tell of us and say then that his father, our grandfather, Joseph Motsepe, used to be a domestic worker for one of the government ministers. Our grandfather used to say my children should get a good education so they don’t do what I do.”
In the early days, Motsepe Snr ran shopping centres in the North West.
He helped found the Nafcoc Business Chamber, and was a teacher by profession. Motsepe Snr is survived by seven children and eight grandchildren. His wife, Key, who was half Scottish, died in 2004.
A critic of the then Bantu education, Motsepe Snr sent his children to a Catholic school in Aliwal North so they could have a better education and become better achievers than him. His children did just that.
It was no secret that Motsepe Snr was an ardent follower of Orlando Pirates. He was born in Mmakau on June 18, 1915.