media releases - Unisa to honour Steve Biko with re-launch of his 'Black Review'

The University of South Africa (Unisa) will honour the memory of South African struggle hero, the late Steve Biko, with a re-launch of Black Review, a publication he co-founded and launched in 1972 as an alternative form of medium that provided important material for the attention of the broad political leadership and to assess the state of affairs in the country with special regard to the furtherance of the ideals of freedom.    

The details of the re-launch of the publication, published by Unisa Press in collaboration with the Unisa Foundation, will be announced during Unisa’s Steve Biko Day Commemoration to be held on Wednesday, 12 September 2012.

Professor Ben Khoapa, a renowned South African educationist, retired scholar, board member of the Steve Biko Foundation and the man who co-founded and published Black Review with Biko, will deliver the keynote address at the event.  

Celebrated South African musical icon, Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse will also perform in honour of Steve Biko.

The media is invited to the event. The details are as follows:

Date                 :           Wednesday, 12 September 2012

Time                 :           14:00 for 14:30

Venue               :           4^th floor, Kgorong Building, Preller Street, Unisa Muckleneuk

Campus, Tshwane

Profile of Professor Ben Khoapa

Professor Ben Khoapa was born on April 21, 1935 in Matatiele, Eastern Cape. He boasts a distinguished career in higher education from both South Africa and abroad. Over the years, he served in various capacities at the Durban University of Technology and its predecessor, Natal Technikon, where he was Vice Chancellor and led its merger with ML Sultan Technikon.

His international work experience includes being Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the Grand Valley State University in Michigan, USA and Visiting Professor at the National University of Lesotho. Professor Khoapa obtained his MSc in Social Administration from the School of Applied Social Science in Cleveland, Ohio in the USA and his PhD in Social Welfare from the Case Western Reserve University, also in the USA.

He is a member of various professional associations, including President of the Durban YMCA, member of the Board of Trustees of the Steve Biko Foundation and the Umtapo Centre, which he helped found with Strini Moodley after Biko’s death. His numerous publications and presentations range from matters pertaining to social work, education, cultural diversity, social change as well as poverty and inequality.

He and Biko founded, among others, the series of Black Review publications and were the force behind the hugely popular Black Community Programmes, a leading socio-economic developmental entity aligned to the Black Consciousness (Liberation) Movement, which spurred the oppressed black masses into the self-reliance mode in the 1970s.

Although a retired scholar, Prof Khoapa continues to play various roles in the transformation processes within the Higher Education circles and is still active in community programmes.

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