The University of Stellenbosch will be awarding two honorary degrees at its March 2021 hybrid graduation.
The honorary doctorate will be awarded to the well-known figure in corporate South Africa, Louisa Mojela, as well as globally renowned mathematician, professor Batmanathan Dayanand (Daya) Reddy.
Mojela is a co-founder and long-time group chief executive officer of the Women Investment Portfolio Holdings (WIPHOLD), a company dedicated to the empowerment of women and the creation of development opportunities.
Under her leadership, WIPHOLD grew to be the country's premier black women-owned and managed investment company, with billions invested across a wide array of industries. Through the WIPHOLD Investment Trust, more than 200 000 black women are beneficiaries who hold a direct share of 33,6% in the holding company.
The investment mogul holds a Bachelors degree in Commerce from the National University of Lesotho, and she also successfully completed the Executive Leadership Programme at Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania in the United States.
In May 2009, she received the Inaugural African Business Leadership Award in Dakar, initiated by the African Development Bank, and in 2010, she won the Africa Economic Builders Entrepreneur of the Year award in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast.
While Reddy holds a notable record of sustained activity in strengthening the scientific enterprise. He is an A-rated National Research Foundation scientist, dating back from when he started his journey in science in 1973. Reddy has completed a BSc in Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT), followed by a PhD at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Reddy has made major contributions to the analysis of problems in solid mechanics, most notably plasticity, and to the development and analysis of mixed and related finite element methods.
He is a founding member of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, chaired a steering group of academics who established the South African Centre for High Performance Computing, and is a founding fellow of the Academy of Engineering and Technology of the Developing World.
Ms Mojela’s honorary doctorate will be awarded at 9am on Tuesday, 30 March 2021.
Prof Reddy’s honorary doctorate will be awarded at 9am on April 1, 2021.