South Africa has honoured the country’s first black engineer Dr. Solomon Boyce Isaac Lafakane with new hall of fame.

South Africa has honoured the country’s first black engineer.

Dr. Solomon Boyce Isaac Lafakane earned the degree during South Africa’s racist apartheid system. As of that time, Dr. Lafakane was a domestic worker. He also got a scholarship to pursue his studies.

Dr. Lafakane graduated in 1961, from the department of civil engineering, university of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

The university has decided to honour its centenary, Dr. Lafakane 84, by inducting him into the new hall of fame at the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment.

“I knew I was facing very heavy odds at the time and I worked as hard as I could,” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa radio programme.

Reflecting on his time there Dr. Lefakane said he did not socialise with the white students, but there was a black student residence, and “we made our own lives enjoyable”.

After graduation, he tried to get with Johannesburg City Council but was offered a far smaller salary than his white counterparts. As a result, he left South Africa, eventually ending up in the US.