DOCTOR OF SCIENCE (HONORIS CAUSA)
Paul du Plessis Kruger was born in Cradock in 1937 and matriculated at Gill College in Somerset East in 1954. After a year as a trainee officer at the Western Reefs goldmine, he received a bursary from the Chamber of Mines.
In 1959 he qualified as a mining engineer at the University of the Witwatersrand. He then returned for a brief period to the goldmining industry, as well as doing a stint at the asbestos mines in the North-Western Cape. In 1973 he obtained the MBL degree through Unisa's School of Business Leadership, for which he received an Old Mutual merit award. In 1986 he attended the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University in the USA.
Paul Kruger began working as a technical assistant at Sasol's Sigma Coal Mine in 1964. His dynamic personality and exceptional organising ability did not go unnoticed, so much so that he advanced rapidly to the position of mine manager of the Sigma Coal Mine. In the early years of the Sasol Two project in 1974, he was entrusted with the responsibility to explore for coal to determine where the Secunda Coal Mines would be established. He also had to undertake the planning and further project stage of the Secunda Coal Mines and the commissioning of Sasol Two. During the period of establishing Secunda he was also responsible for the development of the town, as well as for the extracurricular function of helping build up a community.
From the beginning of 1982 he was responsible for all three of the oil· from-coal operations - Sasol One, Sasol Two and Sasol Three - and, together with the same portfolio, was also appointed Executive Director of Sasol Limited from 1 January 1986. On 1 March 1987 he was appointed Managing Director of Sasol Limited with executive responsibility for the Sasol group.
Paul Kruger serves on the boards of various Sasol companies. He is a member of the Council of the Rand Afrikaans University; a member of the Council of the South Africa Britain Trade Association; a Council Member of the South Africa Foundation; chairman of the Board of the CSIR. He serves on the Advisory Committees of the Stellenbosch Technopark and the School of Business Management at the University of Pretoria. He serves on the panel of energy advisers to the Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs; he is a Trustee member of the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut and a member of the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns.
Nature conservation is among his various hobbies, and he jogs for fitness.
He and his wife Gina (nee Claassen) have two daughters, Greta and Ciska.
It is indeed fitting that the University of Port Elizabeth, which shares its Eastern Cape origins with Paul du Plessis Kruger, should also give him recognition for his excellent contribution towards establishing the oilfrom-coal industry in South Africa. For the Senate and Council of the University of Port Elizabeth it is an honour to confer the degree of Doctor Scientiae, honoris causa, upon Paul du Plessis Kruger.