UCT women aplenty in M&G book

Mail & Guardian’s Book of South African Women is a celebration of the achievements of women in South African society. (Or, in the words of M&G editor-in-chief, Nic Dawes, “to discover and represent people who are doing transformative work”.)


Prof Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan	Prof Jill Farrant	Prof Karen Sliwa

This year’s edition, launched in August and viewable online, features plenty of UCT-affiliated names. Here are several we spotted.

Graduate Lauren Beukes, who recently won the Arthur C Clarke Award – pipping some big-league authors – for her book Zoo City.
Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, the UCT scholar whose work on prehistoric animals and whose book, Famous Dinosaurs of Africa, showed once again that the continent has much to teach about life on planet Earth.
Graduate Yoliswa Dwane, co-founder and head of policy, communications and research of Equal Education, a grassroots organisation based in Khayelitsha.
Professor Jill Farrant, who holds the research chair in molecular physiology and plant desiccation tolerance at UCT.
Lara Foot, UCT graduate and award-winning writer and director, and now chief executive of the Baxter Theatre Centre, the first woman to hold the post.
Zama Katamzi, UCT physics graduate and researcher at the South African National Space Agency Space Science, who in her spare time encourages youngsters to take up – and enjoy – science at school.
Tarisai Mchuchu-Ratshidi, UCT law graduate and now director of the South African branch of Young in Prison, an international organisation that uses art to teach life skills to juvenile offenders.
The ever-bubbly Zolani Mahola, UCT graduate more famed for her role as lead singer for Afro-pop group Freshlyground.
Graduate Kirti Menon, registrar at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Psychologist Morgan Anne Mitchell, who works closely with UCT’s Law Clinic to help victims of violence and rape in Cape Town.
Fine-arts graduate Nandipha Mntambo, named the 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art and whose work is currently on a national touring exhibition.
Engineering graduate Nombulelo ‘Pinky’ Moholi, managing director of Telkom, or, as M&G would have it, “the First Lady of Telkom”.
Master’s graduate Joy Olivier, co-founder and executive director of IkamvaYouth, an NPO that offers academic support, career guidance, life skills and computer literacy training to township youth.
Graduate Dr Samantha Peterson is senior manager of the World Wide Fund for Sustainable Fisheries Programme.
Karen Sliwa, professor of cardiovascular research and director of the UCT Hatter Institute who, while at Wits University, founded and still leads The Heart of Soweto study, a large-scale project to understand heart disease in that sprawling neighbourhood.
Helen Zille, premier of the Western Cape, leader of the Democratic Alliance and, well, she worked here once. (And, at the behest of student groups, she’s likely to be spotted on campus a couple of times a year.)