All honorary graduates
The university has bestowed high academic honours in the form of degrees awarded honoris causa on the following distinguished men and women.
The university has bestowed high academic honours in the form of degrees awarded honoris causa on the following distinguished men and women.
Doctor's degrees
Architecture | Commerce | Economic Sciences | Education | Fine Art | Laws | Literature | Medicine | Music | Philosophy | Science | Science in Engineering | Science in Medicine | Social Science
Master's degrees
Arts | Arts in Architecture | Business Administration | City Planning and Urban Design | Education | Fine Art | Music | Science | Science in Medicine | Social Science
| 2001 | Revel Albert Ellis Fox |
| 1998 | Julian Arnold Elliott |
| 2001 | Raymond Ackerman |
| 2001 | Wiseman Lumkile Nkuhlu |
| 2015 | Dr Johannes De Villiers Graaff |
| 2013 | Allan Gray |
| 2010 | Tito Mboweni David Lewis |
| 2006 | Amartya Kumar Sen |
| 2004 | Christopher Louis Sunter |
| 2000 | John Davan, Lord Sainsbury |
| 1997 | Michael John Levett |
| 1996 | William Gordon Bowen |
| 1993 | Sheila Terreblanche van der Horst |
| 1989 | Leonard George Abrahamse |
| 1986 | Samuel Mokgethi Motsuenyane |
| 1983 | Richard Samuel Sonnenberg |
| 2019 | Jonathan Jansen |
| 2018 | Brian Percival O’Connell |
| 2011 | Stella Petersen |
| 2010 | Victor Ritchie |
| 2009 | Richard Dudley |
| 1997 | Franklin Abraham Sonn |
| 1994 | Nomvula Mtetwa |
| 1984 | Alan Jay Pifer |
| 2016 | El Anatsui |
| 2012 | Marlene Dumas |
| 2001 | David Goldblatt |
| 2018 | Jennifer Yvonne Mokgoro |
| 2017 | Abdurrazak 'Zackie' Achmat |
| 2015 | Professor Kenneth Reid |
| 2015 | Ahmed Kathrada |
| 2015 | Thuli Madonsela |
| 2015 | Dikgang Moseneke |
| 2014 | William Daniel Carmichael |
| 2012 | Nicholas Haysom |
| 2010 | Judge Navi Pillay |
| 2010 | Baroness Lynda Chalker |
| 2008 | Advocate George Bizos |
| 2008 | Claire Palley |
| 2007 | Lord Steyn (Johan van Zijl Steyn) |
| 2007 | Aung San Suu Kyi |
| 2007 | Aung San Suu Kyi |
| 2007 | Pravin Gordhan |
| 2007 | Johan van Zijl Steyn |
| 2006 | Dennis Martin Davis |
| 2006 | Sir Bob AlexanderHepple |
| 2006 | Albert Louis Sachs |
| 2006 | Rheinhard Zimmermann |
| 2004 | Cheryl Ann Carolus |
| 2004 | Catherine Mary Elizabeth O'Regan |
| 2003 | Johannes Jacobus Fagan |
| 2002 | Kofi Annan |
| 2002 | Wallace Amos Mgoqi |
| 2001 | Pius Nkonzo Langa |
| 2000 | Jeffrey Jowell |
| 2000 | Nomaindia Mfeketo |
| 1999 | Ismail Mahomed |
| 1998 | Salim Ahmed Salim |
| 1997 | Colin Wells Eglin |
| 1997 | Frene Noshur Ginwala |
| 1997 | Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa |
| 1996 | Christopher John Robert Dugard |
| 1996 | Gerald Gordon |
| 1994 | Robert Feenstra |
| 1994 | Harold Jack Simons |
| 1993 | Richard Joseph Goldstone |
| 1993 | The Most Rev Desmond Mpilo Tutu |
| 1991 | Sheena Duncan |
| 1990 | Réne Marquard de Villiers |
| 1990 | John Mowbray Didcott |
| 1990 | Anthony Maurice Honoré |
| 1990 | Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela |
| 1989 | The Rt Rev Mmntlanyane Stanley Mogoba |
| 1988 | Hans Wilhelm Middelmann |
| 1987 | Sir Sydney Woolf Kentridge |
| 1986 | Helen Suzman |
| 1985 | Jan Hendrik Steyn |
| 1983 | Erwin Spiro |
| 1982 | Michael McGregor Corbett |
| 1981 | Paul van Warmelo |
| 1979 | Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi |
| 1979 | Ellison Kahn |
| 1979 | Anthony Edward Rupert |
| 1979 | Richard Ernest van der Ross |
| 1977 | Guerino Renzo Bozzoli |
| 1977 | David Pieter de Villiers |
| 1977 | William Harold Hutt |
| 1976 | Marius Anné Diemont |
| 1975 | Pieter Voltelyn Graham van der Byl |
| 1975 | Abraham Johannes van der Merwe |
| 1974 | Albertonie Herman Broeksma |
| 1974 | Marie Lydia Grant |
| 1974 | Newton Ogilvie Thompson |
| 1973 | Jacobus Petrus Duminy |
| 1971 | Joyce Thompson |
| 1969 | Stephen Henry Stackpole |
| 1968 | Clive Sinclair Corder |
| 1968 | Johannes Christiaan de Wet |
| 1968 | Sarel François Oosthuizen |
| 1968 | Sir Arnold Plant |
| 1968 | Francois Charles Robb |
| 1968 | The Hon Jacques Theodore van Wyk |
| 1965 | Henry Anderson Molteno |
| 1963 | William Fehr |
| 1962 | Margaret Livingstone Ballinger |
| 1962 | William Hofmeyr Craib |
| 1962 | Allan Farquhar Stephen |
| 1960 | Ernst Gideon Malherbe |
| 1959 | Jean Etienne de Villiers |
| 1959 | John Murray Murray |
| 1959 | Stefan Meiring Naudé |
| 1959 | Alfred Adrian Roberts |
| 1959 | Thomas Broun Smith |
| 1959 | George Wille |
| 1958 | Percival Carleton Gane |
| 1958 | The Hon Oliver Deneys Schreiner |
| 1957 | Hendrik Johannes van Eck |
| 1956 | Albert Victor Heron Carter |
| 1956 | Michiel Hendrik de Kock |
| 1955 | Edgar Harry Brookes |
| 1955 | Albert Schweitzer |
| 1955 | Nellie Brown Spilhaus |
| 1954 | Ernest Marshall Owen Clough |
| 1954 | Leopold Greenberg |
| 1953 | Alexander Butter McDonald |
| 1952 | Ralph Kilpin |
| 1951 | The Hon Albert van der Sandt Centlivres |
| 1951 | Sidney Warren Lavis |
| 1951 | Humphrey Rivas Raikes |
| 1950 | Martinus Christoffel Botha |
| 1950 | Alfred Aaron de Pass |
| 1950 | Maria Emmeline Fuller |
| 1950 | Henry Alford Moffat |
| 1948 | Arthur Wellesley Falconer |
| 1948 | Hermann Heinrich Kreft |
| 1948 | Lady Lilian Michaelis |
| 1948 | Gideon Brand van Zyl |
| 1947 | Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth |
| 1947 | Sidney Henry Haughton |
| 1945 | James Stevenson Hamilton |
| 1945 | Thomas Loveday |
| 1944 | Ernest Frederick Watermeyer |
| 1943 | Colin Graham Botha |
| 1943 | Gabriel Gideon Cillie |
| 1940 | William Duncan Baxter |
| 1940 | Edward Barnard Fuller |
| 1940 | William Gavan Bennie |
| 1940 | David Bennie Hewat |
| 1940 | Hendrik Johannes van der Byl |
| 1940 | Frederick Kilgour Wiener |
| 1939 | Sir John Carruthers Beattie |
| 1939 | The Rt Hon Sir Patrick Duncan |
| 1935 | William Henry Bell |
| 1934 | The Hon Frederick George Gardiner |
| 1934 | The Rev John Daniel Kestell |
| 1929 | John William Jagger |
| 1929 | Charles Edwardes Levis |
| 1929 | Sir Frederick Spencer Lister |
| 1929 | The Hon Daniel François Malan |
| 1929 | Sir William Henry Solomon |
| 1929 | Sir Walter Ernest Mortimer Stanford |
| 1929 | The Rev Johannes Petrus van Heerden |
| 1929 | Jane Elizabeth Waterston |
| 1927 | Sir John Gilbert Kotze |
| 1927 | The Rt Hon Sir James Rose-Innes |
| 1926 | The Hon Frances William Reitz |
| 1925 | HRH Edward, Prince of Wales |
| 1925 | The Rev Robert Laws |
| 1925 | The Rev Adriaan Moorrees |
| 1923 | Sir Maximilian Michaelis |
| 1923 | The Rev John Munro Russell |
| 1922 | Sir William Thomson |
| 1920 | Sir Otto Beit |
| 1920 | Viscount Buxton |
| 2016 | Janette Deacon |
| 2016 | Zoë Wicomb |
| 2016 | Francis Wilson |
| 2015 | Okwui Enwezor |
| 2015 | John Britten Wright |
| 2014 | William Kentridge |
| 2014 | David Fanning |
| 2014 | Henry Louis Gates Jr |
| 2013 | Daniel Kunene |
| 2012 | Zakes Mda |
| 2012 | Basil Jones |
| 2012 | Adrian Kohler |
| 2011 | Martin West |
| 2010 | Sir Antony Sher |
| 2010 | Janet Suzman |
| 2010 | Peter Magubane |
| 2007 | David Kramer |
| 2007 | Taliep Petersen |
| 2007 | David Kramer |
| 2007 | Taliep Petersen |
| 2006 | Bonisile John Kani |
| 2006 | David Lewis-Williams |
| 2006 | Thomas Tlou |
| 2003 | Es’kia Mphahlele |
| 2003 | Pieter-Dirk Uys |
| 2002 | Chinua Achebe |
| 2000 | Karel Schoeman |
| 2000 | Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka |
| 1999 | Richard Samuel Attenborough |
| 1998 | Leonard Monteath Thompson |
| 1995 | John Maxwell Coetzee |
| 1995 | Gert Johannes Gerwel |
| 1994 | Mendel Israel Kaplan |
| 1994 | Shula Eta Marks |
| 1993 | Robin Hallett |
| 1987 | Marthinus Versfeld |
| 1986 | Nadine Gordimer |
| 1985 | Harry Frederick Oppenheimer |
| 1984 | Athol Harold Lannigan Fugard |
| 1983 | Christian Frederick Beyers Naudé |
| 1983 | Samson Mbizo Guma |
| 1982 | Sir Richard Edmonds Luyt |
| 1980 | Izak David du Plessis |
| 1980 | Diederik Johannes Opperman |
| 1978 | Michael Gelfand |
| 1975 | Isaac Schapera |
| 1968 | Owen Cardinal McCann |
| 1968 | Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw |
| 1968 | Eric Anderson Walker |
| 1967 | Theodore Johannes Haarhoff |
| 1967 | Christiaan Gustav Waldemar Schumann |
| 1966 | Sir Keith Hancock |
| 1958 | Oswald St Clair |
| 1954 | Barend Batholomeus Keet |
| 1951 | Maria Elizabeth Rothmann |
| 1950 | Oscar John Soley Satchel |
| 1948 | Jacob Daniel du Toit |
| 1929 | Monsignor Frederick Charles Kolbe |
| 1929 | William Ritchie |
| 1922 | The Rev Johannes du Plessis |
| 2014 | Rodney Douglas |
| 2010 | Jerry Coovadia |
| 2002 | Siamon Gordon |
| 2001 | Frances Ames |
| 1998 | Hannah-Reeve Sanders |
| 1996 | Helen Annan Brown |
| 1990 | Maatje Vera Bührmann |
| 1989 | Robert Johannes Goetz |
| 1987 | Arthur Landau |
| 1987 | Golda Selzer |
| 1986 | Thomas Hamilton Bothwell |
| 1986 | Daniel Jakob du Plessis |
| 1984 | Leo Schamroth |
| 1982 | Jan Hendrik Louw |
| 2000 | Angelo Gobbato |
| 1996 | Lamar Crowson |
| 1996 | Abdullah Ibrahim |
| 1993 | Miriam Zenzi Makeba |
| 1982 | Ivy Priaulx Rainier |
| 1976 | Dulcie Joyce Lind Howes |
| 1972 | Arnoldus Christian Vlok van Wyk |
| 1965 | Hugh Travers Tracey |
| 1963 | Joseph Salvatore Manca |
| 1957 | Elsie Hall |
| 1948 | Theophil Otto Frederick Charles Wendt |
| 1941 | William Joseph Pickerill |
| 2003 | The Most Rev Njongonkulu Winston Hugh Ndungane |
| 2002 | Mark Shuttleworth |
| 1999 | Kader Asmal |
| 1999 | Graça Sinhala Machel |
| 2019 | Marlene Belfort |
| 2016 | Peter Folb |
| 2014 | Bernie Fanaroff |
| 2014 | Michael Thackeray |
| 2013 | Derek Yellon |
| 2012 | Jonathan Ellis |
| 2009 | Brian Warner |
| 2009 | George Ellis |
| 2008 | Jonathan Dorfan |
| 2008 | Lord Leonard Wolfson |
| 2008 | Lord Leonard Wolfson |
| 2007 | George Philander |
| 2007 | Samuel George Harker Philander |
| 2005 | Arnold Lewis Gordon |
| 2000 | Bernhard Banaschewski |
| 2000 | Wieland Gevers |
| 2000 | Trefor Jenkins |
| 1998 | Johann Carl Vogel |
| 1997 | Sir Aaron Klug |
| 1995 | Jacques Pierre Friedrich Sellschop |
| 1993 | Michael William Feast |
| 1990 | Charles Kimberlin Brain |
| 1990 | Christopher Friedrich Garbers |
| 1990 | Jean Mayer |
| 1988 | Frank Reginald Nunes Nabarro |
| 1988 | Phillip Vallentine Tobias |
| 1985 | John Desmond Clark |
| 1985 | Jacobus Stephanus de Wet |
| 1984 | William Sage Rapson |
| 1982 | Arthur Kipps |
| 1979 | Christiaan van der Merwe Brink |
| 1979 | John Fleming Brock |
| 1979 | Jack Nicol Coetzee |
| 1979 | Niko Stutterheim |
| 1976 | Richard Hugh Stoy |
| 1976 | Trevor Lloyd Wadley |
| 1974 | Gert Johannes Stander |
| 1972 | Guy Abercrombie Elliot |
| 1968 | Robert Harold Compton |
| 1968 | Cecily Kathleen Niven |
| 1968 | Henry Olivier |
| 1968 | Sir Richard van der Riet Woolley |
| 1967 | Christiaan Neethling Barnard |
| 1967 | Andries Charles Cilliers |
| 1955 | Raymond Albert Alexander |
| 1955 | Terence MacLeale Salter |
| 1953 | Adrianus Pijper |
| 1952 | Gilbert Westacott Reynolds |
| 1945 | Basil Ferdinand Jamieson Schonland |
| 1944 | Alexander Logie du Toit |
| 1943 | Petrus Johann du Toit |
| 1935 | Alexander Ogg |
| 1935 | Sir Arnold Theiler |
| 1935 | Robert Burns Young |
| 1931 | Jan Christiaan Smuts |
| 1930 | Henry Georges Fourcade |
| 1929 | Othenio Abel |
| 1929 | Abbé Henri Edouard Prosper Breuil |
| 1929 | Robert Broom |
| 1929 | Henry Clay |
| 1929 | Willem de Sitter |
| 1929 | Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr |
| 1929 | Erich Kaiser |
| 1929 | Rudolf Marloth |
| 1929 | John Todd Morrison |
| 1929 | Lord Rutherford |
| 1929 | Albert Charles Seward |
| 1929 | Josef Georg von Hevesy |
| 1929 | David Meredith Seares Watson |
| 1926 | Willem Cornelis van der Sterr |
| 1925 | Sir Robert Nelson Kotze |
| 1923 | Arthur William Rogers |
| 1921 | Sir Thomas Muir |
Doctor of Science in Engineering
| 2019 | Georges Belfort David Roger Jones Owen Denis Goldberg |
| 2013 | Klaus-Jürgen Bathe |
| 2011 | David Potter |
| 2007 | Mark Eberhard Dry |
| 1999 | John Brand Martin |
| 1995 | Algernon Charles Liebenberg |
| 1943 | Alfred Dale Lewis |
| 2014 | Salim Abdool Karim |
| 2012 | David Sanders |
| 2008 | Eric Goemaere |
| 2005 | Mahomed Fareed Aboobaker Abdullah |
| 1999 | Sidney Cywes |
| 1998 | Ralph George Hendrickse |
| 1993 | Sir Raymond Hoffenberg |
| 1992 | John Derek Lindsell Hansen |
| 1988 | Stuart John Saunders |
| 2011 | Mary Burton |
| 2009 | Gavin Mooney |
| 2008 | Archie Mafeje Lillian Cingo |
| 2005 | Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu |
| 2004 | Alexander Lionel Boraine |
| 2004 | Kurt Danziger |
| 2003 | Kathryn Frieda Jagoe |
| 2001 | Mamphela Aletta Ramphele |
| 1996 | Philip Alford Potter |
| 1994 | Johannes Jacobus Fourie Durand |
| 1993 | John Christopher Hall |
| 1993 | Bonginkosi Meshack Radebe |
| 1988 | Denis Eugene Hurley |
| 1985 | Leonard Read |
| 1981 | Oscar David da Fonseca Wollheim |
| 1980 | William James Belt Slater |
| 2002 | Vincent Kolbe |
| 1989 | Max Coleman |
| 1961 | Reginald Frank Kennedy |
| 1945 | Evelyn Mary Pike |
| 1940 | Edgar Orphan Vaughan |
| 1935 | George Benjamin Kipps |
Master of Arts in Architecture
| 1936 | Franklin Kaye Kendall |
Master of Business Administration
| 1996 | William Marshall Smith |
Master of City Planning and Urban Design
| 1996 | David Stanley Jack |
| 1995 | Ntobsie Daphne Moletsane |
| 1994 | Makonza Ngambu |
| 1990 | Peter Anderson |
| 1958 | John Scott Ivan McGregor |
| 1951 | Walter George Amos Mears |
| 1944 | William Henry Hemer |
| 2005 | Johann Clemens Porer |
| 1993 | Cecil Skotnes |
| 1992 | Hyme Rabinowitz |
| 1990 | Artemisio Paganini |
| 1989 | Elsie Elizabeth Esterhuysen |
| 1974 | Charles Gordon Campbell Dickson |
| 1973 | George Alfred Harding |
| 1960 | Arthur Cecil Harrison |
| 1955 | Alfred John Elven Gibbs |
| 1953 | Wilfred John Copenhagen |
| 2003 | Hamilton Naki |
| 2005 | Lucas Radebe |
| 2002 | Abdurrazack Achmat |
| 2002 | Dorothy Cleminshaw |
| 1996 | Margaret Elsworth |
| 1994 | Ruth Noel Robb |
| 1993 | Friday Mandla Mavuso |
| 1992 | Max du Preez |
| 1990 | Ivy Gcina |
| 1990 | Dorothy Zihlangu |