Alumni in the spotlight
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Catch up on recent achievements, promotions and newsmakers.
Appointments
Brenda Berlin (BCom 1986, BAcc 1987) was appointed as CFO of PPC, moving from her position as action CFO of MC Mining. She completed her articles at PwC, she joined MC Mining from Impala Platinum Holdings where she was group CFO.
Maria Ramos (BCom 1987, BCom Hons 1988) was named chair of AngloGold Ashanti, after being CEO of Absa for a decade and director at the gold miner since 2019.
Hylton Kallner (BEconSc 1996) was appointed as CEO of Discovery Bank from January 2021. He started his career at Liberty Life in the actuarial division. He joined Discovery in 1996 and spent more than 24 years in key roles in the company.
Peter Tshisevhe (BProc 1995, LLB 1997, LLM 1999, PGDLaw 2013) was appointed to the interim SAA board. He is a mergers and acquisitions lawyer with extensive experience in transaction advisory services. He is director and partner at TGR Attorneys, a leading commercial law firm in Johannesburg. He is also a part-time lecturer at Wits and has been retained from the previous board to provide continuity.
Gary Nagle (BCom 1996, BAcc 1997) will step in to take over the reins from Glencore Plc CEO Ivan Glasenburg.
Dr Aquina Thulare (MBA 2003) was appointed to the new council for the Council for Medical Schemes which takes into account the interests of members and medical schemes. She holds the position of technical specialist for the National Health Insurance in the Department of Health. The term of Council is three years from the date of appointment and there are 14 other members.
The University of Venda appointed Edward Lambani (LLM 1994) as its new Registrar.
Paul Edey (BA 1979, PDipEd 1979) stepped down as 15th executive headmaster of St John’s College, moving on as the Southern African Heads of Independent Schools Association’s (SAHISA) Stakeholder Representative. He will be at the interface of SAHISA and the Independent Schools Association of South Africa.
Dr Jonathan Witt (BA Hons 2006, MBBCh 2010) and Lesley-Anne Gatter (BA 1996, BA Hons 1997, MA 2007) were elected to serve on the Executive Committee of Convocation at Wits.
Prof Mbulaheni Simon Nemutandani (MSc Dent 2007, MSc Med 2009) has been appointed as President of the Health Professionals Council of South Africa. In 2016 he joined Wits as CEO of the Wits Oral Health Centre and Head of Oral Health Sciences.
Zakhele Mbhele (BA 2007) replaced Phumzilie van Damme as a shadow minister for the DA.
Emilia Nghikembua (MA 2020) has been appointed as Chief Executive of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia effective 1 January 2021. She has extensive knowledge in law, ICT policy, regulation, management and governance. She aims to use ICTs to improve socio-economic development in Namibia.
Selwyn Blieden (BA 1993, BA Hons 1994) has been appointed as non-executive director of African Dawn Capital and will be member of both the audit, risk and remuneration committees. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Cambridge. He was also a former research fellow and member of the Faculty of Mathematics at Cambridge. He currently serves as a partner and co-head of Caleo Private Equity, an investment management firm that provides capital to startup companies.
Awards and honours
Hannelie Coetzee (PGDA 1988) was a finalist in the 2020 African Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum Awards in the Creative Industry Award category.
Humphry Tlou (BSc 2016, BSc Hons 2017, MSc 2019) was awarded the CERN Atlas PhD grant. His award was initiated by Fabiola Gianotti, the Director General of CERN, and Peter Jenni, the founder of the ATLAS experiment, following their award from the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation in 2013. The ATLAS experiment currently hosts over 1 200 PhD students. The grant aims to encourage and support high-calibre doctoral students in particle physics research from all over the world, allowing them to obtain world-class exposure, supervision, and training within the ATLAS collaboration.
Professor Laetitia Rispel was awarded one of the five 2020 Senior AfOx Fellowship at Oxford. For a period of six to nine months she will share her expertise as well as build on long-term collaborations with Oxford researchers.
Rising Star Awards 2020, which “recognise, celebrate and connect talented people in the workplace aged 28-40 who display leadership, a capacity for achievement, success and make a valuable difference” was awarded to the following Witsies: Innocentia Mahlangu (BSc Eng 2011, MSc 2018) project manager and civil engineer for Hatch, won 2020 Rising Star Award: Construction and Industrials category; 
Devandre Lawrence (BA 2013), GM: People Operations at Nandos in the Tourism, Retail and Hospitality category; Lusani Nemalili (BA Hons 2020), Specialist in public policy and engagement, corporate affairs at Vodacom, won the ICT category.
Sir Sydney Kentridge (BA 1942, LLD honoris causa 2000) received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards 2020. He was acknowledged for his years of service to South Africa and the UK. Dr Jonathan Broomberg (MBBCh 1984) Discovery chief executive of Vitality Health International was appointed as head of healthcare for South Africa’s Solidarity Fund. He received the Absa Business Leadership in the time of COVID Award. While Professor Mervyn Mer (MBBCh 1984, MSc Med 2001, PhD 2013) is the principal specialist and head of intensive care at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. He was awarded the Absa Professional Excellence in Time of COVID Award. He was pivotal in equipping the hospital to battle the virus before it hit. He drew up health protocols and doubled the size of ICU spaces in record time. Professor Barry Schoub (MBBCh 1967, DSc Med 1992) who is Emeritus Professor in Virology at Wits and former director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, was awarded the Kia Community Service Award. Professor Michael Mervyn Katz (BCom 1965, LLB 1967, LLD honoris causa 1998) received the Absa Business Icon Award. He was tasked by the president to be a board member of the national Solidarity Fund, set up to support the medical response, contribute to relief efforts and mobilise the country’s fight against the pandemic.
Manqoba Kubheka (BCom 2010) is general manager of the licensing division at the South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) where he is responsible for music rights body receiving R500 million in revenue for the first time since its inception since 1962. He was awarded the 2020 Game Changer award from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, honouring the country’s top under 35s. Wits alumna Millycent Mashele (BCom 2007) was also among the finalists. 
At the Annual South African CFO Awards, which recognises CFOs of listed companies, large corporations, state-owned entities and government institutions, and award them for outstanding performance and leadership. Alumnus Shabeer Khan (BCom 2002) was awarded the Public Sector CFO of the Year, Young CFO of the Year and a Compliance and Governance Awards. Khan has been in the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition since 2013 and assisted in it obtaining clean audits. Prior to this he served as senior manager in the office of the Auditor General for nine years.
Newsmakers
The BBC profiled Sumayya Vally (BArch Hons 2014, MArch 2015) on how the pandemic is changing architecture.
The South African Literary Journal included a poem by Athol Williams (BSc Mech Eng 1992) to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the journal. The special edition includes works by many South African literary greats. He has also released his fifth poetry collection Fragile (Theart Press, 2020) which is a collaboration with 65 South African artists. All proceeds from his book sales go to Read to Rise so that children in Mitchells Plain and Soweto can get access to new story books. Williams has also been in the news as a whistleblower. He was formerly an employee of Bain, the global management consulting firm, and will testify at the Zondo Commission into State Capture in February. He has had to resign from his job as senior lecturer at Allan Gray Centre for Values-Based Leadership in the Graduate School of Business at UCT. Read why he’s calling for companies involved in State Capture to be prosecuted.
In memoriam
Alumni Relations extends condolences to family and friends of the following alumni: Dawn Lindberg (BA FA 1967), Professor Belinda Bozzoli (BA 1967, BA Hons 1970), Dr Rashid Ahmed Mahmood Salojee (MBBCh 1958), Yvonne Huskisson (BMus 1951, BA Hons 1952, M Mus 1956, PhD 1959, Dr Arnold Beukes (BDS 1953), Coomarasamy Nithanathan Pillay (MBBCh 1954), Irvin Alexander Lampert (MBBCh 1964), Richard Mankowski (PhD Mech Eng 1983), Dr Praneel Ruplal (MM 2008, PhD 2018), Andrew Williamson (BA 1963, LLB 1965, HDipTax Law 1974), Clive Chipkin (BArch 1955, DArch honoris causa 2013), Dolly Mokgatle (LLB 1983, HDip Tax Law 1991), Dr Joseph Sonnabend (MBBCh 1956) See more here.