- Founder of the Regent Business School, Professor Yusuf Karodia, died at the age of 70.
- He died of Covid-19 in a Durban hospital on Wednesday morning.
- Karodia dedicated the last four decades of his life to the provision of quality education.
Award-winning educationalist and founder of the Regent Business School, Professor Yusuf Karodia, has died of Covid-19.
Karodia, 70, died in a Durban hospital on Wednesday morning, the Regent Business School said in a statement.
"It is with a profound sense of loss and sadness that we inform you of the death of our founder, Professor Yusuf Karodia," the school said.
"He, unfortunately, was a victim of Covid-19," the managing director of the Regent Business School, Dr Ahmed Shaikh, told News24.
Karodia spent the last four decades of his life dedicated to the pursuit of making quality education accessible to more people in sub-Saharan Africa.
"In recent years, he immersed himself in philanthropic work in the education sector among disadvantaged communities through the Yusuf Karodia Foundation, including launching the Million Books Project, which aims to provide more than a million books to schoolchildren across South Africa through mobile libraries," the statement read.
In March this year, Karodia received the African Leadership Person of the Year Award for Education and Development for a second consecutive year.
"Through his work in education, he had touched the lives of so many people in positive and meaningful ways.
"The loss from his passing will be felt by tens of thousands of students, colleagues, friends and partners all across Africa and beyond.
"A life so beautifully lived deserves to be beautifully remembered. His family and the community at [the] Regent Business School request all who knew him to join them in prayer to mourn his passing on."
Karodia is survived by his wife, two children and grandchildren.
- Compiled by Alex Mitchley
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