Professor Loyiso Nongxa has been appointed as chairman of the Telkom Foundation Trust with effect from next month.
In a statement released by Telkom this afternoon, the company says Nongxa has held a number of chairmanships, including of the review committee of National System of Innovation, the review committee of the National Research Foundation Rating System, as well as of the Higher Education South Africa Research and Innovation Strategy Group and Sasol's Inzalo Foundation.
Nongxa is a qualified mathematician and has visited at a number of universities as a research scholar, including Harvard, Colorado, and Connecticut.
Telkom group CEO Sipho Maseko says the foundation is closely involved with initiatives to improve results in the so-called STEM areas (science, technology, English and mathematics).
"The foundation is especially keen to address what is nothing less than a key national priority by exploring ways of using technology, including e-learning programmes, to improve the performance of learners," says Maseko.
"Professor Nongxa has extensive experience in, and a deep understanding of challenges in, the science and mathematics arena, including working with international institutions. As chairman, he will provide leadership and direction to strengthen the contribution the foundation makes to improve the quality of teaching and learning," he says.
Nongxa is also the former vice-chancellor and principal of the University of the Witwatersrand, a position he held from 2003 until his retirement in 2013. Prior to this, he served as head of the department of mathematics at the University of the Western Cape and dean of the faculty of natural sciences at the same university.
He holds a BSc (Hons) and MSc from the University of the Western Cape. After obtaining his MSc, Nongxa became SA's first black Rhodes scholar, and obtained a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University in 1982.
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