TRUSTEES

Dr Franklin Sonn

Chairman of Board Dr Franklin Sonn is the Chairman of Africa Group Corporation (Pty) Ltd. He is the former Rector of the Penin

sula

Technikon. In 1995 he was appointed by President Mandela as South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States. He sits on various boards of directors, inter alia ABSA Bank, SAPPI, Western Province Rugby, Airports Company South Africa and Metropolitan Life. 

Mr Hylton Appelbaum

Mr Hylton Appelbaum is an Executive Trustee of The Liberty Foundation as well as Executive Director of The Liberty Group Limited. He is deeply involved in community development, socio-economic development, welfare and education in South Africa. He serves on the boards of many welfare and development organisations. He is trustee of The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, The Kagiso Trust, The National Business Initiative, amongst others.

Ms Nasima Badsha

Ms Nasima Badsha is Chief Executive Officer of the Cape Higher Education Consortium.  She was Deputy Director General in the Department of Education, from 1997 to 2006, where she headed the Higher Education Branch.  She has  also  held teaching, research and management positions at a number of South African universities and has been extensively involved in the development and implementation of higher education policy, both within and outside government.

Dr Cheryl Hendricks

Dr Cheryl Hendricks is Head of the Southern Africa Human Security Program at the Institute of Security Studies. Prior to this she was a political analyst at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, an Academic Manager at the Centre for Conflict Resolution and a Lecturer at the University of the Western Cape. She is widely published and is the co-editor of a book, Southern Africa: From National Liberation to Democratic Renaissance. She is currently Vice-Chairperson for Southern Africa of the African Association of Political Scientists. 

Ms Rhoda Kadalie

Prior to joining Impumelelo, Ms Kadalie was a Human Rights Commissioner responsible for the Western Cape and Northern Cape, an academic and founder of the Gender Equity Unit at the University of the Western Cape. Ms Kadalie has travelled extensively internationally, presenting lectures and papers on human rights and gender politics in South Africa.

In 1999 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Liberal Arts from the University of Uppsala, Sweden; in 2007 she recieved an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from her alma mater the University of the Western Cape. She is a columnist for the Business Day, Die Burger, and Beeld.

Mr Sibonile Khoza

Currently, he is the Director for Intergovernmental Relations and Constitutional Responsibilities in the Department of the Premier of the Western Cape. Prior to that, he was the Coordinator of and Senior Researcher in the Socio-Economic Rights Project of the Community Law, University of the Western Cape. He also held the position of Coordinator of the Street Law/Democracy Programme of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies based at then University of Natal. As a human rights activist, he has taught, lobbied and spoken on the right to food, socio-economic rights in particular, and human rights, in general. He has also conducted research on the same themes for international institutions such as the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisations. He currently sits on the Board of Impumelelo and Rapcan, and until recently, on the Board of Street Law.  

Mr Warren Krafchik

Mr Warren Krafchik is Deputy-Director of the International

Budget Project in Washington, DC. Previously, he was the Head of the Budget Information Service at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA). During this time, he was also responsible for conceptualising the proposal for the establishment of the Impumelelo Innovations Award Programme. Mr Krafchik is an economist specialising in the role of parliament and civil society in the budget process, as well as macro-economic policy.

Prof Jerry Kuye

Professor Jerry Kuye received his Bachelor’s Degree from the prestigious University of Manitoba in Canada and then attained a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs at the University of Winnipeg, in Canada. He then completed his Ph.D. Degree on Public Policy, Governance, Leadership and Administrative reforms at the University of Manitoba. He is currently the Director of the School of Public Management and Administration in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria. He taught Public Administration and Public Policy at the Univserity of Cape Town and was instrumental in the establishment of the Parliamentary Internship Program for Graduate students. Professor Jerry Kuye has received several awards and citations. Most remarkable is the CANADA 125 CONFEDERATION MEDAL for contribution to Canada, Compatriots and Service to the Public.

Dr Devi Rajab

Dr Devi Rajab is an independent consultant and writer. Her areas of expertise include conflict resolution, personal and career development, gender and cultural diversity. She was Dean of Student Development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal until December 2005, and has been appointed as the Career and Counselling Consultant for CAPRISA, an NGO doing research and development in the area of HIV / AIDS management.

Dr Rajab is a psychologist by training and was educated in South Africa and in the USA as a Fulbright scholar. She obtained her Master's degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Kansas and her PhD in Social Psychology from Missouri. She has several publications in international and local journals on women's issues, prejudice and inter-group relations, and serves on several Boards in community and educational organizations.

Ms Mary Turok

Ms Mary Turok trained as a social worker at UCT in 1952, which forced her into activism at an early age. She then worked as a journalist for a progressive newspaper and later in trade unions. In 1966 she went into exile after spells of banning, imprisonment and suburb arrest. In 1991 she returned to South Africa and became an ANC MP in 1994. She resumed activism in 1999 but with a development orientation this time round.  She has served a judge on our National Selection Committee for several Final Adjudication processes for the Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust.

Prof Sipho Seepe

Professor Sipho Seepe is Business and Higher Education Consultant. His prior positions included a

brief stint with ABSA as the Group Executive: Learning & Development, the Director & Head of The Graduate Institute of Management & Technology, Academic Director of Henley Management College, Southern Africa. Before jointing the private education sector he was the Acting Vice-Chancellor of Vista University and was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2002. Seepe was involved in a number of research capacity building initiatives.  He served on several committees including the Assessment Committee of the Foundation for Research Development in science education, the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) research panel tasked with evaluation of team research between Historically Advantaged and Disadvantaged Institutions, and was also involved in a project on promoting African scholarship pioneered by the then South African Association for Academic Development.

Recent public sector involvement include:

• Special advisor to the Minister of Housing Dr Lindiwe Sisulu
• Member of Judicial Commission of Inquiry appointed to investigate issues relating to the leadership challenges of Bakwena ba Mogopa
• Member of a Parliamentary Panel of Experts appointed by the presiding officers of Parliament
• Member of Ministerial Working Group appointed by the Minister of Education Ms Naledi Pandor to investigate racism and racist practices in higher education.

Prof Francis Wilson

Professor Francis Wilson has taught for over thirty years in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town where he founded and for many years directed the Southern African Labour & Development Research Unit (Saldru). Since 2001 he has been the Director of Data First Resource Unit (for Information Research and Scientific Training) in the Centre for Social Science Research. He is the author of a number of books, chapters, and articles including Labour in the South African Gold Mines (Cambridge, 1972) and, with Mamphela Ramphele, Uprooting Poverty: The South African Challenge (Cape Town & New York, 1989). He is co-editor of Poverty Reduction: What Role for the State in Today's Globalised Economy? (London, 2001)

Previous Board Members were:

• Helen Suzman
• Nomaindia Mfeketo
• Peter Vundla
• Paul Graham
• Wilmot James
• Isaac Mkhakabela
• Barbara Hogan
• Mpho Ndebele
• Vesta Smith