Stalwart gender rights activist and academic Dr Anshu Padayachee dies

Tributes are pouring in for gender rights activist, humanitarian and academic Dr Anshu Padayachee, who died on Tuesday night.

Durban-based Padayachee — who cofounded the Advice Desk for the Abused with judge Navi Pillay, former president of the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda — lost her battle with a long-term illness.

Many who knew Padayachee described her as “remarkable, compassionate and humble”.

The 1860 Heritage Centre said Padayachee played a leading role in various civil and academic positions in South African society.

Veteran journalist Devi Sankaree Govender paid tribute to her on her Facebook page saying she was “deeply saddened to hear of the passing of firebrand #AnshuPadayachee who played a major role in my life”.

“She is known for her work in higher education in the fields of technology, e-waste management, research and criminology. Hamba kahle, my friend. Your legacy lives on.”

According to an obituary Padayachee set up the Advice Desk for the Abused in 1986.

“It has provided crisis intervention for more than a million women.”

Under Padayachee's leadership the body became widely recognised for its work and has trained police, social workers and other NGOs.

The desk provides crisis intervention counselling telephonically or on-site for women (in the majority) based on alleged human rights violations.

Padayachee was the first South African black woman to obtain a PhD in the field of criminology and her dissertation on domestic violence was used extensively as a source guide for the promulgation of the prevention of Domestic Violence Act and the subsequent Domestic Violence Act.

She developed and designed three training manuals and training programmes in the area of domestic violence.

Apart from her gender-based violence work, Padayachee was involved in management, teaching and research at universities for more than three decades.

After her long stint as a senior lecturer in criminology at the former University of Durban Westville, she continued an illustrious career, appointed as deputy vice-chancellor (academic) at the then ML Sultan Technikon from 1998 to 2002 and acting vice-chancellor from 2001 to 2003.

Padayachee contributed to establishing entrepreneurship and skills programmes for universities and TVET colleges and a South African Qualifications Authority-accredited programme in waste management.

She helped establish electronic waste plants at six universities of technology.

Padayachee was also a leading figure in the academic and research-based communication among South African and Dutch senior and internationally respected research and academic staff in the discussion, planning, designing and implementation of the South Africa-Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD).

After the final agreement on the initiative, she was elected as CEO of the organisation.

SANPAD was a programme that fostered co-operation between South African and Dutch researchers, funded high-quality research relevant to development, and among the pioneering initiatives the most important were the research projects that focused on poverty reduction within several themes.

Padayachee became CEO of the Technological Higher Education Network South Africa (THENSA), in March 2016. She strongly believed the future of South Africa lay in the hands of educated youth.

Padayachee leaves behind her husband and children.

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