On 12 December 2023, Janis Grobbelaar, University of Pretoria Emeritus Professor of Sociology passed away at the age of 74.

Born in Cape Town, Janis grew up in Goodwood. Her father a qualified apprentice, was a successful businessman and councillor affiliated to the National Party. He passed away in her matric year, but remained a strong influence as he encouraged her independent thought. In 1970 Janis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from UCT. She completed her BA Honours (1973) and MA in Sociology at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1974 she served as a researcher for the Erika Theron Commission inquiry into matters relating to the coloured population group. Her MA thesis (1980) was titled “A sociological analysis of the coloured management committee system in Grahamstown”.

Janis started her lecturing career at the University of the Western Cape in 1975. Dr Yvonne Muthien, reflecting on her undergraduate experience at UWC, states that “UWC gave us a liberation struggle training outside the classroom, alongside our academic training. Among the lecturers there were pockets of radicalism – Jakes Gerwel, Adam Small, Janis Grobbelaar, Jimmy Ellis and Fanie Sonn. We …prided ourselves in our critical thinking, reading, critical reasoning and debates.” (UWC 360, Issue 7, December 2013 p13).

In 1980 Janis took up a position at the University of South Africa, bringing her passion for teaching, as well as her sustained interest in societal transformation and social justice, which she had honed at the University of the Western Cape along. She played a key role in the recirculating courses and introducing a Marxist perspective to analyse societal issues alongside systems theory and humanism.  The Unisa department was characterised by lively internal debate conceptually and substantively, with an awareness that it was the institution of last resort in the higher education sphere.

In the mid to late 1980s, Janis broke new ground by interrogating ‘white power’, from an insider’s perspective. At the time, some progressive academics raised concerns that she may legitimise their positions by studying them. However, drawing on her biography and intimate knowledge of Afrikaner nationalism, Janis combined documentary analysis and ethnographic observation with in-depth qualitative interviews to highlight nuances in white right-wing politics and mobilisation. To this she brought a keen analytical eye and sound theoretical understanding in her ground-breaking research to demonstrate the limits to ‘white power’ within the South African context in the late apartheid-era. She obtained her doctorate from the University of South Africa in 1991 with a thesis titled “Ultra right-wing Afrikaners: a sociological analysis”. Her inaugural lecture presented at Unisa, was titled “Afrikaner nationalism: the end of a dream?”  

In 1994 she was seconded to the IEC as Deputy Provincial Electoral Officer for the Pretoria sub-province, responsible for setting up logistics for the first democratic election based on universal franchise in South Africa. Between April 1996 and January 1998, she was seconded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where she served as Information Manager for the Johannesburg regional office, which processed almost a third of all statements on gross human rights violations collected by the commission. She played a key role in designing the methodology to record statements and to build systems to manage the data and a sizeable office, as well as, the responsibility to liaise with political parties, the state, the media and the public.

Janis took up her position as Head of Department at UP in September 2001 and set out to revitalise the teaching programme in Sociology at UP and rebuild the Department. With the merging of Mamelodi VISTA with UP, she took a strong stand against racial ghettoization and lobbied to integrate students from the Mamelodi campus into the main campus student body. Prof Maria Marchetti-Mercer, who took up the headship of Psychology at the same time as Janis was appointed, called her a mentor and friend, always willing to listen and give advice, adding “What I always admired about her was her fierce honesty and her unshakeable sense of integrity, she was never afraid to speak her mind if she felt an injustice was being done.” She retired at the end of 2014.

Another key matter for her was teaching. She felt that undergraduate training should provide a solid foundation, so she insisted on taking the first-year classes in the first semester. She subscribed to the notion that common sense ideas need to be debunked and that sociology is a subversive discipline and that student’s minds should be freed from their preconceived ideas to develop a sociological imagination and critical engagement with social issues. Her charisma drew many students to the discipline. As one student Angela Ochse commented to me on hearing the news of her passing “Janis was a strong influence in my academic years and such a strong proponent of South African sociology. A stubborn character and a legend for anyone who did SOC110 back in the day! I will cheer to her memory with a sundowner tonight.” I think Janis, the oenophile, would have liked the last part of that statement, especially. Stephens Skosana a former student said the following about Janis “For me, you were more than a lecturer or HOD, you were my academic parent. Your love and support for your students went far beyond the walls of the lecture hall. …I remember you as a very strict disciplinarian who always encouraged academic excellence and hard-work from her students. Hadn’t it been of your work ethic, discipline and inspiration imparted on me, I wouldn’t have been where I am today.” With Janis there were no half-measures, she gave and expected a lot. At work Janis had a forceful, fearless presence, she exuded gravitas, being strict, yet caring. Behind the fortified front presented to the outer world, there was a small heart, which showed compassion to those who suffered, or struggled.

Besides her students, Janis also had an impact on many colleagues.  Dr Liela Groenewald who worked with her at the TRC wrote “Rus in vrede, vurige liewe Janis”. Amanda Oelofse, a former secretary at the department, recalled at Janis’s retirement how Janis made every day an occasion, and how she supported secretaries who were appointed in a temporary capacity in five-eighth posts to obtain better conditions of service. Professor Abdi Samitar (University of Minnesota) sent the following message at her retirement: “Janis is the embodiment of post-apartheid transformation for she has lived that type of life for many decades before 1994. …I have known Janis since 1997 and never have seen her slip in her ethics and fortitude. The University, the faculty, and the department were fortunate to have such a caring and dedicated scholar and teacher. In my assessment she is a model of a citizen and scholar-teacher.”

After retirement Janis remained active in the public sphere. She took up a ministerial appointment on the Tshwane University of Technology Council (2015 to 2017), and served on the Board of the of the Afrikaanse Taalmuseum and Monument for two terms, starting in 2015. She was also on the Advisory Board of Whites Writing Whiteness, an online digitized repository of letters, domestic figurations, and representations of whiteness in South Africa, 1770s to 1970s.

I would like to conclude with a short poem written by Prof Corne Alant, past HoD at Unisa, given to Janis on the day she started her tenure at UP, as I think it so accurately captures her stance to Sociology. It is titled “Brekvis met Janis”

Na soveel jare

krummel

en

ontleed

vanmôre

met Janis

saam ge-eet

soveel vrae

minder weet

bly ons die lewe

stuk – stuk

meet

Farewell Janis, may you rest in peace.

Dr Charles Puttergill

Senior Lecturer

Department of Sociology

Faculty of Humanities