Venue

The Jakes Gerwel Hall, University of the Western Cape

Originally known as the Main Hall of the University of the Western Cape, Jakes Gerwel Hall stands as one of the institution’s most historically significant venues. In July 2022, in the spirit of Mandela Day, the hall was officially renamed to honour the legacy of Jakes Gerwel—former Rector and Vice-Chancellor of UWC and a central figure in the university’s transformation during the late apartheid era.

The hall is inseparable from a defining national moment. On 28 November 1990, while still Vice-Chancellor, Prof Gerwel presided over the conferral of an honorary Doctorate in Law on Nelson Mandela, just nine months after his release from Victor Verster Prison. That ceremony symbolised UWC’s intellectual and political alignment with the democratic struggle.

Appointed Rector and Vice-Chancellor in 1987, Prof Gerwel declared UWC “an intellectual home of the left,” marking a decisive shift in the university’s identity. Under his leadership, UWC moved beyond rejecting apartheid as an imposed system and positioned itself as an active intellectual site of resistance. The institution became a hub for policy development supporting the African National Congress during the transition to democracy, attracting returning exiles and prominent scholars to newly established centres and institutes.

Several architects of South Africa’s Bill of Rights and Interim Constitution were associated with UWC’s Community Law Centre (now the Dullah Omar Institute), further embedding the university in the constitutional foundations of the democratic state. After the 1994 elections, Prof Gerwel went on to serve as Director-General in the Office of President Mandela, continuing his contribution to national governance.

The renaming of the hall in 2022 reaffirmed both Gerwel’s intellectual legacy and UWC’s enduring mission: integrating academic life with the lived realities of society. Today, Jakes Gerwel Hall remains not only a venue for major academic and public events, but a symbol of principled leadership, constitutional development, and the power of universities to shape national history.