It is difficult to interpret UCT's invitation to President Thabo Mbeki to deliver the Steve Biko Memorial Lecture this year as other than an act of sycophancy.

This is inevitable, I suspect, when such an invitation is bestowed upon an incumbent head of state.

Moreover, the choice of Mbeki himself is hardly uncontroversial.

One could surely be forgiven for thinking that Mbeki's appalling handling of both the AIDS pandemic and the crisis in Zimbabwe would count against his candidacy for such an occasion?

Dr Elisa Galgut
Dept of Philosophy