Alumni in the spotlight September 2022
- Wits Alumni Relations
Catch up on a wrap of Witsie awards, appointments and newsmakers from the past month.
Awards
The annual National Research Foundation Awards recognise individual academics and teams for their recent outstanding scientific achievements. Their internationally competitive work is assessed for the contribution to the field of study focusing on quality and impact. The following alumni were acknowledged on the 1 September 2022:
Professor Linda-Gail Bekker (DTM&H 1992) from the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre;
Professor Frederick Raal (MBBCh 1981, MMed 1991, PhD 2000, DSc Med 2022) from the Department of Medicine at Wits; Professor Christopher Ballantine (BMus 1965, BA Hons 1966) from the School of Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; Professor Timothy Egan (BSc 1983, BSc Hons 1984, PhD 1988) from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cape Town; and Professor David JN Limebeer (BSc Eng 1974) Distinguished Professor in Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Science at Wits were all awarded their first A-Rating.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Wits, Professor Lynn Morris (BSc 1984, BSc Hons 1985) and Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan (BSc 1984, BSc Hons 1985, PhD 1991) from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town were awarded A-ratings for the second time.
The Jubilee Medal for publication of the best paper in the South African Journal of Geology in the 2021 was awarded to Dr Stephanie Scheiber-Enslin (BSc 2005, BSc Hons 2006, MSc 2009), Professor Musa Manzi (BSc 2008, BSc Hons 2009, PhD 2013) and Professor Susan Webb (PhD 2009). Their paper titled “Seismic Imaging of Dolerite Sills and Volcanic Vents in the Central Karoo, South Africa: Implications for Shale Gas Potential”, in Vol 124 (2), demonstrates that shale gas potential in the Karoo basin is complicated by the dolerite distribution. This may not have been considered in the first targeting exercises carried out a few years ago.
Callan Kotzen (BSc 2022) was the winner of the 2022 Standard Bank SA Tertiary Mathematics Olympiad. The BSc actuarial science honours student won the postgraduate division from a pool of 135 students from 14 universities.
Two alumni made the shortlist for the 2022 Sunday Times Literary Awards list announced on 4 September 2022. Joanne Joseph (BA 2000, BA Hons 2001, MA 2008) for her novel Children of Sugarcane (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2021) and the posthumous memoir by Johnny Clegg (BA 1976, BA Hons 1977, DMus honoris causa 2007) for Scatterling of Africa: My Early Years (Pan Macmillan, 2021). The winners will be announced later in the year. Mignonne Breier’s Bloody Sunday: The Nun, the Defiance Campaign and South Africa’s Secret Massacre (Tafelberg, 2021), which features the life of Sister Mary Aidan, known as Dr Elsie Quinlan (MBBCh 1946), also made the non-fiction shortlist.
Mamokgethi Phakeng (BEd 1993, MEd 1996, PhD 2002) was named the winner of the inaugural Africa Education Medal.
Tamia Botes (BA 2019, BA Hons 2020, MA 2021) who was announced as the winner of the Africa Thesis Award 2021 received her award in Leiden for her MA thesis “Where have the midwives gone? Everyday histories of?voetvroue?in Johannesburg”.
Dr Craig Parker (MBBCh 2005) received the Rural Doctor of the Year Award for 2022 from the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa. He was acknowledged for being part of a team of volunteers from East London that developed the OxERA, an innovative breathing apparatus, which is included in the World Health Organisations 2022 Compendium under “innovative health technologies for low resource settings”.
Appointments
Consulting engineering and infrastructure advisory firm, Zutari, appointed Webb Meko (MSc Eng 2015) as its chief clients officer. Meko spent five years at Black & Veatch as business development director for Africa and worked for Babcock Engineering and Eskom.
Fatima Laher (BA 1994, LLB 1994, LLM 1999) has been appointed as group executive: group legal. Laher re-joins MTN from Samsung Electronics, where she has held the role of head of Africa disputes, for the past six years. Laher is a seasoned multi-skilled legal executive with expertise across various disciplines, including but not limited to managing high-value cross-border litigation, legal risk mitigation and corporate investigations, mergers, and acquisitions, as well as commercial law.
Newsmakers
Leader of the country’s medicines regulator, Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela (MM2016), was profiled by the Financial Mail. 
Prasa whistleblower Martha Ngoye (LLB 1995) is one of the officials who spoke out against the multi-billion rand Swifambo and Siyangena contracts. It has since been set aside and declared invalid by the courts. She’s also been credited with having helped to stop a R1 billion investment with VBS Mutual Bank in the months before its collapse. She is fighting to clear her name after her firing, reinstatement and then suspension. A lawsuit has now been launched against her by the country’s rail agency.
Leabetswe Bomvana (PDM 2019), executive head of business strategy at Metropolitan Life, was profiled in Drum magazine about her personal journey with a brain tumour.
Economic advisor to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trudi Makhaya (BCom 2000, BCom Hons 2001, MCom 2003), and member of the presidential economic advisory council, Dr Kenneth Creamer (BA 1992, BA Hons 1995, LLB 1995, LLM 1997, PhD 2010), participated in the Wits School of Economics and Finance centenary webinar titled “100 Years of Economics at Wits: Reflecting on the Past, Looking to the Future”.
Dr Mark Shaw (BA 1991, BA Hons 1992, PhD 1997), director of Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, says crime is posing an “existential” threat to SA, according to a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) in a 206-page document released by the group.
National Planning Cpmmission commissioner Professor Mark Swilling (BA 1982, BA Hons 1983), explained why the country will have loadshedding for the next two years.
Thuso Mbedu (BA DA 2014), star of the newly released The Woman King, was on the cover of Women’s Health magazine. She shared what she misses about South Africa.
Three alumnae featured in Wanted magazine’s list of young artists to watch: Lebogang Mabusela (BA FA 2019), Teresa Firmino (BA FA 2016, MA FA 2019) and Mathabang “Matty” Monethi (BA FA 2021).
Dr Mandla Langa (DLitt honoris causa 2019, MA 2020) gave the 2022 Nadine Gordimer lecture titled: “The Vocabulary of Witnesses”.