Staff

 

Amanda Dissel

Amanda Dissel is Programme Manager of the Criminal Justice Programme. She holds a BA LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is an admitted attorney, who practiced in criminal law, human rights and matrimonial law prior to joining the CSVR in 1994. Her areas of speciality within the criminal justice field are penal policy, juvenile justice, sentencing and human rights. She has published research on prisons and correctional services, and on conditions of detention in police custody. She managed a human rights training project for prisoners and correctional officials, and she has also trained members of the Independent Judicial Inspectorate for Prisons, and Independent Prison Visitors. She was the recipient of the Rockefeller Resident Fellowship (1997) at the Centre for the Study of Violence in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has done international consultancy work with the Kenya police, and has worked for several NGOs internationally and in South Africa. Amanda is currently working on a project to make integrated services available to young offenders in prison.

adissel@csvr.org.za

 

Angelica Pino Davis

apinodavis@csvr.org.za

 

Anu Pillay

Anu Pillay's passion and motivation for her work is spurred by her personal experience of surviving violence, raising four children as a single parent, engaging in the struggle to end apartheid and educating herself. She began her professional life in 1981 when she started the first non-racial pre-school in the Eastern Cape. Her work over the past 25 years has focused on women, gender and development although life has taken her on many different career paths. She has experienced working in the private sector, the public sector and the development sector. She expanded her work to include conflict transformation and peace, with a sharp focus on women and gender. Anu has a well developed profile in the development sector of South Africa for her work on social entrepreneurship in an international non-governmental organisation. She is more well known, however, for her work with violence against women and is the co-founder and board member of Masimanyane Women's Support Centre and Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy to End Violence Against Women (VAW). She has published many papers and articles on peace and VAW and contributed to and co-edited a book on conflict: The Aftermath: Women in Post-Conflict Transformation published by Zed Books, London, which focuses on women and conflict in Africa.
See also her paper on gender, peace and peacekeeping at http://www.iss.org.za Occasional Paper series No. 128

apillay@csvr.org.za

 

Bella Montsho

bmontsho@csvr.org.za

 

Bilkees Vawda

Bilkees Banoo Vawda is currently a senior administrator for two programmes (Criminal Justice Programme and the Youth Programme) at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. Before joining CSVR in 2003, Bilkees worked as an administrator and assistant researcher at the Centre for Training and Development (CTD). She also served as office manager and national secretary of the Islamic Medical Association (IMA) and was a part-time bank-teller at the Standard Bank for three years.

Bilkees has vast experience in office management as well as general and financial administration. Her skills also include organising and coordinating national and international events.

Bilkees holds a Diploma in Fashion Design and Management. She has attended many short capacity building courses.

bvawda@csvr.org.za

 

Boitumela Kekana

Boitumelo Kekana is a social worker in the Victim Empowerment Programme (CSVR). He joined the organisation in 1997 from child welfare society where he spent four years focusing on child sexual abuse awareness and treatment. Since joining CSVR Boitumelo he has focused mainly on trauma counseling and debriefing for victims of violence, as well as training of frontline workers on trauma management which includes modules on basic counseling skills, victim empowerment, crises intervention, problem solving skills model, bereavement model, conflict management, stress management and self care.

Boitumelo has also run life skills training with ex-combatants. He is currently running support groups with refugee children, most of whom come from Rwanda, Burundi, Angola and the DRC. He also runs a support group for victims of past human rights violation together with the Khulumani support group (Vaal branch).

Boitumelo holds a BA Honours degree in Social Work from Fort Hare University and a Masters degree in Social Work from Clark Atlanta University USA. His thesis topic was: The impact of an advocacy programme on the residential mentally challenged children.

bkekana@csvr.org.za

 

Brian Molewa

bmolewa@csvr.org.za

 

Busisiwe Mahontsi

bmahontsi@csvr.org.za

 

Carnita Ernest

Carnita Ernest is a Project Manager in the Transitional Justice Programme. She joined the staff at CSVR in May 1999, and has been involved in various projects, as both researcher and manager, evaluating the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The focus of her research has been on victim's perspectives on reconciliation, the impact of the TRC on the health sector, and an evaluation of the amnesty hearings. She is currently managing the Southern Africa Reconciliation Project which works on reconciliation in five other countries in the SADC region. She also manages the CSVR's 'Race and Reconciliation' Project (Consolidating Citizenship,and Reconciliation in the Post-TRC Period), where her focus is on youth and memory. Her areas of interest include transitional justice, reconciliation, human rights (especially social and economic rights), and youth identity. She is particularly interested in the developing accessible education and training materials informed by the CSVR's high-quality research.

Prior to joining CSVR, Carnita worked at the National Progressive Primary Health Care Network, and was involved in various projects including health policy analysis, training and advocacy. Carnita holds a BA(Hons) degree in Psychology from the University of Cape Town, and is completing an MA in Community Psychology with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

cernest@csvr.org.za

 

Collet Ngwane

cngwane@csvr.org.za

 

David Bruce

David Bruce is a Senior Researcher in the Criminal Justice Program at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. While he has a general interest in issues of policing, criminal justice and crime prevention his work is mainly focused firstly on issues of police integrity, conduct and accountability and secondly on the issue of effective evidence based crime investigation and prosecution. In the recent period his work on police integrity has focused on the use of force by police and a range of related issues including the problems of police brutality and deaths as a result of police action, and measures to control police use of force including internal control measures and oversight mechanisms. His work has also focused on the issue of police corruption and he is currently editing a book on preventing and controlling police corruption and brutality in South Africa. The work on evidence based crime investigation and prosecution links to an interest in the role of witnesses, particularly in relation to the types of skills which detectives and prosecutors need to have to work effectively with witnesses, and the links between these issues and victim empowerment. David also coordinates the policing components of the work of the CJP. In the past his work has also dealt with other aspects of policing and crime prevention including community policing and local level safety and security issues as well as the issue of vigilantism. He has written for a variety of South African newspapers as well as criminal justice related journals. Prior to joining CSVR in 1996, David worked for the Nedcor Project on Crime, Violence and Investment, the Ceasefire Campaign, the National Youth Service Initiative, the End Conscription Campaign and the journal, Critical Health. In 1988 he received the Reebok Human Rights Award after being sentenced to imprisonment for refusing to do military service under the apartheid system on the grounds of his opposition to racism. He has a BA from the University of the Witwatersrand which he obtained in 1988 and a Masters in Public and Development Management which he obtained in 2000.

dbruce@csvr.org.za

 

Dorothy Khosa

Dorothy is Manager of the CSVR Youth Programme. Since 1994 she has initiated and established sustainable violence reduction programmes in township schools. This entails training, facilitation, mobilisation and other basic community development strategies. She has developed programmes and established structures that serve as ideal models for youth in a transitional period. She is a Social Worker, holds an Honours degree in Psychology, and a Masters in Philosophy that focussed on Adolescent Guidance.

dkhosa@csvr.org.za

 

Ereshnee Naidu

Ereshnee obtained a Master's Degree in 1998 in Gender, Identity and Performance and a Master's Degree in Forced Migration in 2004 from the University of Witwatersrand. She joined CSVR in 2002 and is currently employed as a Project Manager. Her main areas of research include symbolic reparations within a transitional justice framework, the role of memory and culture as a vehicle for peacebuilding and reconciliation, and the inclusion of marginal groups into the conceptualisation and development of sites of conscience. Thus far, Ereshnee has co-ordinated and conducted the research for feasibility study with the associative communities, and assisted in the education research for the initial phase of the development of Constitution Hill. She has also worked on the feasibility study for the Kliptown Freedom Square Development and has developed a community participation strategy to be implemented over the next five years. She has more recently conducted research around symbolic reparations and has designed and developed a community centred approach that uses a participatory training methodology to assist marginal communities and survivors to conceptualise their own memory projects. Other areas of work at CSVR have included research around violence against women with disabilities and the development of a directory of services for refugee victims of sexual and gender based violence. Prior to her work at CSVR, Ereshnee was employed as an Assistant Director at the Gauteng Department of Sport Recreation Arts and Culture. She was instrumental in the conceptualisation and promotion of commemorative events as well as language and heritage policy development and awareness.

enaidu@csvr.org.za

 

Hugo van der Merwe

Hugo is the Programme Manager of the Transitional Justice Programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence where he has worked since 1998. Hugo currently manages the CSVR's Cape Town office. He specialises in research design and management, and his research interests are violence, conflict resolution and reconciliation. He has developed and managed numerous research projects evaluating the work and impact of the TRC and examining reconciliation programmes in South Africa. These projects have looked at issues such as the psychological impact of the TRC, the impact of the TRC on community reconciliation, assessing institutional transformation, evaluating community reconciliation programmes, and looking at the comparative lessons of the TRC.

Hugo received his doctorate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University (Virginia, USA), and a BSc from the University of Cape Town (majoring in Statistics and Sociology). Hugo was previously employed as Research Coordinator at the Community Dispute Resolution Trust (1993-97) where he was responsible for programme evaluation, policy development and advocacy in relation to issues of community justice, family mediation and restorative justice. He has also held research positions at the Centre for Conflict Resolution (Cape Town), Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (USA) and the National Institute for Dispute Resolution (USA).

He is the co-editor of Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice (Manchester University Press, 1993), and has authored various papers, chapters and articles on community justice, family mediation, restorative justice, reconciliation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He has been invited to present papers on his TRC work at numerous international conferences, workshops and official briefings. He has served as Vice President of the South African Association of Conflict Intervention (1995-97) and as Deputy Chair of the South African Association of Mediators in Family and Divorce Matters (1994-6). He received a United States Institute of Peace Fellowship to complete the research for his doctorate (1997-1998). Hugo is based in CSVR's Cape Town office.

hvdmerwe@csvr.org.za

 

Katrina Mseme

kmseme@csvr.org.za

 

Kenneth Collis

Kenneth holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, specialising in Computer Science, he is the current IT support co-ordinator for the CSVR. His primary interests are in contributing to the NGO Sector, through the use of available & affordable technology, and to the growth of South Africa in the broader sense.

kcollis@csvr.org.za

 

Kindiza Ngubeni

Kindiza holds BA in history and in African Studies from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). He is a community facilitator in the CSVR's Criminal Justice Program has facilitated a project called Voices of Young Offenders, where he has worked for a decade. He is currently involved in a project, which 'Voices of Young Offenders' which worked with 24 offenders between March and July 2000 in Leeuwkop prison near Johannesburg. The project investigated some of the reasons why these young people ended up in jail, and their ideas about crime and violence. Following on the learnings gained from the Voices of Young OffendersProject, Kindiza co-facilitated a Life Skills training programme for male and female young offenders in Johannesburg prison. Prior to working with young offenders, he was a facilitator involved in the establishment and capacity-building of Community Police Fora (CPF's) in the Gauteng province,in collabotation with other NGOs. He went to Netherlands for community-police relations study tour in 1994 with a South African delegation. He has trained police officers at station level in many parts of Gauteng, including Soweto, Tembisa, Sebokeng and Evaton, and has been involved in various processes of mediation between the police and community.

kngubeni@csvr.org.za

 

Lamla Happy-boy Kwetana

Lamla Happy-boy Kwetana serves as a Senior Community Facilitator with CSVR in its Cape Town office in the Transitional Justice Programme. The purpose of the job is to carry out intervention, advocacy and training activities for the Transitional Justice Programme and to coordinate intervention and training activities in relation to restorative justice and peace building projects with ex-combatants.

Happy started his public participation interest during the days of activism against apartheid. He possessed a number of leadership positions both at local and National Executives in the student organizations in the early 90s. In 1995, he was appointed to the Eastern Cape Education Transitional Task Team (ETTT), focusing mainly on its conflict management section.

Happy was involved in peace building work with UMAC (U Managing Conflict) for four years. Happy joined UMAC to further its interests of peace building in the area of Mhlontlo Municipality. He was responsible for the establishment of the Community Safety Forum in the formerly disadvantaged, violence ridden areas of Qumbu and Tsolo under the guardianship of the Mhlontlo Municipality. This project built the CSF as a vehicle to test the feasibility of such multi-agency approach. He participated in a number of exchange programmes whilst at UMAC which includes a visit to Zimbabwe’s Eastern Province of Mutare in order to share the best practices in the Peace building field.

He has been a Project Manager for a R10 million pilot project of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism under the Expanded Public Works Programme. The project is implemented in the area of Ngangelizwe Township in the City of Mthatha under King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality.

He has studied a Public Management and Development Diploma with the former Technikon of South Africa. He is studying towards an LLB degree with the University of South Africa.

lkwetana@csvr.org.za

 

Mafere Kubushi

mkubushi@csvr.org.za

 

Malose Langa

Malose Langa is a lecturer in the School of Community and Human development at the University of Witwatersrand. Malose is a registered Community-Counselling Psychologist and works with victims of violence at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) Trauma Clinic. He was part of the research team that conducted a study with former combatants in the East Rand to explore challenges facing former combatants after 13 years of democracy. His research interests include risk-taking behaviours amongst the youth, suicide, substance abuse, trauma and the psychology of men (masculinity). Malose is a PhD candidate at Wits University and his thesis is entitled: Becoming a Man, Exploring multiple voices of masculinity amongst adolescent boys in Alexandra Township, South Africa.

mlanga@csvr.org.za

 

Marivic Garcia

mgarcia@csvr.org.za

 

Megan Bantjes

mbantjes@csvr.org.za

 

Moloko Malakalaka

mmalakalaka@csvr.org.za

 

Monica Bandeira

mbandeira@csvr.org.za

 

Mosima Selemela

mselemela@csvr.org.za

 

Mpho Matlhakola

mmatlhakola@csvr.org.za

 

Muzikayise Tshabalala

Muzi Tshabalala is a community facilitator in CSVR's Youth Violence Prevention Programme where he works with youth from Soweto and Katlehong in the Safe Start project. He joined CSVR in 2000 as a part-time community facilitator in the 40 Safe Schools Project. He was then employed as an intern from 2001 until 2002. He joined CSVR full time in 2003. Prior to joining CSVR Muzi worked at the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa as a life skills educator under the Refugee Life Skills Project for nine months. He is currently studying at UNISA with the intention of qualifying as a Professional Youth Worker.

mtshabalala@csvr.org.za

 

Nahla Valji

Nahla Valji holds a BA from the University of British Columbia and an MA in International Relations and Joint Diploma in Forced Migration Studies from York University, Toronto. She is currently a Project Manager in the Transitional Justice Programme.

In recent years she has worked on a number of projects related to issues of transitional justice, including authoring a comparative study on issues of race, citizenship and violence in the transitions of South Africa and Guatemala with a specific focus on both countries' truth commissions and conducting a comparative evaluation of Ghana's National Reconciliation Commission. At present she is the coordinator of the African Transitional Justice Researchers Network – a project that has been initiated with CSVR's institutional partners to engage in identifying and addressing capacity building needs amongst transitional justice researchers on the African continent.

Nahla was previously Gender Project Officer and Researcher at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and prior to this she was employed as a Social Development Researcher at the Community Agency for Social Enquiry in Johannesburg.

nvalji@csvr.org.za

 

Nomfundo Mogapi

nmogapi@csvr.org.za

 

Nomvula Mahlangu

nmahlangu@csvr.org.za

 

Ollie Mahopo

omahopo@csvr.org.za

 

Oupa Makhalemele

Oupa Makgalemele is a Researcher on the Southern Africa Reconciliation Project in the CSVR's Transitional Justice Programme. He has BA (Hons) in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand. Having worked at the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism and the Robben Island Museum, he joined CSVR in 2001. His experience is in international comparative research, memory and transition and liberation struggle history. He is based in our Cape Town office.

omakgalemele@csvr.org.za

 

Peter Townshend

ptownshend@csvr.org.za

 

Pule Rampa

prampa@csvr.org.za

 

Romi Fuller

Romi is employed as a researcher in the Gender Programme of the CSVR. Her current research project is looking at the outcomes of rape cases in the South African criminal justice system, focusing specifically on the high attrition rate of rape cases from first police report to court decision.

Romi has a BA (Honours) from Rhodes University, as well as a Senior Status BA and a Masters in Women's Studies from Oxford University. Before joining the CSVR she worked as the Managing Editor of the academic medical ethics journals Bioethics and Developing World Bioethics.

rfuller@csvr.org.za

 

Rosey Sesinyi

Rosey spent a significant period of her life in exile while South Africa suffered under the apartheid system. During that time, she worked for the Council Of Churches of Kenya for 17 years as a Secretary in the Refugee Desk. She travelled extensively in Africa, working as a conference steward for the World Council of Churches. Rosey excelled in translating Kiswahili, which is one of the official languages in East & Central Africa. Rosey joined the CSVR as the Resource Centre administrator in 1996, when she returned from exile.

rsesinyi@csvr.org.za

 

Rosie Nxumalo

rnxumalo@csvr.org.za

 

Sasha Gear

Sasha joined the CSVR in March 1999 as a researcher on the Violence and Transition Project. Her research focus area was ex-combatants - former members of the SADF, SAP, MK, APLA as well as former members of the Self Defence Units (SDUs) and Self Protection Units (SPUs). The research aimed to explore the effects of combat experiences (or preparation for combat) on the ex-combatants themselves, their families, and society more generally. In September 2000, she moved to the Centre's Criminal Justice Program, where she is currently conducting research into sex and sexual violence in South African male prisons. The project aims to provide a better understanding of a very hidden part of prison life so as to contribute to strategies to combat the transmission of HIV in prison and to reduce violence and sexual abuse in prison. Sasha has a BA in Sociology from Wits University.

sgear@csvr.org.za

 

Shamila Singh

Shamila Singh has a Masters in Business Leadership (2004) and an Honours Degree in Industrial Psychology from the University of South Africa (2001). She has completed a qualification in labour law and labour relations (Unisa, 2006). She also completed a management programme through Henley College (UK) in 1996 and a full accounting certificate (UNISA, 1995) and is a practicing psychometrist.

She is presently employed as the Shared Services Manager at the CSVR and oversees the administration, human resources and IT functions of the organisation. Shamila has 13 years experience in the design, evaluation and implementation of management, HR and administration systems and extensive experience over the past six years in the strategic financial management of CSVR.

She has more than seven years experience in human resources management - strong experience in developing skills development strategies and drives and oversees the implementation of CSVR's employment equity and diversity management strategies. Shamila has played an instrumental role in designing the change management and management alignment processes in the organization over the past two years. She has more than nine years management and leadership experience of which the last seven years have been in the Non Profit Sector.

ssingh@csvr.org.za

 

Shilaho Westen Kwatemba

Shilaho joined CSVR's Peacebuilding Programme as a research intern in March 2006. Prior to that he briefly worked with Action Support Centre, an emerging research organisation based in Johannesburg. Before taking up internship at CSVR, he was attached to the Wits Writing Centre where worked as a consultant since 2004. In 2005, Shilaho took a five-week intensive course in Conflict Transformation offered by the Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA). In 2003, he had a short stint with Kibera Youth Programme for Peace and Development (KYPPEDE) in Nairobi, Kenya before leaving for South Africa. He holds a BA (Hons) in Literature and Philosophy from Moi University, Kenya; MA (African Literature) from University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; and is currently reading for a Masters degree in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand.

skwatemba@csvr.org.za

 

Sinothile Msomi

Sinothile Msomi is a project manager of the Race, Identity and Citizenship Project of the Peacebuildng programme. The project is examining the issues of racial and ethnic conflicts, identity and citizenship in post-apartheid South Africa. She previously worked at CSVR'S victim empowerment programme as a trauma counsellor, where she focused mainly on trauma counselling and debriefing of victims of violence and torture as well as training on trauma management.

Before joining CSVR in 2004, Sinothile worked for Department of Social Welfare, Kwazulu Natal in the capacity of a probation officer. Her work concentrated on the plight of youth at risk in the criminal justice system. She has also worked at Pinetown Child Welfare and in the Association for the Physically Challenged in Pietermaritzburg. She holds a degree in Social Work from the University of Zululand.

smsomi@csvr.org.za

 

Sophie Mulaudzi

smulaudzi@csvr.org.za

 

Stacey MacDonald

smacdonald@csvr.org.za

 

Themba Masuku

Themba is a Senior Researcher with the policing project in the Criminal Justice Programme. The key focus areas of his work are police integrity and corruption, police accountability and community relations, witness management and Metropolitan Policing.

Themba has a Masters degree in Social Sciences from the University of Natal. He has extensive experience in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies particularly in the field of crime prevention and policing.

Prior to joining CSVR in November 2002, Themba worked for the Universal Security Services, Crime Specialists as its Senior Researcher. One of his accomplishments was heading a research team, which was involved in a South African Police Services (SAPS)/European Union pilot project for KwaDukuza Municipality Crime Prevention Strategy. He also participated in the development of Inanda Tourism Safety Strategy for Durban Metro Unicity Pilot Project.

Themba also worked for the Network of Independent Monitors (NIM) as its Researcher and Project Co-ordinator. He conducted safety audits for its Rural Crime Prevention Strategy Project, Crime and Policing as well as its Community Safety Forum Project. Through this organization, he was appointed to conduct research in Zimbabwe where he was looking at human rights, violence and policing issues for the South African NGO coalition.

tmasuku@csvr.org.za

 

Tsholofelo Nakedi

Tsholofelo is currently an intern in the Peacebuilding project, focusing in race identity and citizenship. Previously she worked for a youth NGO where she was involved in HIV counselling, peer education, and later project management. She holds a BA degree in counselling from the Commonwealth University.

tnakedi@csvr.org.za

 

Xoliswa Ntintili

xntintili@csvr.org.za