List of University of the Witwatersrand people

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
• Dr Hans George Adler, musicologist; collector and classical music promoter, Honorary Doctor of Philosophy (1978)
• 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
• Mbongeni Buthelezi, artist known for "painting" in plastic
• 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
• Stan Katz, broadcaster
• 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

• 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
• 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
• Derek Keys (born 1931), finance minister of South Africa, 1992-1994, in the cabinets of F W de Klerk and Nelson Mandela
• 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
• 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
• Gordon Schachat, co-founder of African Bank Limited and prominent art collector
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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 Loyiso Nongxa, Vice-chancellor and Principal University of the Witwatersrand
• Mark Mostert Professor, of Special Education at Regent University author and lecturer on Eugenics, Facilitated Communication and "useless eaters.
• Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, mathematics education researcher and academic.

Engineering

• Sir Jack Zunz^[1]
• John Burland^[1]
• Lewis Wolpert^[1]
• Michael Bear^[1]
• Rob Pullen^[1]

Historians

• C. I. Hamilton, British naval historian
• Cornelis de Kiewiet
• Bruce Murray
• Charles van Onselen
• Charles Hilliard Feinstein (18 March 1932 – 27 November 2004) was a noted South African and British economic historian. He was born in Johannesburg, received his early education at Parktown Boys' High School and studied at Witwatersrand University and Cambridge University where he completed his doctorate.

Legal profession

4 May 2009: Dr Beric Croome was keynote speaker for the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) graduation ceremony for the students of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management. Photograph shows from left to right: Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Y Ballim; Dr Beric Croome; Professor David Kolitz, President of the Convocation of the University of the Witwatersrand.

• 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
• Dr Charles Theodore Te Water, Honorary Doctor of Law(1955)
• 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^[2]
• Justice Anthony Gubbay
• Justice Bheki Maphalala
• 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
• Michael Sutherland
• Michael Arnheim
• Professor Sir Bob Hepple
• Richard Goldstone, judge and international war crimes prosecutor
• Sydney Kentridge, advocate and Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court
• Johan D. van der Vyver, I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Emory University School of Law, formerly a professor of law at Wits

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 Catherine Nyongesa, radiation oncologist
• Dr Jack Penn, known for his innovative techniques in plastic surgery, notably the Brenthurst splint
• 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
• Sir Terence English, cardiac surgeon
• Professor James Ware, surgeon
• Dr Selig Percy Amoils, Inventor of the Cryoprobe, recipient of the silver Order of Mapungubwe in 2006

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
• Mmusi Maimane, politician and DA leader
• 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
• 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

David Forsyth, a computer vision researcher from the University of Witzwatersrand currently working at the University of Illinois

• Lucinda Backwell, paleoanthropologist
• 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
• Dr Bernie Fanaroff, physicist and Project Director at South African Square Kilometre Array Project
• Frank Nabarro, solid state physicist, DVC
• Friedel Sellschop, physicist ^[3]
• 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
• Beric Skews scientist, faculty member
• 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
• 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

Miscellaneous

• Akiva Tatz, rabbi, medical ethicist, author and orator
• Cedric Phatudi
• Giles Henderson, CBE, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford
• Imran Garda, news anchor for Al Jazeera English.
• Jonathan Drummond-Webb
• Ken Costa, Chairman of Alpha International
• The Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town

References