Alumni in the spotlight August 2022
- Wits Alumni Relations
Catch up on a wrap of Witsie awards, appointments and newsmakers from the past month.
Awards
Nono Motloki (BA FA 2021) becomes the first female to win the Ernest Cole Photographic Award. The award is handed out every second year, provides professional support by a circle of mentors, and works towards a public outcome. The Ernest Cole Award was established to commemorate South African photographer, Ernest Cole, who contributed to the struggle against apartheid. He died in New York in 1990 and his work serves as reminder of the history of the country as well as the potential impact of photography as a catalyst for change.
Advocate Soraya Hassim (BA 1988, LLB 1990) was honoured at the 2022 Women in Law South Africa Awards (WOZA). The awards were founded in 2018 to honour and celebrate women lawyers. Advocate Hassim received Best In Corporate (practicing), Best In Leadership and Mentorship as well as the Pinnacle Award. She completed articles of clerkship in 1993 and was admitted as an attorney and practiced as such for a year. She commenced pupillage at the Johannesburg Bar in 1994 and was admitted as an advocate in April 1994. She became a member of the Pretoria Society of Advocates in July 1994 and took silk in December 2011. She has acted as a judge and currently practices focusing on administrative law, constitutional law, public interest law, commercial law and insolvency law.
Wits alumna Thuso Mbedu (BA DA 2014) was named a rising star by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The TIFF Rising Stars programme provides actors with an exclusive opportunity to engage at the festival via professional development sessions, industry events, red carpets, mentorship and mentorship opportunities. She was also honoured at this year’s International Women of Power Awards, hosted by Heirs of Afrika.
The Academy of Science of South Africa nominated Keaton Fitzpatrick (BCom 2020, BEconScHons 2021, MEconSc 2022), Gracious Nyoni (BSc 2018, BEconScHons 2019, MEconSc 2019), Daniela Lamparelli (BCom 2018, BEconScHons 2019, MEconSc 2021) and Lebo Siboyi (BCom 2020, BEconScHons 2021) as young economists to participate in the 7th Lindau Nobel Meeting on Economic Sciences in Germany between 23 and 27 August 2022.
Appointments
Uber has appointed Kagiso Khaole (BCom 2006, MBA 2020) as the new general manager for Uber in Sub Saharan Africa. Khaole joined Uber in 2021 where he led mobility operations. He has previously worked in several industries, including e-commerce, software and services, consumer electronics, management consulting, insurance and banking.
Simphiwe Mdluli (LLM 2010) was appointed as group executive: legal and compliance at Omnia. He was admitted as an attorney of the high court of South Africa at the beginning of 2005 after serving his articles with Sonneberg Hoffmann Galombik. His previous experience includes chief compliance and legal officer responsible for overall compliance and legal management for Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited. Prior to that he was the regional executive director accountable for all of STANLIB’s businesses in East Africa and the executive head of legal, risk and compliance at STANLIB.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) appointed Advocate Nkhetheleni Norman Gidi (LLM 2007) as its acting chief executive officer, effective from 1 September until a permanent appointment has been made. He first joined the corporation in August 2009 as a senior manager for licensing. He has held several positions at the authority, including general manager for licensing; executive: legal, risk and complaints and compliance committee in 2017; and, latterly, executive: policy research and analysis from 2021.
The Johannesburg Development Agency has appointed Mokgema Mongane (BSc Eng 2007) as its CEO. Mongane joins the City of Johannesburg’s implementing agent for an appointment of five years. Mongane also holds a master’s in business administration from Regenesys, and a master’s in engineering management from the University of Pretoria.
Asset manager Mergence Investment Managers appointed Sholto Dolamo (MSc Eng 2002)
Professor Cuthbert Nyamupangedengu (MSc Eng 2004, PhD 2011, PDE 2022) joined the Vaal University of Technology as head of the Electrical Engineering Department. Professor Nyamupangedengu is an accomplished scientist and researcher and in 2021 he was awarded a C2 NRF rating.
Credit Suisse has hired Deutsche Bank veteran Dixit Joshi (BSc 1992) as its new chief financial officer, part of another flurry of changes to its top ranks as it continues to overhaul its board in the wake of successive crises. Joshi, who was group treasurer at Deutsche Bank, will take over from David Mathers on 1 October 2022. Joshi spent 12 years at the German lender including a stint leading its fixed income institutional clients group and as global head of prime finance.
MTN has appointed former Icasa CEO Willington Ngwepe (BA 1991, LLB 2000, LLM 2005) to the new post of chief of staff in the office of the group CEO. Ngwepe joined the regulator in 2014 as chief operating officer, where he served until 2017 when he was appointed CEO and chief accounting officer. He begins in his new role on 1 October 2022.
President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed a nine-member National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council to advise government on the preventative measures, institutional capabilities and resources required to combat fraud and corruption and prevent any recurrence of State Capture. Professor Firoz Cachalia (BA 1980, BA Hons 1982, LLB 1988, HDipCoLaw 2000) will chair the council, David Harris Lewis (BCom 1971) founding director of Corruption Watch and Kavisha Pillay (LLB 2012), head of stakeholder relations and campaigns at the NGO, have been appointed as members.
Newsmakers
Khensani Nobanda (BCom 2000), Nedbank’s group executive for marketing and corporate affairs, advocates “showing up as your authentic self”.
Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi (MM 2016) has put her name in the hat to be the next deputy president of South Africa.
After sustained pressure from UK cabinet minister Lord Peter Hain and Wits alumnus
whistleblower Athol Williams (BSc Eng 1992), the UK government banned Bain for three years from tendering for any public sector work because of “grave professional misconduct” during its work with the South African Revenue Service. Bain issued an apology, but Williams says it’s an insult to all South Africans. Acting director general in the National Treasury Ismail Momoniat (BSc 1978, BSc Hons 1979, MSc 1989) called on the local and global private sectors not to do business with Bain. He said: “Why can’t we [ban Bain] in South Africa as speedily [as the UK has]? Our institutions are either too weak or act too slowly. We want criminal liability because what Bain did, it committed a form of treason. The Nugent Commission pointed out how this started 18 months before Tom Monyane was appointed.”
TJ Strydom released a book on Wits alumnus and billionaire Koos Bekker’s (LLB 1978) private life, career and business decisions titled Koos Bekker’s Billions (Penguin Random House, 2022). Read an extract.
On the 10th anniversary of the Marikana Massacre, Neal Froneman (BSc Eng 1981), CEO of Sibanye Stillwater, which has since taken over operation of the mine from Lonmin, writes that “the door remains open for stakeholders who have not yet been able to participate in the Marikana Renewal programme”. But human rights organisation Amnesty International SA and Centre for Applied Legal Studies said in a report that the government had failed to deliver the promised housing, thought to be the root of the protests that led to the massacre, in Marikana. They also criticised Sibanye-Stillwater. According to the report, only 544 of the 2 658 houses promised by the government have been completed since the Marikana Extension Two integrated development project began in the 2014/15 financial year.
Wits academic Dr Neil Stacey (BSc 2009, PhD 2016) writes that focusing on single-use plastics hides the bigger problem of countless products that shed microplastics both during their lifecycle and at the end of it.
Professor Francesca Conradie (MBBCh 1988, DTM&H) was profiled in the Daily Maverick about her breakthrough work in HIV and tuberculosis research.
Actress and comedian Claudine Ullman Herman (BA DA 2009, PGDA 2012) is a finalist in
the Mrs SA pageant. The finals take place in November and she chatted to SA Jewish Report about her chances.
Activist Barbara Hogan (BA 1977, BA Hons 1979) said South Africa “is a corroded society” at the opening of the Ahmed Kathrada exhibition at the Constitutional Court on 22 August 2022.
Writer and journalist Hamilton Wende (BA 1985, MA 2015) wrote about the 77th anniversary of the first atom bomb in history dropped on Hiroshima. He has worked on a few television projects and films for National Geographic, CNN, BBC, ZDF & ARD, among others.