16 minute read
Witsies with the edge
Awards
LEBOHANG KGANYE
Award-winning photographer and Wits master’s student Lebohang Kganye is the 16th winner of the internationally acclaimed Foam Paul Huf Award. She was chosen by a five-member jury of experts from a pool of around 100 nominees, selected from 21 countries. The Foam Paul Huf Award is presented annually to an up-and-coming talent. She will receive an amount of €20 000 and her work will be on display during a solo exhibition at the Foam Fotografiemuseum in Amsterdam.
This follows her most recent accomplishment in January 2022 as the Grand Prix Images Vevey winner. In 2020 she received the Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize and in 2019 the Camera Austria Award. She was also a finalist of the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative in 2019. Her work has been exhibited at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the Walther Collection in Ulm. Over the past eight years she has exhibited her work extensively within curated group exhibitions and biennales, most recently Family Affairs.
With her work, Kganye delves into themes from her own history and origin, which simultaneously resonate with the history of South Africa and apartheid.
“The award comes at a time when my relationship with the way I make art has changed quite a bit and I recognise that healing is the main goal in my stories. I am grateful that others experience this healing as well. The way I express myself visually has changed and relevance and oral traditions are central to this. The selection of works shows how I am thinking through my practice and shows the connections that I make,” she said.
Presidential Orders
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa awarded four Witsies his office’s highest honour for their services to South Africa.
• PROFESSOR SIBUSISO NYEMBEZI (BA Hons 1947; MA 1950; DLitt honoris causa 1982) was posthumously awarded the Order of Ikhamanga, Gold for his work as isiZulu poet, novelist, scholar and editor. He played a tremendous role in defying apartheid and preserving the language.
• DR RAYMOND LOUW (DLitt honoris causa 2015) received the Order of Ikhamanga, Gold posthumously for “his enormous contribution to the field of journalism, and using his pen as a weapon to expose lies and shine the light on the atrocities of apartheid.”
• JUSTICE EDWIN CAMERON (LLD honoris causa 2010) was awarded the Order of Baobab, Gold for his contribution to “the judicial system and tireless campaigning against the stigma of HIV and AIDS, and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities”.
• MAX (BSc Eng 1949) and AUDREY COLEMAN were awarded the Order of Luthuli, Silver. The Colemans were the founders of the Detainees’ Parents Support Committee, an organisation of parents formed to provide food, clothing and legal assistance to detainees under apartheid, as well as to monitor and publicise state repression. They were honoured for their “contribution to the fight for liberation and the promotion of human rights through active involvement in lobbying using both civic organisations and later government institutions”. (see also In Memoriam page 101)
Awards
PROFESSOR HELEN REES
Loyal Witsie and Wits RHI Executive Director Professor Helen Rees
Wits RHI Executive Director and loyal Witsie Professor Helen Rees has been awarded the prestigious L’ordre national du Mérite (National Order of Merit) by the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, in recognition of her ground-breaking career.
The National Order of Merit is a French order of merit that was founded in 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle and is the second national Order after the Legion of Honour. Its purpose is to reward “distinguished merit”.
Over the years Prof Rees has received numerous national and international awards for her contribution to science: an Order of the British Empire in 2001; the Order of the Baobab in 2015 and a National Science and Technology Forum Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 among others. When asked about the significance of this award she said: “As a parent, I think I am most proud of my children. I don’t think in those terms. I feel honoured that I had the privilege of a career as a scientist and physician and that I have been able to make a difference.
“I did not start off with a clear idea that I would do this, or that. I think the direction your life takes is determined by who you are. I was a doctor activist, activism was always with me. I witnessed injustice and tried to improve that. I think that was the driving force.”
There has been a theme of service and improving public health in Africa throughout her career: “You want to help. It gives you an inner gratification,” she said.
When asked about her commitment to Wits for so many years she said: “Johannesburg is a very gritty environment. Wits has embraced that on many levels – as a truly African institution, it has looked at the problems of poverty, human-rights abuses, and violence, and responded to that with open arms – as seen through our work on HIV and COVID.
“As I’ve grown older, I realise that the award is not about you,” she said, choosing instead to acknowledge the work of her committed colleagues. “It’s about providing leadership and making a path for other women scientists and building up the next generation.”
• On the 24 March 2022, she was awarded the Ministerial COVID-19 Special Award at the National Batho Pele Excellence Awards in the Platinum Category in recognition of her contributions to COVID-19 research in 2021/2022.
Awards
DR MICHAEL HEYMANN
Dr Michael Heymann
Dr Michael Heymann (MBBCh 1959) received the 2022 Mary Ellen Avery Award from the American Paediatric Society and the Society for Paediatric Research. This award honours a paediatric investigator “who has made important contributions to neonatal health through basic or translational research”. It honours Dr Heymann’s extraordinary career as physician and scientist, which has centred on cardiorespiratory disorders in the newborn infant.
Dr Heymann has lived in Carmel, in the United States since his retirement from the University of California, San Francisco. He spent intermittent periods of time at the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland in New Zealand. “Most of my time there was spent working with and helping PhD students and running their research office. I have been fully retired for about three years,” he writes to WITSReview.
He is among a “trio” of celebrated Wits-trained physician scientists whose careers intersected in the United States. His father, Dr Seymour Heymann (BSc 1924, MBBCh 1928), was the head of Paediatrics at Wits and the Transvaal Memorial Hospital (TMH). “I never considered any other profession. After my house jobs at the General Hospital and then at TMH, I had become interested specifically in cardiology and with my father’s help arranged to undertake specialty training with Professor Abraham Rudolph (MBBCh 1946, MM 1951, DSc honoris causa 2006) in New York. Professor Rudolph had been my father’s registrar before he went to Boston. Dr Julien Hoffman (BSc 1945, BSc Hons 1946, MBBCh 1949, DSc 1970, DSc Med honoris causa 2015) was the second faculty member in Dr Rudolph’s programme in New York.”
After two years training with Drs Hoffmann and Rudolph in New York, Dr Heymann moved to San Francisco and joined them at the Department of Paediatrics at the University of California. “Thus, the Trio of Witsies was formed.”
He said that he has fond memories of Wits: “My memories of student days at Wits are, in general, all very good; hard work and studying, but also quite a bit of fun. I served on Rag Committee for several years, and also was involved in the training and management of the drum majorettes (hardly a chore).”
Awards
KHENSANI NOBANDA
Khensani Nobanda
Seasoned marketer and Nedbank group executive for marketing and corporate affairs, Khensani Nobanda (BCom 2000), was recognised for individual excellence in brand communication at the 2021 Loeries Awards as well as Industry Leader of the Year at the FM Ad Focus Awards. “It’s incredible,” she told WITSReview. “I’ve been fortunate enough to work in world-class organisations, with bosses who’ve given me a lot of support, and with exceptional teams.” She said her Wits lecturer, Professor Steven Burgess (PhD 1990) was responsible for her love affair with marketing: “That first lecture in my second year, sitting on West Campus, I knew that this is what I wanted to do.” She shared fond memories: “Staying at the Sunnyside Res, I made friends who I’m still connected to. I loved being part of Rag. I was also chairperson of our Res committee and the finance head for the commerce faculty residence council. That level of involvement on campus meant I had a well-rounded varsity experience beyond just the degree.”
INNOVATOR
KIMBERLEY TAYLOR
Kimberley Taylor
Kimberley Taylor (BSc Eng 2016) is CEO of Loop, a logistics solutions company that counts Nando’s, Kauai, Quench, Servest and RTT Checkers among its clients.
It all started out as a third-year chemical engineering assignment at Wits in 2015. She was tasked with developing a route optimisation algorithm that showed the shortest distance for travelling salespeople. Now her company, and the app she invented, improves interaction for everyone involved in the supply chain – the business, the driver and the customer.
Born in Edenvale, Taylor was raised by an “incredible” single mother who built a nursery school at the back of her house. “She was my first example of an entrepreneur who embodies bravery, hard work, passion, and a strong vision,” she said.
Taylor’s app functions in four parts: a management console, a driver app, customer tracking page and data analytics. The functionalities of the app are individually configurable for different business models, setting it apart from any other delivery management app in the market, with its ability to respond in real-time to the evolving needs of its users.
To date the company employs a total of 12 people. She told the Financial Mail in an interview that “In the beginning it’s like playing chequers, but eventually you need to play chess.”
Awards
DR FAREED ABDULLAH
Dr Fareed Abdullah
Director of the Office of AIDS & TB Research at the South African Medical Research Council and former CEO of the South African National AIDS Council Dr Fareed Abdullah (DOH 1991) has been appointed as Knight of the French National Order of Merit.
Dr Abdullah was honoured for his involvement as a researcher and public health specialist in the fight against HIV and tuberculosis. “This award is really the work of a whole movement of clinicians, scientists, managers and activists that turned the tide against HIV and put the TB challenge firmly on the map,” he told WITSReview.
“Our entire lives have been dedicated to building South Africa as a free and prosperous nation and we try to make our modest contribution in the field of public health. Medicine is one of the great professions and we try to practise as caringly and ethically as we can.” When asked about his recollections of Wits in the early 1990s, doing his diploma in occupational health, he said: “The entire class stood out for its special interest in the health of downtrodden workers and the health of the environment at a time when it was not fashionable. As a young doctor I got to meet public health icons such as Professor Lucille Blumberg (MBBCh 1974, DTM&H, DOH 1991, MMed 2003, DSc honoris causa 2020) who was a fellow classmate and Dr David Rees (MBBCh 1979, DOH 1986, MSc 1990) who ran the course.”
High-profile appointments
Justice Jody Kollapen
Justice Jody Kollapen
Image: Judges Matter
• Justice Jody Kollapen (BProc 1978, LLB 1982) was appointed to the Constitutional Court of South Africa by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Justice Kollapen has a long track-record of service with numerous NGOs and community-based organisations, including the Legal Resources Centre, the Foundation for Human Rights and Laudium Care Services for the Aged. In his most recent address at the SECTION27 two-day constitutional lecture series he said: “Perhaps Gandhi’s words ring true at our current time, when he said that the rich need to learn to live more simply so that the poor can simply live. As we start the next quarter of a century of the life of our Constitution, it is a future that awaits us and we must believe it is one that is reachable, as former President Nelson Mandela reminded us some 25 years ago in 1996. Today we ask: how was it possible and how did South Africa and the world allow apartheid to survive for so long? That same question will be asked of us — namely, how did a society that suffered and sacrificed so much, allow poverty and inequality to endure for so long when we had the means and the ability to overcome it? What will our answer be?”
Justice David Hammerschlag
Justice David Hammerschlag (BA 1975, LLB 1978) has been appointed as Chief Judge in Equity in the New South Wales Supreme Court. Gifted with the surname “hammer blow”, Justice Hammerschlag has given due honour to this heritage with his cross-examinations and bellowing voice. Justice Hammerschlag started his legal career at the commercial law firm Werksmans. He became a partner at the firm at the age of 26 and was admitted to the Bar in 1983. Following his emigration to Australia in 1985, he rapidly became a partner of Freehill Hollingdale and Page before moving to the New South Wales Bar in 1991 and taking silk in 2000. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2007 where he has presided over high profile commercial and corporate matters.
New chief executive of Anglo American. He was excited to see his mechanical engineering class photo from 1989 on display during a recent visit to Wits. He was introduced to the School of Mining Engineering's Digimine, which is a state-of-the art mining laboratory that aims to make mining safter and sustainable using digital technology.
Image: Shivan Parusnath
Duncan Wandblad
Witsie Duncan Wanblad (BSc Eng 1989, GDE 1997) has been appointed as chief executive of global mining company Anglo American. He will also join the Board of Anglo American as an executive director and succeeds Mark Cutifani. In 2016 Wanblad was appointed group director of strategy and business development. He also served as CEO of Anglo American’s base metals business from 2013 to 2019. He is a non-executive director of De Beers and Kumba Iron Ore, and chairs the Anglo American Foundation. He said: “Having started my career underground as a junior engineer, I have never lost sight of what it takes to produce the metals and minerals that are ever more vital to support our life on this planet. Our responsibility to do so safely and sustainably, including meeting our employees’ and stakeholders’ expectations of us, has never been greater. Through the way we work, the technologies we are deploying to drive us towards our sustainability goals, and the breadth of opportunities I can see, we are determined to live up to that promise.”
Duncan Wanblad was excited to see his mechanical engineering class photo from 1989 on display during a recent visit to Wits. He was introduced to the School of Mining Engineering's Digimine, which is a state-ofthe-art mining laboratory that aims to make mining safer and sustainable using digital technology.
Notable Witsie honours
Thuso Mbedu
Image: Gallo/Getty Images
• Wits alumna Thuso Mbedu (BADA 2014) has added one more prestigious award for her performance in the television series "The Underground Railroad". She was awarded Best Female Performance in a New Scripted Series at the 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Los Angeles. Mbedu has mesmerised Hollywood with her performance of Cora Randall. Last year she tied for Outstanding Performance in a New Series at the Gotham Awards and won the award for TV Breakout Star at the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards.
Dr Aboubaker "Bucker" Dangor
Wits alumnus and Distinguished Research Fellow at Imperial College London, Dr Aboubaker “Bucker” Dangor (BSc Hons 1971, DSc 2005), was awarded the prestigious 2021 Michael Faraday Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics. The prize is awarded for experimental physics and Dr Dangor was praised for “outstanding contributions to experimental plasma physics, and in particular for his role in the development of the field of laser–plasma acceleration.” His experiments in this field were hugely successful and laid the foundations of laser-driven particle accelerators.
Dr Graham Sher
• One of Canada’s highest civilian honours, the Officer of the Order of Canada, has been awarded to Wits alumnus and CEO of the Canadian Blood Services Dr Graham Sher (BSc 1984, BSc Hons 1986, MBBCh 1987, PhD 1999). Dr Sher, who has been CEO since 2001, initially pursued a post-doctoral research programme at the University of Toronto and then specialised in blood disorders at the same university after his studies at Wits. He gravitated towards working in the public health system, which combined clinical medicine, research and teaching.
• Emeritus Professor Leslie Michael Irwig (BSc 1967, MBBCh 1970, PhD 1986) was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to tertiary education and medicine. He holds a Personal Chair in Epidemiology at Sydney Medical School. His research involves the application of epidemiological methods to generate evidence on which clinical and public health decisions may be based.
