The Life and Times of a Learned Jackal for Justice

Abstract

Noscitur a sociis. You are known by the company you keep. Aan jou vriende word jy geken.

If this saying holds, my friends, then I, your guest of honour at this auspicious occasion, am a human being beyond compare, and perhaps even a semblance of the laureate so profusely showered with your praises today. However, acceding to honest introspection, I fully reckon with the possibility that the proverb may be amiss and at any rate not applicable to me. But let me first speak the following words in bold before I say anything more: “My friends, thank you, simply but sincerely, for your unfaltering camaraderie through the years, as together we negotiated the labyrinth that is académe; for your enthusiasm to walk many an extra mile with me and, in sum, for your amicable and caring involvement in the fulfilment of what to me has been a thoroughly gratifying career (so far).