During a life lived with deep intent and unrelenting purpose, Dr Mayekiso touched the hearts of many and contributed profoundly to the advancement of knowledge, public policy, and institutional transformation.
His passing is a tragic loss not only to Nelson Mandela University, where he served with distinction, but to our country and to the global academic and environmental science communities.
A highly decorated marine scientist, he held a PhD in Marine Estuarine Environmental Science from the University of Maryland, USA.
He amassed accolades and assumed leadership roles that made him a national and international figure in ocean governance, environmental policy, and scientific diplomacy.
From the White Paper on Marine Fisheries in 1997 to the landmark Marine Living Resources Act of 1998, his fingerprints are on some of the most important environmental policy frameworks of our time.
For all this, he remained humble. A father and teacher at heart, Dr Mayekiso invested in the next generation - leading human advancement initiatives that created opportunity for young South Africans abroad to study at leading universities and to thrive. He was as committed to building human capacity and to spreading hope, as he was to building public policy and ethical frameworks.
His academic legacy is matched only by the values he lived by—discipline, curiosity, integrity, and compassion. He brought not only technical brilliance to the fore, but a rare kind of wisdom that balanced rigour with empathy, strategy with humanity and critique with empathy.
To his family and all his loved ones - we say thank you. Thank you for sharing this extraordinary man with us. Thank you for allowing him the time, space, and support to contribute so significantly to the development of our university, our nation, and the global community.
As we remember him, let us recommit ourselves to the ideals he held so dearly. Let us continue to fight for equity in education, for stewardship of our natural resources, for evidence-based policy, and for a society rooted in justice and human dignity.
Dr Mayekiso’s footprints are etched in the shorelines and the ecosystems he worked to protect, in the progressive policies he helped craft, in the young minds he mentored, and in the institutional memory of this Nelson Mandela University.
To borrow from utat’ uMqhayi, ngazwi’ nye sithi
Hamba ke ntondini kaBaw’ uMayekiso sikuvumele,
Wasa kusilibal’ aph’ e Nyangwaneni
Rest in eternal peace.
Chair of Council of the Nelson Mandela University on behalf of Council