Born in Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1954, His Excellency, Geoff Doidge, is South African Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Thailand, and will be giving a public lecture at the Stenden Auditorium at 6pm tonight. All welcome.
The former political activist of then-banned ANC served in Parliament under Nelson Mandela in 1994, and served on the Constituent Assembly that wrote the South African Constitution adopted in 1996.
He was also involved in the passing of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation (TRC) Act.
He has also represented Parliament on several UN agencies and served on international NGOs.
He was Cabinet Minister of Public Works in 2008 and resigned from Parliament in 2010.
In 2011 he became South Africa’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, and shared South Africa’s experiences of how we transitioned from apartheid South Africa, through a negotiated settlement that led to a Constitutional Democracy.
“My passion is to promote transitional justice in post conflict countries,” he said in his curriculum vitae. “I am a firm believer of accountability and restorative justice as opposed to retributive justice.”
He is married to Carol and they have four (adult) children.