Chait credits SA for a lifetime of achievements

When Professor Laurence Chait accepted the Investec Professional Excellence Award, he expressed gratitude for the opportunities South Africa had given him and the people who helped him make a difference. 

“I’m grateful to have lived and worked in this wonderful country of ours, South Africa,” he said on Sunday night, 1 November. “She afforded me the opportunity to achieve all this.” He added that he believed he could have achieved only half as much had he lived anywhere else in the world. 

Chait’s career in plastic surgery has spanned more than five decades. Over the years, he has operated on hundreds of children born with cleft lips and palates. 

One of his proudest achievements is developing a straight-line repair technique for cleft lips and palates. He described the research as groundbreaking and said it had produced some of the best surgical results he had seen. 

But Chait’s professional life extended beyond medicine. Sculpture has been an important second passion, bringing him commissions and opportunities to create bronze artworks. 

He paid particular tribute to the Netcare and Vodacom foundations for funding and supporting the cleft lip and palate programme at Park Lane Clinic in Johannesburg. “This transformed the lives of hundreds of children and their families over many years,” he said. 

Despite his decades in medicine, Chait said he had no intention of retiring. “I can still operate and can still drive 200 miles in a day. I don’t have any intention to retire yet.” 

He ended his speech with an unexpected thank you – to two men who direct traffic at the corner of Riviera and Oxford roads in Parktown. “When Eskom is down and the traffic lights aren’t working, they so expertly direct the traffic, allowing me to get to work in the morning on time,” he said. The anecdote brought his speech to a close, reflecting his characteristic humour and appreciation for the many people who’ve played a part in his journey.