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Professor Emeritus of Law, University of South Africa

Prof Nyameko Barney Pityana is Professor emeritus of Law, University of South Africa; Visiting Honorary Professor, Allan Gray Institute for Ethical Leadership, Department of Philosophy, Rhodes University; and Deputy President: Academy of Science South Africa (ASSAf).

Professor Pityana is the former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa) as well as the former Rector of the College of the Transfiguration, Grahamstown. He was Chairperson of Higher Education South Africa and Chairman of the African Council for Distance Education.

In 2002, he was appointed as a fellow of King's College London and in the same year, he was given an honourable mention in the 2002 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's Prize for Human Rights Education.

Throughout his life, Nyameko Barney Pityana has remained focused on the fight for human rights and the battle against racism. His life reflects a determined effort to end racism and injustice. Through his endeavours and example, he has embodied an unshakeable commitment to building a free, non-racial and just society and world.

Pityana obtained his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Cape Town in 1995 and was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa in February 1996. He holds honorary degrees from Trinity College, Hartford (1996) and from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (1999). The Psychology Society of South Africa awarded him life membership in 2000. In 2001, he was awarded the Tribute Achievers Award for Leadership.