Patrons and Trustees

Dr Ally is responsible for the formulation, implementation and monitoring of all strategic and operational activities regarding UCT's development and fundraising endeavours. These include strengthening donor and alumni relations, developing fundraising and capital campaigns and bequest programmes and tapping into philanthropic and corporate social investment goals of foundations and corporate in Africa and abroad. DAD is tasked with ensuring that fundraising strategies yield adequate resources to achieve the university's mission at a time when higher education funding streams face significant risks.

Before joining UCT in August 2013, Dr Ally worked at the Ford Foundation as the Programme Officer for Southern Africa, managing their governance and civil society work in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe. He has also held the position of Country Representative and Executive Director of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in South Africa and worked for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Dr Ally served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Human Rights Violation Committee, chaired by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

A UCT alumnus, Dr Ally started his career as a history teacher at the John Bisseker Senior Secondary School in East London. He obtained his Masters at Rhodes University and a Doctorate from Cambridge University, both in History. He then worked as a senior history researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand where he served on the Senate and Council. He was also the founding chairperson of the Academic Staff Association.

Just before joining Independent Media, Zenariah was the Programme Manager at Cape Town Activa, a City of Cape Town initiative. Prior to that she held the position of Executive Director at Greymatter & Finch, having spent a decade at Sekunjalo Investments Ltd, a black controlled company listed on the JSE where she was responsible for corporate communications and transformation. Just before she joined Sekunjalo, she headed up the Western Cape Investigative Unit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Zenariah has a BA Honours in Sociology as well as a Diploma in Library and Information Science from UWC.

Between 1991 and 1996, Zenariah was based at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where she initially lectured in the Sociology department and was later a researcher at the Education Policy Unit (EPU), conducting research on higher education policy for a post-apartheid South Africa.

Zenariah is actively involved with projects in the arts and culture area as a performing artist and in an organisational capacity. She is a founding member of the Cape Cultural Collective, a volunteer arts and cultural initiative in the Western Cape. In addition, she serves as the Chairperson of the board of trustees of Inyathelo: The South African Institute for Advancement.

Nomvula Dlamini is the Executive Director of the Community Development Resource Association (CDRA), a civil society organisation that operates as a centre for organisational innovation and development practice. She has been working as an organisation development practitioner with the CDRA since 1995, providing organisational development support to civil society organisations concerned with social change and development, poverty, inequality and grant-making practice. In this time she has seen the work of the CDRA grow beyond the boundaries of South Africa and extend into other parts of Africa, Europe, Sweden and Finland.

Nomvula has experience in facilitating organisational transformation/change and learning processes, conducting developmental evaluations and designing/implementing action research processes in search of innovative organisational practices. Nomvula’s professional background is in education and she holds a masters degree in Adult Learning and Global Change. She has published articles on the CDRA website (www.cdra.org.za) and in other publications. She has also contributed as writer to the production of the Barefoot Guide on Learning Practices in Organisations and Social Change written by the Second Barefoot Collective (www.barefootguide.org).

Noel Daniels holds a M.A. in Education Administration and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked in all levels of the education and training system and in all sectors – business, NGO and government. For the past six years Noel has been a co-owner and the Managing Director of The Fundamentals Training Centre (FTC), a company that focuses on provision of leadership and management training to corporates, government and communities, both in South Africa and internationally. Noel leads and takes responsibility for FTC’s marketing initiatives, quality management system, including planning and confirming training programmes, developing the course menu, matching training offered to training needs of clients, assessment, quality assurance and monitoring and evaluation. He is also able to facilitate most courses offered by FTC and focuses on the project management, leadership, management, entrepreneurship and community development courses.

Noel is actively engaged in a number of leadership and management initiatives. His track record includes UCT’s BEd (Hons) Educational Leadership and Management and Advance Certificate in Education: Education Management Leadership Development programmes for which he has provided project management, lecturing, mentoring, assessment and moderation services. He is passionate about community development and is fully engaged in FTC’s own Higher Education and Training Certificate (HETC) in Development Practice, aimed at community-based leaders, especially young people and women.

Noel is also the co-owner of e-Agency, a materials development and publishing consultancy.

Noel also serves on the boards of three not-for-profit organisations. He is the Chairperson of African Development Options an organisation which focuses on poverty alleviation and employment creation; is the Treasurer of Darkroom Contemporary, a physical dance theatre company which focuses on accessible theatre, dance film and outreach, and; serves as a Trustee of Inyathelo: The South African Institute for Advancement, who works to build a vibrant democracy in South Africa by strengthening civil society organisations and higher education institutions, and developing a strong philanthropic movement. Building on his activist background, Noel is a committee member of the Athlone and Cape Flats Branch of Cape Chamber of Commerce in the capacity of Immediate Past Chairperson. He also represents the Chamber on the Premier’s Council of Skills.

Israel is passionate about the intentions behind Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), including the economic transformation of South Africa. Israel’s experience has focused on developing and executing strategies which would enable companies to better position themselves in the market, and develop partnerships with companies and organizations that want to implement “business-sense” enterprise development, socio-economic development and BEE strategies. He has also advised on BEE joint venture structure, company formations and reorganisations. Having worked with a number of multinational clients, Israel has advised on the implementation of Equity Equivalents, BEE compliance and has strong relations with the Department of Trade & Industry, the verification industry and various transformation stakeholders.

Israel has also lectured on “BEE for NGOs” and worked with civil society, universities and non-profits to develop BEE fundraising strategies to enable sustainable income streams into their organisations.

A good significant portion of Israel’s experience has been around the bid submission of the Renewable Energy IPP (Independent Power Producer) RFP (as gazetted by the Department of Energy). Given his BEE experience, his area of expertise has been to ensure that companies adhere and comply with the Economic Development obligations of their bids and he has assisted in project managing those programmes.

In December 2011, Israel was asked to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Association of BEE Consultants (NABC) and chair the Ethics & Discipline Committee. In April 2012, Israel was elected to Chairman of the NABC. With regular engagement with the DTI and industry stakeholders, the role of the NABC is to ensure that any queries from members around the legislation, its implementation or indeed its relevance for business, is understood, is theoretically and practically applicable and the access to ethical business standards and sound, up-to-date knowledge are a priority. Furthermore, Israel sits on the Department of Trade & Industry’s BEE Joint Technical Committee, with other industry stakeholders (ie ABVA, SANAS and IRBA) and engages in addressing the implementation of BEE.

Israel also has extensive working experience in France, Switzerland, UK and South Africa in both private and public sectors. Having worked at the United Nations Environmental Program, the Canadian High Commission Trade Office (as Trade Commissioner) in South Africa, Enablis (as Head of Partnerships) and in the financial services industry, Israel has assisted a number of Canadian companies understand BEE and how it may impact on their business.   Israel also presented Canada’s Clean Development Mechanism programs and private sector expertise to over 50 companies in South Africa during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

Israel studied Law and Social Sciences at the University of Warwick, UK, and pursued and completed a LL.B in Business Law at Coventry University, UK. In his previous capacity, Israel was on the Boards of the South Africa-Canada Chamber of Business (2007 to 2012) and the Bilateral Chamber Forum of South Africa.

Current Directorships

• Net1 UEPS Mosomo Broad-Based Trust (Chairman)
• National Association of BEE Consultants (Chairman)
• Micro Finance South Africa (Board member)