Our Board Members

I

Mr Zola Madikizela
Chair of the Board

Mr. Madikizela is a development specialist and independent consultant. He was the South African Director of Atlantic Philanthropies, a major international philanthropy that focused on advancing justice, equality, and health. He served on a number of important South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on Primary Health Care Revitalisation, the Ministerial Steering Committee on Executive Leadership Training in Health, and the Board of Trustees of the Learning Trust. He is a graduate of the University of the Transkei, has a Master’s of Science in Population Studies from the University of Wales and an MPH from the University of the Witwatersrand. Before becoming Programme Executive and Director at Atlantic Philanthropies, Mr. Madikizela was a programme officer at the United Nations Population Fund, and a Community Liaison Officer at the NDOH.

II

Ms Nomathando Mthembu

Ms. Mthembu has an LLB degree from UKZN. She is Director of NP Mthembu Attorneys, and deals with commercial transactions, employment law litigation at the CCMA and Bargaining Councils as well as Labour Courts, as well as litigation matters, which include debt collection and restraint of trade matters. She is member of the Pension Lawyers Association and a member of the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa (IoDSA).

III

Dr Patrick Muze Matse

Dr. Matse is Senior Lecturer and Academic Leader, Community Development at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He has a PhD and Postgraduate Diploma in Medical History from the University of Cambridge, UK, focusing on disease patterns. He also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Management and a Master of Public Health (MPH), both from the University of the Witwatersrand. Before assuming his position at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr. Matse was the Community Component Manager and Project Manager at the Health Systems Trust. Dr. Matse played an important role in the reengineering Primary Health Care Project, where he focused on developing national data collection and M&E tools to be used by Community Health Workers at the household level. He conducted community dialogues to enhance engagement between the Department of Health and social cluster Government departments.

IV

Dr Michael Bennish
Ex Officio Member
Executive Director 

Dr. Bennish is a pediatrician with sub-specialty training in infectious diseases. He has extensive experience working in community health, having worked on community-based approaches to health care in Bangladesh, where he worked for seven years, the United States, and now South Africa for 20 years. He helped found Mpilonhle as an organization dedicated to improving the health and social development of disadvantaged youth, and has been active in mentoring staff at a number of levels and in a number of disciplines, including in medicine, pediatrics, and community health organization and delivery.

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