An Honorary Doctorate was bestowed upon acclaimed entrepreneur and phenomenal woman Wendy Yvonne Luhabe during yesterday’s graduation ceremony held at the Durban University of Technology’s Pietermaritzburg campus yesterday, 12 April 2012.

Luhabe, whose long-standing record of excellence in business has been instrumental in women empowerment and youth development in South Africa was “deeply honoured to be amongst the four recipients of the Honorary Doctorate conferred by DUT this year.”

Luhabe also boast Honorary Doctorates from the University of Fort Hare as well as the University of Stellenbosch. Her outstanding accolades include working for Vanda Cosmetics and the BMW Group.

She served as Chairman of Vendome SA, the Industrial Development and the International Marketing Council responsible for Brand South Africa. She recently stepped down from the aforementioned positions and currently invests her energy on initiatives aimed at youth development.

She is a founding member of Patron for Student Sponsorship Program, which has enabled more than 500 academically distinguished students from impoverished backgrounds to access private school education. The world is at economic crossroads and we live in a generation of moral deterioration. It is for these reasons that Luhabe said South Africa needs righteous leaders in all spheres of society.

She urged the graduates of the Faculty of Management Sciences to strive to become such leaders. “You should become authors of hope for future generations. Replace self-doubt and self-loathing with self-love and self esteem,” she said.

Congratulating the graduates on reaching this milestone, she said, “May each of your lives blossom beyond your wildest dreams. May you be the generation we’ve been waiting for”, she said.

The posthumous Honorary Doctorate was conferred to Professor Lewis Nkosi. This was accepted by Professor Nkosi’s Literary Executor Professor Astrid Starck-Adler.
–Naledi Hlefane