List of University of the Witwatersrand people

Updated on Sep 25, 2024

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This is a list of notable alumni and staff of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Arts

Aggrey Klaaste, journalist, editor of the Sowetan, 1988-2002

Angelique Rockas, pioneer of multi-racial and multi-national theatre London

Anton Hartman, musician

Athol Williams, award-winning poet and social philosopher

Aura Herzog, Israeli writer

Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, Zulu poet, novelist, and educator, first black South African to receive a Ph.D

Candice Breitz, artist, video and photography

Cecil Skotnes, artist

Claire Johnston, singer, known as the face and voice of Mango Groove

Clare Loveday, composer

Clement M. Doke, linguist

Clinton Fein, artist, activist

Ed Jordan, musician, composer, singer-songwriter, actor, TV and radio presenter; wrote and produced the orchestral score for Spud

Elisabeth Eybers, poet

Eric Fernie, art historian

Ernest Fleischmann (1924–2010), executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal, linguist, expert in Bantu and Khoisan languages

Ezekiel Mphahlele, writer and academic

Ferial Haffajee, editor of the City Press; former editor of The Mail and Guardian in South Africa

Gary Barber, American film producer of South African descent; chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer since 2010; co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment

Gavin Hood, writer, producer and director, directed Tsotsi

Harold Jenkins (Shakespeare scholar)

Herman Charles Bosman, writer and journalist

Ingrid de Kok, author and poet

Ivan Vladislavic, novelist

Janet Suzman, actress, director

Jani Allan, writer and journalist

Jillian Becker novelist, essayist, critic and expert on terrorism

Johnny Clegg, musician

Judith Mason, painter

Kendell Geers, artist

Kevin Volans, composer

Lewis Wolpert, developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster

Lionel Abrahams, novelist, poet, editor, critic, essayist and publisher

Lionel Ngakane, filmmaker

Lucy Allais, philosopher

Manfred Mann, keyboard player for the bands Manfred Mann and Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991

Phaswane Mpe, poet and novelist

Pieter-Dirk Uys, entertainer, AIDS activist

Raymond Heard, journalist, editor, media executive, political strategist

Shannon Esra, actress

William Kentridge, artist

Architecture and design

Denise Scott Brown, architect, planner, writer and educator

Rory Byrne, former chief designer for the Ferrari Formula One team

Pancho Guedes, Portuguese architect, participant of Team X

Business and entrepreneurship

Aanon Michael Rosholt, Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, 1982-1996; Chairman of Barlows until his retirement; Chairman of the Urban Foundation, the Joint Education Trust and the National Business Initiative; received the Order of the Grand Counsellor of the Baobab from the South African government

Adam Levy, property developer

Adrian Gore, CEO of Discovery Holdings Ltd; Chairman of Destiny Health Inc. in the USA and Prudential Health Limited in the UK; graduated from Wits with a B.Sc. (Honours) in Actuarial Science; in 1990, he was admitted as a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (Edinburgh), and in 1992 as an Associate of the Society of Actuaries (Chicago); member of the American Academy of Actuaries

Alan Demby, founder of Scoin shops; executive chairperson of The Gold Group, incorporating the South African Gold Coin Exchange, the Scoin Shop and GIC

Alan Pullinger, CEO of Rand Merchant Bank

Brian Joffe, Chief Executive Officer of Bidvest Plc; founded Bidvest Corporation in 1988

Brian Zylstra (1935-2012), graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1957

Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services

Charles Chinedu Okeahalam, economist and businessman, CEO of AGH Capital Group; former Liberty Life Professor of Financial Economics and Banking, University of the Witwatersrand

David Charles Brink, Lead Independent Non-Executive Director at Steinhoff International Holdings Limited; holds a Bachelor Science in Mining Engineering and a Masters of Science in Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand

David S. Lobel, founder and Managing Partner of Sentinel Capital Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm

David Sussman, founder and Executive Chairman of the JD Group; founded Sustein (Pty) Ltd in 1983

Derek Keys (born 1931), finance minister of South Africa, 1992-1994, in the cabinets of F W de Klerk and Nelson Mandela

Dixit Joshi, head of equities for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Deutsche Bank

Donald Gordon, founder of life insurance company Liberty Life in 1958 with R100,000 when he was 27 years old; awarded a knighthood in 2005 in recognition of his services to the arts and business

Elizabeth Bradley, Non-Executive Chairman of Toyota SA Limited; former Executive Director of AngloGold

Errol Glasser, US investment banker

Gail Kelly (born Gail Currer), Australian and South African businessperson; first woman CEO of a major Australian bank or top 15 company (2002); as of 2005 was the highest paid woman at an Australian corporation; CEO at Westpac

Gary Barber, Chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Bachelor of Commerce; certificate in the Theory of Accountancy

Geoffrey Matus, Canadian-based CEO and Chairman of HO Financial Limited; President of Mandukwe Inc

Graham Mackay, former Chairman and Ex-CEO of SABMiller plc, the world's second largest beer brewer; appointed Group Managing Director in 1997 and Chief Executive of South African Breweries plc upon its listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1999; Senior Non-Executive Director of Reckitt Benckiser Group plc; serves on the Compensation and Leadership Development, Finance and Product Innovation and Regulatory Affairs Committees

Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore, one of the world's largest commodity trading companies; on the boards of mining companies Xstrata plc and Minara Resources Ltd

John Chalsty, Principal and Chairman of Muirfield Capital Management LLC, an asset management firm; holds a BSc in chemistry and physics, a BSc (Hons) and MSc in Chemistry from the University of the Witwatersrand; the University also awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Commerce

Kim McFarland, CEO of Investec Asset Management (Pty) Ltd; Chief Financial Officer of Investec Asset Management (Pty) Ltd in Cape Town; member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants

Koos Bekker, former CEO of Naspers, an emerging markets media group operating in 129 countries; led the founding team of M-Net in 1985, which resulted in pay TV operations today spanning 48 countries in Africa; obtained a BA degree in law and an honours degree in languages at the University of Stellenbosch in 1974 and 1975 respectively; obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from University of the Witwatersrand in 1978 and an MBA from Columbia University in 1984; awarded an honorary doctorate degree in commerce from the University of Stellenbosch

Lael Bethlehem, former CEO of the Johannesburg Development Agency; Investment Executive at Hosken Consolidated Investments

Lazarus Zim, founder of Afripalm Resources (Pty) Ltd in 2006, and its chairman; CEO of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Ltd and Anglo American PLC since 2005; served as a member of the executive board of Anglo American Plc

Ludwig Lachmann, economist and important contributor to the Austrian School

Maria Ramos, economist and businesswoman; CEO of ABSA Group since 2009; former CEO of Transnet; named outstanding businesswoman of the year 2009 in the African Business Awards granted by the Commonwealth Business Council and African Business magazine

Mark Lamberti, Non-Executive Chairman of Massmart Holdings; Deputy Chairman of Massmart Holdings Ltd; Alternate Director of Servistar (Pty) Ltd; Non-Executive Director of Allied Electronics Corporation Ltd

Mark Prichard, CEO and a founding member of NMG Consultants and Actuaries (Pty) Ltd

Martin Morgan, Chief Executive Officer and Director of DMGT

Meyer Feldberg, Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley

Nathan Kirsh, South African-born Swazi business magnate, with a property empire spanning the UK, Swaziland and Australia; has Swazi citizenship; has residency status in the UK and the USA

Nic Kohler, CEO of Hollard, the largest independent and privately owned insurer in South Africa

Norm Judah, Microsoft Services chief technology officer of Worldwide Services and IT

Norman Adami, President of Miller Brewing, Milwaukee, US; President and Chief Executive Officer of SABMiller Americas; holds a Bachelor of Business Science (Hons) from the University of Cape Town and an MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand Business School

Nthato Motlana, giant of South African business and the anti-apartheid struggle; one of the accused, with Mandela and 18 others, in the 1952 Defiance Campaign Trial; all the accused were convicted for their role in a campaign of peaceful protests against apartheid laws; chairperson of the Soweto Committee of Ten which was formed to run Soweto's affairs after the collapse of the Soweto Urban Bantu Council

Patrice Motsepe, South African mining magnate; according to Forbes magazine, worth more than R17-billion after adding a further R7-billion to his net worth in 2009

Patrick Soon-Shiong, South African-American surgeon; founder, chairman, and CEO of Abraxis BioScience, a biotechnology company developing cancer treatment; billionaire, according to Forbes magazine

Robbie Brozin, CEO and founder of Nandos

Ronnie Apteker, founder of Internet Solutions, one of South Africa's largest internet service providers

Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, diamond and gold mining entrepreneur; financier; philanthropist; controlled De Beers; founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa

Sir Mark Weinberg, South African-born British financier; founder of Abbey Life Assurance Company

Sol Kerzner, hotel and gambling magnate; created the most successful hotel group in South Africa, Sun International; Chairman of the Board of Kerzner International, based in the Bahamas

Stan Bergman, Chairman and CEO of Henry Schein, Inc., the world's largest distributor of health products and services to office-based dental, medical and animal health practitioner; received his bachelor of commerce from the University of Witwatersrand; New York State Certified Public Accountant; member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; South African Chartered Accountant

Stephen Koseff, CEO of Investec PLC and Investec Limited; Director of Bidvest Group Limited; Chartered Accountant

Steven Collis, CEO and President of AmerisourceBergen Corporation since 2011; earned a Bachelor of Commerce with Honors degree from University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg

Thomas Boardman, non-executive director of Nedbank; former Chief Executive of the Group and the Bank; former Chief Executive and an executive director of BoE; former director of Boardmans, Sam Newman Limited, BoE International Holdings Limited, Northwind Investments; non-executive director of Mutual & Federal Insurance Company Limited and the Banking Association; director of Vodacom Group (Pty) Ltd and the WWF South Africa (World Wide Fund for Nature)

Tony Trahar, former chairman of Anglo American; educated at St John's College and the University of the Witwatersrand, after which he qualified as a chartered accountant; CEO of Anglo American 2000-2007

Victor Sekese, Chief Executive of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, the largest black-owned accounting firm in South Africa

Vuyo Jack, CEO of Empowerdex

Sir Winfried Franz Wilhem Bischoff, Anglo-German banker; chairman of Lloyds Banking Group plc; former chairman and former interim CEO of Citigroup; knighted in 2000

Education

Colin Bundy, Warden of Green College, Oxford; former Director and Principal of School of Oriental and African Studies, former Deputy Vice Chancellor of University of London; former Vice Chancellor and Principal of University of the Witwatersrand

Arthur Rubinstein, executive vice president for the University of Pennsylvania Health System; dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Garth Saloner, Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business

Jane den Hollander, Vice-Chancellor and President, Deakin University, Australia

Max Price, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town, Johannesburg; former dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand

Meyer Feldberg, dean of Columbia Business School 1989-2004; president of the Illinois Institute of Technology 1987-1989

Michael Stevenson, President and Vice-Chancellor, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC

Patrick Deane, Vice-Chancellor and President, McMaster University, Canada

Peter Sarnak, awarded the Wolf Prize 2014, Honorary doctorate 2014: University of the Witwatersrand

Prof Adam Habib, Vice-chancellor and Principal University of the Witwatersrand

Prof Brenda Gourley, higher education pioneer; accountant

Prof Jill Matus, Vice-Provost of Students and First-Entry Divisions, University of Toronto

Mark Mostert Professor, of Special Education at Regent University author and lecturer on Eugenics, Facilitated Communication and "useless eaters.

Prof Thandwa Mthembu, Vice-chancellor and Principal of Central University of Technology, Free State

Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, mathematics education researcher and academic

Historians

C. I. Hamilton, British naval historian

Cornelis de Kiewiet

Legal profession

Amina Cachalia

Arthur Chaskalson, former President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and Chief Justice of South Africa

Azhar Cachalia, Judge at the South African Supreme Court of Appeal; anti-apartheid activist; a founding member of the United Democratic Front; served as Secretary for Safety and Security

Beric John Croome, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa; Chartered Accountant CA (SA); taxpayers' rights legal pioneer; completed a Higher Diploma in Tax Law (cum laude) at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1989; awarded the Edward Nathan Friedland Tax Prize for the year; 2002 nominee for the University's Convocation Honour Award for his contribution to commerce and industry

Dikgang Moseneke, Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand and Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa

George Bizos, human rights advocate

Ismail Mahomed (1931-2000), appointed to the Constitutional Court in 1994; was made Chief Justice in 1998, a position he held until his death in 2000.

Jody Kollapen, Judge of the High Court of South Africa; former commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission; former attorney and member of Lawyers for Human Rights

John Dugard, professor of law

Justice Anthony Gubbay

Lord Joel Joffe, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Law (Wits), Honorary Doctorate of Law (Wits)

Margaret H. Marshall, Chief Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Mervyn E. King, former judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa and director of the Global Reporting Initiative

Prof David Bilchitz, professor at the University of Johannesburg and Director of the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law

Professor Ellison Kahn, legal scholar and former Dean of the School of Law

Professor Paul Boberg, legal academic and former Dean of the School of Law

Professor Sir Bob Hepple

Richard Goldstone, judge and international war crimes prosecutor

Ronald Bobroff, former President of the Law Society; current President of SAAPIL

Sir Sydney Lipworth, BCom, LLB, Honorary Doctor of Law

Sydney Kentridge, advocate and Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court

Tawanda Mutengwa, South African Australian legal scholar

The Honourable Justice David Hammerschlag, Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia

Medicine

Dr John Brereton Barlow - Barlow's syndrome

Dr Julien Hoffman, paediatric cardiologist; cardiac physiologist; expert in the epidemiology of congenital cardiovascular malformations

Dr Mary Malahlela, first black woman doctor in South Africa

Dr Nthatho Harrison Motlana, activist, academic, businessman, Mandela family physician

Dr Saul Levin, U.S.-based psychiatrist

Dr Alan Menter (MBBCh, 1966, Wits), dermatologist; expert on psoriasis; Chairman of the Division of Dermatology; Director of the Dermatology Residency program for Baylor University Medical Center; Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School

Dr Basil Hirschowitz, inventor of the first fiberoptic endoscope

Dr George Cohen, radiologist; established Harry's Angels, the world's largest international flying medical specialist service, which performed over 5.500 operations by the end of 1977, and examined and treated more than 40.000 non-operative cases

Dr Jack Penn, known for his innovative techniques in plastic surgery, notably the Brenthurst splint

Dr Neil Segal, oncologist

Dr Priscilla Kincaid-Smith, "the mother of nephrology", appointed Commander of The Order of the British Empire (Civil) in 1975, for services to medicine; appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia; first woman to become President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (1986–1988); won Australian Achiever Award in 1997 for a lifetime's work in renal health

Dr William Harding le Riche, epidemiologist; established the first non-segregated health centre in Knysna

Prof Glenda Gray, President of the South African Medical Research Council, pediatrician

Prof Phillip Tobias, palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg; known for his work at South Africa's hominid fossil sites; anti-apartheid activist

Prof Sydney Brenner, biologist; 2002 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, shared with H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston

Professor Raymond Dart, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, 1925-1943, the longest term of service in that capacity; announced the discovery of the Taung skull, the first of Africa's early hominids, and named the species Australopithecus Africanus

Senior Surgeon Dr Phyllis Knocker, first woman surgeon in South Africa; first woman President of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (1983-1986)

Sir Terence English, cardiac surgeon

Professor James Ware, surgeon

Politics and public service

Achille Mbembe, philosopher and political scientist, staff member at Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research

Adrian Guelke, political scientist

Ahmed Kathrada, politician, anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner

Barbara Hogan, Minister of Public Enterprises in the Cabinet of South Africa; former Minister of Health

Baron Joel Joffe, human rights lawyer who represented Nelson Mandela in the Rivonia Trial

Bernard Friedman, senior lecturer in otolaryngology; founder of the Progressive Party

Connie Mulder, former politician

David Webster, social anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist

Dennis Brutus, former political activist and poet

Eduardo Mondlane, father of Mozambican independence

Essop Pahad, anti-apartheid activist and politician

Gwede Mantashe, politician; ANC secretary general and chairperson of the South African Communist Party

Harry Schwarz, lawyer, politician, ambassador to United States and anti-apartheid leader

Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid activist and member of Parliament

Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance

Jan Hofmeyr, politician

Jef Valkeniers, doctor and politician

Joe Slovo, Communist politician; long-time leader of the South African Communist Party; leading member of the African National Congress

John Matisonn, political journalist and author

Lucien van der Walt, sociologist and co-author, along with Michael Schmidt, of Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (Counter-Power vol. 1)

Mamphela Ramphele, academic, businesswoman, medical doctor and anti-apartheid activist

Natan Gamedze, Swazi Prince, Supreme Court Translator and Orthodox rabbi

Nelson Mandela, first President of South Africa to be elected in fully representative democratic elections

Pennuell Maduna, former Minister of Justice of South Africa

Robert Sobukwe, political dissident; founded the Pan Africanist Congress in opposition to the apartheid regime

Rupert Taylor, political scientist

Ruth First, anti-apartheid activist and scholar

Sir Michael Bear, former Lord Mayor of London 2010/11

Teresa Heinz Kerry, philanthropist, wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry

Thulas Nxesi, Minister of Public Works

Thuli Madonsela, Public Protector of South Africa

Tony Leon, politician and former leader of the Democratic Alliance

Tshilidzi Marwala, academic, businessman and political theorist

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of Nelson Mandela

Science and technology

Aaron Klug, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1982

Audrey Richards, social anthropologist

Danie G. Krige, mining engineer who pioneered the field of geostatistics

David Forsyth, computer vision researcher at University of Illinois at Urbana champaign

David King, scientist

John Edmund Kerrich, first head of the Statistics department. Famous for experiments in probability performed while interned (in Denmark) during the second world war.

David Lewis-Williams, Professor emeritus of Cognitive Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand; specialist in Upper-Palaeolithic and Bushmen rock art; founder of the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand

David Pettifor, physicist

Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, known for her work in materials science

Doron Lubinsky, mathematician and author

Dr Bernie Fanaroff, physicist and Project Director at South African Square Kilometre Array Project

Frank Nabarro, solid state physicist, DVC

Friedel Sellschop, physicist

Sir Jack Zunz, Civil Engineer, knighted in 1989, awarded Honorary Doctorate of Science in Engineering (2015) from the University of the Witwatersrand.

H. J. De Blij, geographer, professor, television personality, analyst

Herbert Sichel, statistician

Himla Soodyall, geneticist

James Kitching, Karooo paleontologist

Jan C. A. Boeyens, chemist

John Burland, Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Investigator at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Imperial College London; Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the Imperial College, London; led the international consulting team that stabilized the leaning tower of Pisa; one of the few engineers to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

Jonathan Lewis, surgical oncologist; biomedical researcher; developer of cancer drugs

Julien Hoffman, cardiologist, professor

Kim Man Lui, software engineer

Lars Georg Svensson, cardiac surgeon

Lee Berger, paleoanthropologist, winner of the first National Geographic Prize for Research and Exploration

Lewis Wolpert, graduated in Civil Engineering; studied biology at Imperial College; Professor of Biology Applied to Medicine at University College, London; Fellow of the Royal Society; popular science lecturer and writer

Marlene Behrmann, cognitive neuroscientist specializing in visual perception, specifically object recognition; professor at Carnegie Mellon University

Max Gluckman, anthropologist

Peter Sarnak, mathematician

Phillip Tobias, paleoanthropologist and anatomist

Raymond Dart, anatomist and anthropologist; discoverer of the Taung Child

Ron Clarke, paleoanthropologist

Selig Percy Amoils, ophthalmologist and biomedical engineering inventor

Seymour Papert, artificial intelligence pioneer and inventor of the Logo programming language

Sir Basil Schonland, Honorary Doctor of Science (1957); founding director of the Bernard Price Institute of Geophysics at the University of the Witwatersrand; made significant contributions to the study of atmospheric electricity, photographing lightning and investigating the electric fields generated by thunderclouds

Tingye Li; pioneer in lasers and optical communication

Wanda Orlikowski, information systems scholar

Sports

Ali Bacher, former Test cricketer and an administrator of the United Cricket Board of South Africa

Bruce Fordyce, marathon and ultramarathon athlete who won the Comrades Marathon a record nine times (eight times consecutively)

Chick Henderson, rugby union footballer and commentator

Dr Alan Menter, chosen for the Springbok rugby team in 1968

Gary Bailey, football (played for England)

George Mallory, first South African to summit Mount Everest (in the footsteps of his grandfather, of the same name)

Gordon Day, athlete

Hendrik Ramaala, winner of the 2004 New York City Marathon and 2004 Mumbai Marathon; has two silver medals from the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 1998 and 1999; in 2006 he won the men's Great North Run; two-time national champion in the 5.000 metres

Henry Forrest, rugby

Hugh Baiocchi, golf

Ian Holding, squash

Joe Kaminer, rugby

Mandy Yachad, former cricketer and field hockey player who represented the South African national team in both sports

Mark Plaatjes

Odette Richard, gymnastics

Paul Nash, athlete

Richard Snell, cricketer

Stephen Jack, cricket

Wilf Rosenberg, rugby