Graduand David Makola, whose doctorate will be conferred posthumously, made a profound impact in the lives of many.
Makola, who joined the Information Technology Department in the Faculty of Informatics and Design more than 20 years ago, passed away in January due to Covid-19 complications.
He will be one of 36 postgraduate graduands whose journey to graduation will be celebrated during a virtual pre-graduation ceremony by the Faculty of Informatics and Design on June 25th.
In a recent tribute to Makola, colleague and friend Dr Retha de la Harpe recalled how their paths crossed more than two decades ago when Makola visited Johannesburg with his colleague.
“At that stage I was a lecturer at Technikon SA teaching Development Software 1 to more than 1000 students through distance education. Typically, the students struggled, in most cases being isolated. I noticed that there was a group of students who performed very well and they were all from Bethel College in a small village in the Eastern Cape. I found out that David Makola was their lecturer.”
Makola applied for a lecturer position at the institution in 2000.
“I joined Cape Technikon in 1997 and when David applied for a lecturer position in 2000 I told the then Head of Department that they want David because he is an excellent teacher. Since he joined Cape Technikon, now CPUT, 20 years ago I know that the many students taught by him would have the best foundation for their IT qualification. The tributes from many students are a testimony of his input in their lives.”
She said Makola had to overcome many personal and work challenges but “remained the person we knew as husband to his wife, father to his children and grandfather to his grandchildren, father to his adopted children, taking care of his family and an elder in his church”.
“He made the people in his life a priority and for example, made the effort to visit me after I had my stroke.”
Makola’s thesis for his DTech in Informatics is titled: An integration of community informatics and enterprise architecture in ICT projects for rural communities: A case study in Grabouw, Western Cape, South Africa.
“When David decided to do his doctorate we considered many options because he chose a difficult topic - but he persevered and provided convincing arguments that Enterprise Architecture – a business and government concept, should also benefit communities in compromised contexts,” said De la Harpe.
His supervisor, Dr Andre de la Harpe, who knew him for about a decade, described Makola as a hardworking colleague and a quiet and humble student.
“I had to tell him many times that he is good, that his work is good. Initially, nobody believed in David’s research. We had so many problems getting his proposal approved but then…he did it. He did his fieldwork with rigour. He went as far as to go and live in the community he was using as a case. He did his research so well that his three external examiners could not stop praising his work in terms of his theoretical contribution, his methodological contribution and his practical contributions. A true academic, a real Doctor of Technology.”
Written by Ilse Fredericks
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