Passionate teacher, anti-apartheid activist and intellectual, Matthew Goniwe’s legacy will this year be honoured through a series of events, highlighted by the Annual Matthew Goniwe Lecture which will be delivered under the theme, Transformative Leadership for Social Change: Empowering the Next Generation.
Hosted by the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance (MGSL&G), the Annual Matthew Goniwe Lectures have been delivered by prominent speakers in the past, including luminaries such as lawyer and author, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi.
The annual celebration of Goniwe’s life will kick-off with a business breakfast on 6 December 2023, with the lecture, to be attended by Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane, among others, delivered at The Canvas, Riversands, Fourways on the evening of 8 December 2023.
Cradock in the Eastern Cape. He became involved in school while at Fort Hare University. He returned to his alma mater, Sam Xhallie Secondary, to teach mathematics and science. Together with another school-teacher in Cradock, John Hlekani, Goniwe founded a school later named Holomisa High School at Mqanduli in 1972, in the then Transkei.
Goniwe’s activism and outspokenness often made him a target of the apartheid security forces, which, on 27 June 1985, led to his brutal murder. Goniwe was with Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli who were to be known as the Cradock Four.