Alumni on the move
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Catch up on alumni promotions and achievements in the month of November.
Appointments
Safaricom Plc announced Raisible Kgomaraga Morathi (higher diploma in taxation) as its new director. In August 2020, Vodacom, Safaricom’s parent company appointed her as its Group Chief Financial Officer as well as executive director on its board. Initially she was the Group Chief Finance Officer at Nedbank since 2009.
Bridget Ntombenhle Radebe (BCom 2001) was appointed non-executive director of Motus Holdings.
Joseph Zinyana (MSc 2000, GDE Metal Eng 2003, MSc Eng 2003) was elected President of the Southern African Institute of Welding.
Mapi Mobwano (BSc Eng 2001, MSc Eng 2007) was announced as CEO of ArcelorMittal Canada.
Kevin Brooks (BSc Eng 1980, PhD 1986) was appointed as Advanced Process Control Global Lead at Hatch, the global multidisciplinary management, engineering and development consultancy.
Dr Norman Sussman (MBBCh 1976) was appointed as Chief Medical Officer of Durect, a biopharmaceutical company focused on development of treatment for acute organ injury and liver diseases. Dr Sussman is a well-known hepatologist with over 30 years of clinical experience and research. He was based at Baylor College of Medicine as Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery since 1985.
Benjamin van Nugteren (MSc Med 2015) an Emergency Care Practitioner and Programme Manager at the University of Johannesburg, was appointed for a second term to the HPCSA Professional Board for Emergency Care.
Dr Costa Andreou (MBBCh 1990) Christ Hospital Health Network names new chief clinical officer of The Christ Hospital Health Network in Cincinnati and president of The Christ Hospital of Physicians. He is currently executive vice president for Gastonia, North Carolina.
Simon Rollason (BSc 1990, BSc Hons 1991) was appointed as CEO of Eastinco Mining and Exploration in Rwanda. He has 30 years of international exploration and mining experience.
Awards and honours
Fred Swanepoel (MBA 1995) is CIO of the Nedbank Group. He was recognised as 2020 CIO of the Year South Africa. The group celebrated four other technology-related awards under his leadership namely: Best Banking Technology Implementation, Most Innovative Digital Branch Design, Most Innovative Retail Banking App and Best Retail Bank South Africa.
FM Ad Focus honoured Bernice Samuels (MBA) with a Lifetime Achiever award. She is currently Chief Marketing Officer at MTN and her professional career spans large multinationals within the telecoms, broadcasting, information technology, financial services and brewing sectors. 
The John Handley Award for the best MSc thesis and the Corstorphine Medal for an outstanding MSc thesis of high international standard is awarded to Lechelle Goslin (BSc 2013, MSc 2019) for a thesis entitled “Deformation and Partial Melting in the Central Zone of the Damara Zone, Namibia” supervised by Paul Nex and Robert Bolhar. The Haughton Award for the best BSc Honours thesis went to Ayesha Jogee for a thesis entitled “Unravelling the Petrognesis of Mafic Orbicules of the Koperberg Suite and their Metallogenetic Links to Cu Mineralization” supervised by Grant Bybee and Paul Nex.
Demographers Matshidiso Sello (BA 2015, BA Hons 2016, MA 2017) and Dineo Thaele (BA 2014, BA Hons 2015, MA 2016) work at the Vaccines and Infections Disease Analytics research unit and a short profile of their work was included in Vogue’s “amazing women working on COVID-19 vaccines”. Part of their work is on the ground in Soweto and Thembelihle townships, helping the communities to understand the importance of testing and screening. Both lost family members as a result of the pandemic.
Human rights defender Ishtar Lakhani (MA 2014) was named by the BBC in its list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2020. She played a key role in the Free the Vaccine campaign, driven by the Centre for Artistic Activism.
Newsmakers
Sir David King (BSc Hons 1961, PhD 1964, DSc honoris causa 2003), who leads a group of scientists formed in response to the UK government’s response to COVID-19, Independent Sage. The group plans to hold ministers to account over a range of issues, including the climate crisis. Read more.
Vice-Chancellor Adam Habib suggests how violent protests in South Africa could be understood and the choices facing leaders. Read more.
Khadija Jamaloodien (BPharm 1994) is Director of Affordable Medicines in the Department of Health, said South Africa would be participating in the COVAX global COVID-19 vaccine distribution scheme, with a committed purchase of 10% of its population. Read more.
Books
Dr Anne Biccard (BA 1988, BA Hons 1989, MBBCh 1996, MSc MED 1994) is a medical doctor who lives and works in Johannesburg, she released a novel called Saving a Stranger’s Life: Diary of an Emergency Room Doctor (Jacana, 2020)
Hamilton Wende (BA 1985, MA 2015) released a novel Red Air (Clockwork, 2020). Wende has worked as a war correspondent and covered 17 conflicts. The novel emerged from experiences on assignment for National Geographic in Afghanistan in 2012.
Imtiaz Cajee (PDM 2013), nephew of Ahmed Timol, published The Murder of Ahmed Timol: My Search for the Truth (Jacana, 2020) as part of his 20-year journey to find his uncle’s killer and bring him to justice.