Those of us privileged enough to work in the name of Nelson Mandela in his foundations and therefore under the legendary chairmanship of Professor Gert Johannes (Jakes) Gerwel, had a long-running competition.
This was to see who could capture a photograph of Jakes sporting a fully-fledged smile. No one won. Jakes just didn't smile for the camera, not ever, and this, unsurprisingly, gave people who didn't know him the impression that he was dour, even humourless.
Those who did know him, however, knew that just the opposite was the case. Jakes had a rapier-like, irreverent, impish and sometimes downright naughty wit and one of the abiding pleasures of life was a languid lunch with Jakes with the wine and conversation flowing, and the inevitable loopdop. Or two.
Jakes always insisted to me that since retiring from the Presidency in 1999 he was "not busy". He certainly looked that way, however, with a crammed schedule and full-flight itinerary, but he never appeared flustered and he moved around at a rather stately, unvarying pace. But Jakes did so much, in so many incarnations, that neither his colleagues nor his family or his many friends could ever know everything that was passing through his battered old briefcase, let alone that ever-inquisitive, interrogative, heuristic, exceptional mind.
Jakes gave intellectuals a good name, and South African public intellectuals in particular. He was a living antidote to the ignorant madness that has seen the so-called "Clevers" vilified from Polokwane onwards. Jakes not only believed in the centrality of education in improving the human condition he loved it to his erudite fingertips. He also loved South Africa, and our continent. He loved our diversity and even our quarrelsomeness.
When The Mandela Rhodes Foundation was brought into being to mark the centenary of the Rhodes Trust, the two of us took off on a journey that would give us special joy for the next 10 years. With Jakes as chairman and myself as CEO and a great team we were given the opportunity to build Africa's best postgraduate scholarship programme and leadership development programme, and to unearth the extraordinarily inspiring talent that resides in the younger generations if given the right opportunities.
With our respective offices based in the historic Mandela Rhodes Building, we were able with the enthusiastic help of a range of supporters, steadily to build the Mandela Rhodes Scholarships from the ground up. But Jakes will not be there at our 10th anniversary next July to see the fruits of his labours and to receive deserved accolades for this example of his leadership, among so many others in various fields. It is an intolerably cruel prospect that we will celebrate without him.
The many achievements of Jakes Gerwel are well known, properly so, and it has been good to see his importance as a figure in our country's history being correctly recognised. In addition to the many front pages that have celebrated Jakes this week, he has earned a permanent place in our history books.
But many of us will smile at the lesser-known aspects of this wonderful man. I used to watch happily each year as our new Mandela Rhodes Scholars, from first being intimidated by "Prof" as he glowered at them from the head of the selection committee table, coming to love him and to sup deeply and affectingly from his profound well of wisdom.
From the great Nelson Mandela himself to a bright young African student starting out on their leadership journey - both won over by this outwardly inscrutable, inwardly irresistible personality.
It has been widely noted that Jakes came across as a quiet and a gentle man, diffident even. This is true but it is not the whole truth. Anyone who saw Jakes riled - particularly, for this very proud man, if he suspected patronisation - would know all about the mental toughness that provided the backbone for this son of an Eastern Cape farmer to walk a tough path through educational transformation, Struggle activism, government at the very highest level, business, and philanthropy.
Close friends all felt great love from Jakes (I treasured it in my life), but of course he saved the greatest intensity of his love for his family. Phoebe, Hein, Jessie, Roger, Lara Mari - and then, oh my goodness, the littlest Gerwels Gerard and Gullia, the only ones who could conjure a smile if not a full-blown laugh from Jakes. It was wonderful to see this side of Oupa in recent years and I know it brought him great joy.
It is heartwarming to read the sheer variety of fond anecdotes recounted by people who intersected in one way or another with Jakes through his labyrinthine involvements. Mine include a madcap cricket-watching trip to the West Indies to watch the World Cup as a slightly superannuated "boy gang", and speaking endlessly and lovingly about language and literature, our mutual love. Travelling to unexpected exotic locales with the excitement of ingénues, debating politics through the night... I am not the only one who feels like this, but to me Jakes was variously a father, a brother, a boss, a friend, a mentor, and someone that you sommer just looked forward to seeing, in any context.
Just before I sat down to write this, the Mandela Rhodes Foundation executive committee held its monthly meeting without Jakes in the chair. Trustee Julian Ogilvie Thompson, who had graciously agreed to take up the role of acting chairman, began the meeting by asking for a moment's reflection after these appropriate words: "In memory of an illustrious and wise man and a very fine chairman."
There is only one Jakes and it is agonisingly hard to accept that he is gone.
Picture credit: http://mg.co.za
- Shaun Johnson is the founding chief executive of The Mandela Rhodes Foundation and a former editor of The Sunday Independent. This article was published on Sunday Independent.