On Monday, 5 May 2025 the University of Zululand (UNIZULU) honoured legal giant Advocate Frederick Mzawuvuke Muzi Sikhakhane with a Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa.
This degree was conferred in acknowledgement of the senior council’s immense contribution to the legal field and the role he plays in fighting for the rights of the marginalised.
Ahead of the conferment, UNIZULU Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Xoliswa Mtose, mentioned that Advocate Sikhakhane was an obvious choice when the UNIZULU Council deliberated on candidates who were deserving of receiving honorary doctorates this year.
She unequivocally stated that the law graduates who were present during the ceremony would gain a wealth of knowledge from the advocate’s address, especially in terms of the senior council’s analysis and views on justice in the country.
Augmenting Prof Mtose’s statement, Prof David Mabunda, Chair of UNIZULU Council, said he felt honoured to have presided over a ceremony in which an honorary degree was awarded to a deserving candidate who continues to shape the nation in an unprecedented manner.
He proceeded to address Dr Sikhakhane, saying: “We salute you for your unwavering pursuit of justice, fearless advocacy for constitutionalism and human rights which have left an indelible mark on the legal profession and society at large. You are as symbol of integrity and a voice for the voiceless. Through this honorary degree, we honour not just your achievements but the values you stand for.
“These values were laid bare in your recently published book, Odyssey of Liberation: A Memoir of a Rebel Advocate, where you call upon all sections of society to rise against the injustices that have been vested upon us. You lament how in the last 30 years, post-1994, we have traded the future of our children for 30 pieces of silver and we seem to be okay with all shenanigans and wrongdoings under the disguise of democracy.”
In his address, Dr Sikhakhane first expressed his gratitude to the university for the “generous conferment”. He jokingly added that his previous understanding of the awarding of honorary doctorates was that it was an honour bestowed upon older men and women who are “enroute to their grave”.
Switching to a more serious tone, the honorary doctor then implored his fellow graduates to be a generation that will leave behind the chains of slavery, inferiority, spiritual vacuousness, cowardice and fear of confronting the boulders thrown along the path of African people to true liberation.
“I want us to be the generation that left behind the chains that tied our parents. We are the generation that will start the new journey, create enemies, storms. We are the generation that will start climbing mountains. That commitment always generates resistance; creates enemies for you,” he said.
To newly qualified lawyers, Dr Sikhakhane underscored the essence of choosing to uphold justice over the lure of money and comfort. He reminded them that it is the disliked, forgotten and hated that need advocacy the most.
“I therefore challenge you as students today and challenge this university that it must be the center of the pedagogy of liberation unashamedly,” he concluded.
Dr Sikhakhane is a practicing advocate and senior counsel. He is the inaugural Chairperson and founding member of the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa (PABASA), the very first African Bar of advocates. After a number of years as an ordinary member of PABASA, he was recently, once more, elected to the chairpersonship of PABASA. He also founded a group of advocates known as Victoria Mxenge, which is still a part of the Johannesburg Bar and named after his childhood heroine and political mentor, Mrs Victoria Mxenge, who was brutally murdered by apartheid assassins in August 1985.
– Naledi Hlefane
Pictures: James Thwala
