Alumni in the spotlight May 2022
- Wits Alumni Relations
Catch up on a wrap of Witsie awards, appointments and newsmakers from the past month.
Awards
The Goethe Institute announced that Wits alumna and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, Avital “Tali” Nates (BA Hons 1994) has been awarded the 2022 Goethe Medal. Nates received the prestigious medal along with multimedia artist Mohamed Abla from Egypt, and two artists from the Sandbox Collective Nimi Ravindran and Shiva Pathak from India.
Film producer Gabriella Blumberg (BAFT 2017) followed on the success of I am Here with another film Leemtes en Leegheid, which premiered at kykNET’s Silwerskermfees. This film won Best Short Film, Best Script, and the Audience Choice Award. The main character is Magdaleen, who struggles to process the loss of her husband with whom she spent most of her life.
Freelance video editor and Wits alumnus Rafael Ferrao (BA FT 2021) and friend Christian Botha were announced as the South African winners of The Cannes Young Lions Competition. The pair will represent the country at the 66th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity between 18 to 22 June 2022 in France.
The winners for the 2022 South African Institute for Civil Engineers National IP Showdown were Liam Macgregor (BSc Eng 2022) and Ashley Randall (BSc Eng 2022) for their research, “The Effect of Vermicompost on the Water Holding Capacity of Soil”. Their study examined the potential to improve soil water retention using organic fertiliser.
Sisanda Kubeka (BA DA 2021) was the first prize in the New Contrast National Poetry New Contrast Poetry Prize 2021 for her poem Suitcases.
Appointments
Cabinet approved the appointment of Shabeer Khan (BCom 2002) as the accountant-general at the National Treasury. Khan has been the CFO of the Department of Trade and Industry since 2013, where he achieved the first-ever and subsequent “clean audits” for the department. He started his career as an article clerk at Fazel and Associates in 2002. 
Khan was awarded the 2020 Public Sector CFO of the Year, Young CFO of the Year and a Compliance and Governance Award.
MBA graduate Tumi Chamayou was appointed by MTN as the group’s executive for its enterprise business unit.
Italtile appointed Alex Motshwanetsi Mathole (LLB 1997) as an independent non-executive director with effect from 1 June 2022.
Zaheer Bhikha (BEconSc 2002) has been appointed as head of product management at Glacier by Sanlam, effective 1 May 2022. Zaheer will be responsible for Glacier’s solutions strategy. Before joining Glacier, Zaheer spent five years at the Liberty Group South Africa, where he was the head of investments and direct distribution. In this role, he was tasked with developing relationships with pension funds, large corporate companies and institutional clients with a view to growing the company’s market share.
Vuyile Dumisani Dlamini (LLB 1996) became the new permanent representative of Eswatini to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland. He had been serving as the legal advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Eswatini since February 2015.
Gordon Wylie (GDE 1999) joined the board of Caledonia Mining Corporation as an independent non-executive director.
Penelope Jabulile Mkhwanazi (BSc 2001) was appointed as senior vice president for revenue generation of Isuzu Motors South Africa.
Dr Roger Dansey (MBBCh 1978, MM 1987, DOH 1987) appointed interim CEO of global biotech company Seagen.
Murial Sokkie (BA 1992, PDip 1997) has been appointed as group chief of human capital at Aspen, the pharmaceutical company.
Carlson Construction Group announced the appointment of Carlo Marengo (BSc Eng 1997) as its new chief executive officer.
Newsmakers
CEO of Anglo American, Duncan Wanblad (BSc Eng 1989, GDE 1997), said that mining can help SA build a new, clean and inclusive economy, during the Investing in African Mining Indaba held in Cape Town.
Actress Zola Nombona (BA DA 2014) recently launched her own shapewear brand.
Respected sociologist Professor Karl von Holdt (BA Hons 1988, PhD 2000) gave an inaugural lecture titled: The making and unmaking of social order: disorder, violence, trajectories. Professor Von Holdt said that South Africa is in “a period of experimentation that will possibly, in perhaps another generation, form the politics that will be focused on getting problems fixed”.