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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Meeting Heros

The Honorable Derek Hanekom
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As a personal aside to my trip to South Africa, I had the pleasure and honour of sharing a table at dinner with Derek Hanekom on Thursday evening along with many others.

While I'm sure he'd be embarrassed to be described as such, he's one of the heros of the reconciliation miracle in South Africa. He served in Mandela's cabinet as Land and Agriculture Minister after returning from exile in Zimbabwe where he and his wife retreated after their abuse at the hands of the apartheid regime for supporting the ANC.

He's now deputy minister for science and technology (although of course that's all subject to flux) and I was impressed by his grasp both of ODF and software freedom issues. He's also clearly not afraid to to action when he sees a problem.

As Phil Zimbardo reminds us in his TED Talk and book, we are all heroes in waiting, but it's not often one gets to meet someone who took the unappealing yet appropriate fork in the road when offered.

posted at 3:21 PM (UK) | |