Speakers
Dr Bob Wekesa
Dr. Wekesa is the Deputy Director of the African Centre for the Study of the United States based at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a distinguished academic and researcher. He holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Nairobi and Master’s and doctoral degrees from the Communication University of China, Beijing. In the Wits Journalism and Media Studies Programme, Dr Wekesa serves as both a lecturer and postgraduate student supervisor, contributing to African research at various organisations such as Good Governance Africa and the Public Diplomacy Council in the USA.
Dr Wekesa’s current research work includes international communication; diplomacy with a focus on digital and public diplomacy; African diaspora; the internationalisation of African cities; the geopolitics of Africa and established and emerging powers. Recently, he contributed to a Special Edition of the South African Journal of International Affairs, looking at Digital Diplomacy in Africa.
You can find some of Dr Wekesa's recent publications here.
Cayley Clifford
Cayley Clifford is the Deputy Chief Editor at AfricaCheck, an independent and non-partisan organisation guiding public debates by assessing the authenticity of important public statements. Cayley is a 2018 KAS-SAIIA Scholar and holds a first class Masters Degree in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand. Cayley also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science and an Honours in International Relations, Summa cum Laude from the University of KwaZulu Natal. Cayley continued her work with SAIIA on the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme. She, along with Steve Gruzd, spearheaded the Russia-Africa project at SAIIA which produces cutting edge analysis on Russia’s role in Africa.
Cayley published extensively during her time at SAIIA, you can read her work here.
Barend Lutz
Barend co-founded VoxCroft in 2018 and is now the Vice President of Global Operations and the CEO of VoxCroft’s South Africa mission. Barend is responsible for leading the global team that supports VoxCroft’s eagerness to assist with private industry business development, analytic, technological, and administrative efforts.
Before founding VoxCroft; Barend spearheaded data-driven socio-political and economic open-source intelligence methods and tech in the private, public, and academic landscape. His published work focuses on understanding the new public spaces that are emerging with technological growth. He used this expertise in the private industry working as a political-security risk and digital media manager – developing tradecraft for data-driven risk analytics. Barend brought this tradecraft to the US government as an open-source media and data expert. Here he explored how big data and machine learning can further the fields of political, security risk analysis and population-centric intelligence – as well as how this experience can be integrated into high-performance global multi-disciplinary teams.
Barend's published works are available here.
Matebe Chisiza
Matebe is the Country Manager in Public and Private Partnerships for the Southern African region at the International Committee for the Red Cross. Matebe is one of the 2016 (first scholar to get support on Honors) and 2017 SAIIA/Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Scholars who completed a research internship at the South African Institute of International Affairs. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Studies from Jacksonville University in Florida, USA and completed her Masters Degree in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her research interests include gender equality, peace and security, technology as a tool in humanitarian assistance and conflict resolution. Matebe has formerly worked as the Foreign Policy Advisor at the Embassy of Switzerland in South Africa.
You can read some of Matebe's published works here.