Heinrich Stephen Samuel Willemse (born 18 September 1957, Ladismith, Cape Province) is a South African academic, literary critic, activist and author.
As a young academic, Willemse played an active role in the opposition of apartheid, and along with other Afrikaans authors - including André Brink, Breyten Breytenbach and Etienne van Heerden - attended the historical Victoria Falls Writers' Conference in 1989, where various Afrikaans intellectuals met with banned South African authors and members of the African National Congress.
[1] Willemse grew up in the Cape Province in South Africa where he completed his school education at Esselen Park High in 1975.
[3] Willemse went on to complete both his master's degree (in 1984) and DLitt (in 1996) in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of the Western Cape.
[7] Besides his academic activities, he also currently serves on the board of directors of the South Africa-based multinational media company Naspers.