A budding author bold enough to have sent his manuscript to Dr Samuel Johnson for appraisal received a reply, so the story goes, in these terms: ‘Sir. Your work is both original and good. Unfortunately the part that is good is not original. And the part that is original is not good. I find it difficult to say anything new or original about the lovable man whose life we celebrate this afternoon and whose memory we thus keep alive. For so much has been said in the tributes previously paid to him, tributes testifying to the place he occupied in the hearts of countless South Africans. What is good should prove easier, however, when it is said of someone whom, at the ceremony held in court soon after his death, Ralph Zulman described, simply and truly, as a good man. So, be it said how it may, what I shall say today about Ernie Wentzel feels good to say. Unless someone who is now a lawyer was acquainted with Ernie during his childhood or schooldays, I can rightly claim, I believe, that none still around knew him for more years than I did. Our long friendship may explain why John Dugard honoured me with the invitation to deliver this lecture. It was certainly my reason for accepting the invitation with alacrity. Ernie and I first met each other 37 years ago, in 1951, when he entered the University of Cape Town, where I too was a student. I happened to be his senior by two years. But I soon got to know him well, for we had a lot in common. We were both enthusiastic student politicians. And we were in the same camp. Our time together on the campus was one of turmoil, not as acute as that which campuses have experienced subsequently, but intense nonetheless since, in addition to all the other strife of the period, the Universities of Cape T own and the W itwatersrand were under an attack that was constant and fierce for their policy of admitting students of every race, and they faced the threat of legislation forbidding them to accept any who was not white without official pennission.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:30178 |
| Date | 04 October 1988 |
| Creators | Didcott, J M |
| Publisher | University of the Witwatersrand, Centre for Applied Legal Studies |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, book |
| Format | 17 pages, pdf |
| Rights | University of the Witwatersrand, No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publisher |
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