JOBURG – The City of Joburg is deeply saddened by the passing of Nadine Gordimer at her Johannesburg home on 13 July.
The City wishes to extend its sincerest condolences to her family, friends and the entire South African literary and academic community. Nadine Gordimer was born in Springs on the East Rand in 1923 and moved to Johannesburg to study at Wits University briefly. She has lived in Joburg since 1948.
Gordimer, former journalist, anti-apartheid activist, world-renowned author and Nobel Prize winner for literature (1991), is the first South African to bag a Nobel Prize for literature and she’s always been a pathfinder.
She received an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from the University of Witwatersrand in 1984 in recognition of her immense contribution to literature and the transformation of South African society.
“We have lost a true literary activist,” said the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Councillor Mpho Parks Tau. “She was one of the great South African writers and one of the world’s most esteemed literary figures.”
Last year, the City of Johannesburg honoured Nadine Gordimer – along with her contemporary and literary giant, Mirriam Tladi with the Siyabakhumbula Awards,in recognition of her body of work and her role in the literary world – putting the country and, the City in particular, on the map.
The awards are the brainchild of poet and musician, Mzwakhe Mbuli and were hosted by the City of Johannesburg. The awards are meant to honour and remember icons in sports, media, the arts, humanitarians and ordinary people who did extraordinary things for which they hardly received any appreciation.
