The Order of Mapungubwe is South Africa's highest honour. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and is granted by the president of South Africa, for achievements in the international area which have served South Africa's interests. The order originally had three classes, and was enlarged to four in 2004: Jump to: navigation, search December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2002(MMII) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, universities, and countries. ...

• Platinum (OMP), for exceptional and unique achievements,
• Gold (OMG), for exceptional achievements,
• Silver (OMS), for excellent achievements,
• Bronze (OMB), for outstanding achievements.

The order is named after Mapungubwe, an ancient African nation which existed a thousand years ago in what is now the northern part of the Limpopo province. Mapungubwe was a city in southern Africa, flourishing from AD 1000 to AD 1300, that marked the center of a pre-Shona kingdom. ...

The badge is a horizontal oval above an inverted trapezium. Inside the oval frame is depicted a golden rhinoceros with the sun rising above Mapungubwe hill in the background. The convex upper edge of the trapezium is decorated with a beadwork pattern and the sides are edged with sceptres. In the centre is an ornate crucible from which molten gold flows down to a red furnace. The South African coat of arms is displayed on the reverse. The South African coat of arms was designed and first unveiled in 2000 and replaced an earlier design that had served the country since 1910. ...

The ribbon is gold, edged with a line of cream-coloured bead-like dots along each edge, and recurring cream-coloured rhinoceros silhouettes down the centre. All four classes are worn around the neck.

The first recipient of the order (in the Platinum class) was ex-president Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, (born 18 July 1918) is a former President of South Africa, was one of its chief anti-apartheid activists, and was also an anti-apartheid saboteur and guerrilla leader. ...

Recipients

2002

• Nelson Mandela - Platinum (national reconciliation and nation-building)
• Allan Cormack - Gold (scientist credited for co-inventing the cat-scan)
• FW de Klerk - Gold (national reconciliation and nation-building)
• Basil Schonland - Gold (physicist and founding president of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research)
• Peter Beighton - Bronze (research into the inherited disorders of the skeleton)
• Hamilton Naki - Bronze (medical science)

Jump to: navigation, search Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, (born July 18, 1918), was the first democratically elected President of South Africa, having previously been a prominent anti-apartheid activist there. ... Allan McLeod Cormack (February 1924 - May 7, 1998) was a South Africa-born American physicist who shared a part of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan. ... President F.W. de Klerk Frederik Willem de Klerk (born March 18, 1936) is a former President of South Africa, serving from September 1989 to May 1994. ... The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is South Africas central and premier scientific research and development organization. ... Hamilton Naki (26 June 1926 – 29 May 2005) was a member of the team led by Dr Christiaan Barnard that undertook the worlds first heart transplantation at Groote Schuur Hospital, South Africa, in 1967. ...

2004

• Sydney Brenner - Gold (medical science)
• Tshilidzi Marwala - Bronze (engineering science)
• Batmanathan Dayanand Reddy - Bronze (mathematics and science)

Sydney Brenner,CH (born 1927 January 13) is a British biologist active in the United States. ...

2005

• John Maxwell Coetzee - Gold (literature)
• Aaron Klug - Gold (medical science)
• Frank Reginald Nunes Nabarro - Silver
• Tebello Nyokong - Bronze (research into the development of cancer treatments)
• Himladevi Soodyall - Bronze

J.M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee (pronounced coot-SEE-uh) is a South African author. ... Aaron Klug (born Zelvas, Lithuania, August 11, 1926) is a Lithuanian-born British physicist and chemist, and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy. ...

See also

• South African civil honours

An overview of South African civil orders, decorations and medals, which form part of the South African honours system. ...

External links

• South African government website
• South African Medals Website