Meet the new WRC CEO

Meet the

NEW WRC CEO

Full circle: Dr Jennifer Molwantwa’s first interaction with the Water Research Commission (WRC) was in the 1990s as a Rhodes University student working on a WRC-funded project within the university’s Environmental Biotechnology Research Unit. Today, she is the first black woman to head the WRC.

Dr Jennifer Molwantwa, CEO, Water Research Commission

With a PhD in Biotechnology, majoring in minewater treatment, Molwantwa is a registered professional natural scientist with the South African National Council for Scientific Professions. She has been an active member of WISA since 2004, as well as the recipient of the WISA Mine Water Division Best Paper Presented by a Student (2004) and the Excellence in Research Award for a Young Scientist (2006). Jennifer was also instrumental in the establishment of the WISA YWP network in 2006. Her career started at Pulles Howard & de Lange (later incorporated into Golder Associates Africa) as a research assistant and then water resource consultant, before joining Digby Wells Environmental as a unit manager. She joined the WRC in 2014 as a research manager responsible for water resource quality prior to being appointed executive: Water Resource Management at the Inkomati-Usuthu Catchment Management Agency, where she served for five years (2016 to 2022).

Molwantwa has previously also served on the Council of the University of KwaZulu-Natal where she also represented Council on Senate. She currently serves on the boards of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA) and the Environmental Assessment Practitioners Association of South Africa, and is a member of the Department of Fisheries Forestry and Environment subcommittee for the development of the National Implementation Plan for chemicals management.

One of her biggest career highlights happened in 2010 when she was selected as one of the 26 commissioners to serve on the National Planning Commission headed by then Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel. This