We have an experienced, highly respected advisory board.
These esteemed industry players have been on our advisory board since 2016. They have played a pivotal role in supporting the growth and strategic direction of the programme.
Mr. Sisa Njikelana - Mesereti International
> Read my Testimony here
Mr. Silas Zimu - Energy Specialist, South Africa
> Read my Testimony here
Ms. Renita Moonsamy -LontohCoal Asia Limited
Ms. Bertha Dlamini -Founder, Gen X Theatre Africa
Dr. Willie De Beer - Energy Strategist and Utility Coach
> Read my Testimony here
Mr. Lolu A. Adubifa - CEO Lavayo Advisory Services, Nigeria
Ms. Tumisang (Lebo) Penelope Maphumulo - Corporate Specialist for the Line Engineering Services department within Eskom’s Group Technology Division
Mr. Willy Majola - is registered with ECSA as a professional engineer.
Ms. Bohlale Mathathe - is the Founder and Group CEO of Vantage Point Group Holdings.
Ms. Bertha Dlamini
Ms. Dlamini is an Advocate for accelerated participation of African Women and Youth in Africa’s Power and Energy sector.
She is leveraging her experience and vast network in Africa’s power and energy sector to mobilise global stakeholders to work together to remove barriers that prevent effective youth and women participation in Africa’s Power and Energy sector.
She has secured the endorsement of leading industry players and created two targeted initiatives that aim to break-down persistent structural multi-industry barriers that slow-down the participation of African youth and women in the continent’s power and energy sector.
She is the founding President of African Women in Energy and Power (AWEaP)an initiative she founded to accelerate the participation of African Women Entrepreneurs in the full value chain of Power and Energy in Africa, and contribute towards addressing the continent’s energy poverty.
She is also the Founding Chairman of Gen X Theatre Africa (Gen X),an initiative geared at accelerating Youth participation Africa’s Power and Energy sector.
Both these profound initiatives target 22 countries on the continent. They are endorsed by the most established power pool on the continent: the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and its member utilities.
She was the Ambassador of Women in Africa Initiative for South Africa in 2017-2018. This initiative is geared at connecting women leaders from Africa and the world to support an inclusive and innovative Africa.
She was a strategic Advisor to the Association for Municipal Electricity Utilities – Women in Electricity, she played a critical role in advancing gender mainstreaming in the energy sector in South Africa.
Dr Willie De Beer
Willie De Beer and Associates was established in 2013 with the aim to address specific requirements in the utility market. In addition to the recognised training material, tailored solutions are provided on request. Willie de Beer and the Team supporting him are all professional recognised practitioners, players and leaders in the utility business and business in general. Dr Willie de Beer who leads the Team is a well recognised and respected personality in the electricity utility business as well as in the municipal environment. He is serving the energy and electricity business for more than 40 years and played many important roles at National and utility level.
Mr Sisa Njikelana
Sisa Njikelana holds a certificate in leadership communication and was educated at Ruskin College, Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He has been a Member of Parliament since 2004 and has served on various committees and task teams. He was elected as Chairperson for the Energy Portfolio Committee in January 2011.
Political background: I joined the ANC underground in 1980 and was mainly involved in trade unions. I went through two treason trials, one in 1982 as well as in 1985-86 (United Democratic Front [UDF] Treason Trial in Pietermaritzburg), and I was detained more than 10 times from 1980 until 1985.
I served as a Councillor for three years in the Eastern Metro Local Council in Greater Johannesburg Metro Council from 1995 to 1998. As a councillor in the former Eastern Metropolitan Local Council, within the Greater Johannesburg Metro Council, I worked intensively in the Alexandra Development Project from late 1995 to 1998. As a member of the Executive Committee I was responsible for Urban Planning and Development.
I am a member of both the ANC and SACP, and I have served as a member of the Gauteng and Johannesburg Interim Leadership Core of the ANC, from June 2000 to November 2001, then from August 2010 to September 2011. I was the Chairperson of the Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka from 2007 to 2012.
What does my job involve? I serve on the Portfolio Committee on Energy as its Chairperson and the NA Rules Committee as well as the Joint Rules Committee as an ordinary member. My duties include interacting with and performing oversight on the Department of Energy, government entities, amending legislation, engaging with faith-based organisations and community members about their problems, and facilitating the establishment of important forums and developments that will assist the ordinary people.
Mr Silas Zimu
Silas Mzingeli Zimu obtained his B. Eng. Honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1991. He also holds an Msc in Engineering Management. Silas has attended some of the highly recognized leadership and management programmes both nationally and internationally.
Mr. Zimu started his career in the electricity industry when he joined Eskom in 1992 where he worked as an engineer in the generation group. Amongst areas that he was involved in is the normalisation of Soweto. He was also appointed as a contract manager for key projects like Alusaf and Matimba-Bulawayo. While still at Eskom, he was later appointed as a Key Customer Relations Manager looking after the mining industry.
He then joined City Power as a General Manager – Planning and Technology and was thereafter promoted to Vice President, Customer Services. Because of the knowledge and passion he has for Engineering Operations, Silas was then appointed as a Vice President of Operations in December 2003 and served on Executive Management Committee, as well as a number of Board committees within the organization. Silas has extensive experience in both business and strategic management. He acted in the CEO position since February 2006, until being appointed Managing Director of City Power.
Mr. Zimu has held the position of CEO of Suzlon Wind Energy South Africa (Pty) Ltd since October 2011 and shared the vision for a greater tomorrow. He is currently serving as a Special Energy Advisor to the RSA President, appointed in June 2015.
Ms Renita Moonsamy
Renita Moonsamy is a Director of Blue Plum Telecoms, a company providing serives in the design and commercialisation of Innovative products and solutions. These include network architecture, IT Infrastructure and data management, IoT in the Energy sector, fintech mobile paymentand and Risk Advisory services.
For over 15 years, Ms Moonsamy has developed significant Information Communications Technology expertise within enterprise solution sales, marketing, customer service delivery and solution devlopment in the Financial, Insurance, Government, Enterprise, and Consumer markets. At Telkom SA, she led the product development team in the innovative design, cross-functional development and commercialisation of many ”firsts” in South Africa. The first IP services, VPN’s, Ethernet, LAN, Internet Services, Storage (early Cloud), Cyber Security, Conferencing, fixed-mobile sms, E-commerce, Managed Converged Services. These solutions encompassing Netork architecture, Pricing models, Brand Strategy and Commercial and Technical parameters for Services to all the Banks, Insurance companies, Government and Enterprise, according to user requirements.
As Group Executive at Transtel she developed and executed a successful Business Transformation, leading The entire Commercial Business Unit to outperform the Revenue target. Her Innovative approach to Business growth, seeking solutions that generate long-term value for shareholders is evidenced in her high-level client engagement and successfully negotiation of many high revenue –generating contracts. One of the more notable of these is the national fibre network deployment, and design and implementation of an integrated services model across companies withn the entire Transnet Group, and negotiating and signing this transaction valued at over R2.5 billion.
Renita’s Business Developmentsuccess within the Asia Pacific region include Commodity trade agreements (annual turnover >US$150m), and Strategic partnerships with experts in Power Generation and Mine-to-Port logistics for large Southern African infrastructure prjects.
The hallmark of her leadership is creating high-performance team culture, integrating various tasks, people, processes and systems for optimal revenues. She has built sustained financial success, intrinsic customer value and excetional customer service delivery throughout her career.
Renita is a passionate apeaker and facilitator of large conference sessions Internationally and is an ardent supporter of the Gen-X Theatre that supports thought leadership and youth development within academia.
Mr Lolu Adubifa
Lolu is MD/CEO of Lavayo Energy based in Lagos. Lavayo Energy is a project development and energy advisory firm focused mostly on Power and Oil and Gas industries in West Africa.
Prior to his appointment as MD, Lolu was the Country Executive for GE Energy Nigeria, where he oversaw the various energy subsidiaries with annual revenue of $540 MM (FY 2011). He has over 20 years experience in the Energy industry in North America, and West Africa, and has held roles in management consulting with Arthur D. Little in Boston, and Accenture in Lagos; where he was an executive in the Energy practice. He also worked in the Origination and Structuring group at Reliant Energy in Houston, where he led various M&A projects.
Lolu holds a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering from the University Of Nevada, Las Vegas and an MBA (Finance and Strategic Mgmt) from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Tumisang (Lebo) Penelope Maphumulo
She is a Corporate Specialist for the Line Engineering Services department within Eskom’s Group Technology Division. She graduated with a Bsc in Electrical Engineering from the Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Malaysia in 2004 and a Master in Electrical Engineering at Wits in 2018. She has been registered as a Professional Engineer since 2008. She is a member of two Technical Groups (TC 7 and 11) at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and a member of Working Group B2.59 at the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE). She serves in the following roles at Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA); she is a member of Council, Chairperson of the Stakeholder Relations Committee, previous Chairperson of the Policy Development and Standards Generating Committee, previous vise-chairperson of the Electrical Engineering Professional Advisory Committee and a member of the Central Registration Committee.
She is also a member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE). She has over 14 years’ experience that is dominated by high voltage (HV) power transmission lines design. Competencies include operating, maintenance, performance improvement and refurbishments. Tumisang has a strong power lines background and has vast experience in heading large multidisciplinary projects. Her Master in Engineering is titled “Consideration to use High Surge Impedance Loading Lines (HSIL) in place of Series Compensation on High Voltage Transmission Lines”. She has published four papers from this research work, one at 20th International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering conference (ISH), one at CIGRE 8th Southern African conference and two at Power-Gen & DistribuTECH Africa conference.
Tumisang was finalist at the Standard Bank Rising Star Awards, won Engineer of the Year in 2017 at the SAIEE, Technology and Engineering award for the Eskom Women Advancement Program in 2017, Eskom’s Chairman Award in the category Customer Satisfaction in 2012 and Engineer of the Year in 2010 at Eskom.
Mr. Willy Majola
Willy Majola is registered with ECSA as a professional engineer. He holds a B.Sc. (Eng) and MBA. He also has Government certificate of competency (Mines) as well as Government certificate of competency (Factories). He worked for 6 years at Western Deep Levels and 25 years in Eskom. His areas of experience cover maintenance engineering, asset management, design, project management.
In Eskom he held senior positions including Senior General Manager (Engineering), responsible for designs and life cycle management strategies for Generation, Transmission and Distribution.
He was also an Acting Group Executive for Eskom Generation, then Acting Group Executive for Eskom Transmission.
Ms. Bohlale Mathathe
Ms. Bohlale Mathathe is the Founder and Group CEO of Vantage Point Group Holdings, a 100% black owned and managed company with diversified interests in energy, education, law as well as communications. Core to the business is a boutique consulting firm, Vantage Point Managed Services that has an established niche in legal advisory, strategic counsel and corporate governance within the energy sector.
With an educational background in law, Bohlale has held positions as Company Secretary for various industry bodies and associations within the energy and education sectors. In 2016 she was appointed to become the Global Managing Director of the Lebo M Foundation, a position she held for almost two years. It was in this portfolio that Bohlale honed her skills not only in business, but also in innovation and scaling of a social enterprise with a global footprint. Her work centred around the development and execution of various programmes aimed at attaining social justice for underserved communities through the establishment of mobile law clinics, upliftment of women and girls as well as mentorship.
Through her entity Vantage Point Holdings, Bohlale holds an Executive Director seat on the board of Dot-to-Dot Educational Solutions, a company that provides digital educational platforms to equip grade 10-12 learners for careers requiring a sound grasp of maths and science. Vantage Point holds 26% equity in Dot-to-Dot. Her passion for doing business ethically and the development of young people lends her fit for purpose in further opportunities that may present in said spaces.