Participants

Babatunde Solomon Ojelade
PhD Student
UNIVEN

Babatunde Solomon Ojelade is a Nigerian. He is currently undertaking a PhD program under the SA-UK University Staff Doctoral Program (USDP) scholarship at the University of Venda, South Africa. He is also a teacher/researcher in FOREST21 Erasmus+ Project (A joint project for strengthening capacity in South African higher education in Forestry, Entrepreneur and Climate-Smart Forestry, 2021 – 2024). Babatunde's research interests include forest regeneration, environmental contamination, and remediation. He holds a bachelor's degree (BSc Hons) in Forestry and Wildlife Management from the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. He also obtained a master's in agriculture from the University of Venda. He is an evolving, self-driven environmental scientist with the skills to assess the impact of forest activities on water resource management. This research project evaluates the effect of glyphosate-based herbicide (active organic compound) application on forest soil and water courses in forest plantations and its potential human health risk. His multidisciplinary background and knowledge fuel his interest in assessing priority organic pollutants, suspected carcinogenic substances, and high-toxicity heavy metals in the environment and developing water treatment technologies. He is open to Knowledge Engagement, which connects researchers and the community to build collaborative partnerships. 

Dion Gumbo
PhD Student
UNIVEN

Dion is a Ph.D. student under the SAF-ADAPT scholarship at the University of Venda in Limpopo. His research passion is in hydro-climatology. He has worked within the Pungwe River Basin, quantifying climate change's impacts on water resources availability in its headwaters. Water source regions are his area of study. He is currently determining environmental flows for a headwater catchment to assess the vulnerability and adaptation options of the riparian communities. He likes the outdoors, climate-water-energy research, visiting and learning from other cultures, and having a good laugh.

Ephias Mugari
Postdoc
UNIVEN

Dr. Ephias Mugari is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the SAF-ADAPT project at the University of Venda. Dr. Mugari holds a PhD in Applied Ecology where he examined the relationships among climate change, vegetation dynamics, ecosystem service fluctuations, livelihoods and human adaptations in the semi-arid Limpopo Basin part of Botswana. His research aims to advance understanding of the role of ecosystem services to livelihoods relative to other livelihood sources, the vulnerability of rural households to environmental change, and identifying adaptation strategies that can promote both biodiversity conservation and livelihood security. His research interests are in transdisciplinary research, climate change adaptation, human-nature interactions, nature-based solutions, ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, agriculture and sustainability. 

Fortunate Nomsa Maphuka
PhD Student
University of Fort Hare

Fortunate attained her Master of Science degree in Geography from the University of Fort Hare where she also obtained her Bachelor of Science in Geography and GIS, and BSc Honours in Geography.  From 2017 to 2020, Fortunate has been part of the group of students whose research focused on the Sub-Antarctic Marion Island. As a result, both her Honours and Masters research projects focused on rainfall and climate change on the Sub-Antarctic Marion Island, with specific focus on the trends, distribution, characteristics, associated air circulation patterns and the implications of climate change on rainfall. She has worked as an implementing agent for the Risk & Vulnerability Science Centre at the University if Fort Hare raising climate change awareness in communities. Fortunate is currently based at the University of Fort Hare where she is working on pursuing a PhD in Climate Adaptation under the SAF-ADAPT in 2021.  

Hazel Shirinda
MSc Student
UNIVEN

Hazel was born in 1999 in a small village called Nhombelani in the small town of Malamulele, Limpopo Province. Growing up, she was surrounded by nature and this shaped her love and passion for nature and the environment.  In 2017, she enrolled with the University of Venda, studying Environmental Science with majors in Ecology and Resource Management and Geography. She completed her qualification in 2020 and thereafter, registered for an Honours Degree, majoring in Ecology and Resource Management. She has always been fascinated with Alien Invasive Plants and Climate change. For her Honours research, she decided to focus on Invasive Alien Plants, Pinus patula species (Pine trees) to be exact.  She has worked as a tutor since 2019, assisting first year students. In past years she has also worked as a field assistant with a few postgraduate students while she was still doing her undergraduate. She recently worked as a research assistant at the Musina Makhado Special Economic Zone where her duties included doing research on the effects of coal mining on climate and local communities.  Her passion for nature is her main drive and her goal is to be able to do research on climate change and adaptability because  she feels like it will allow her to understand how changes in the climate affect people’s daily lives and development on the environment.

John Majahana
Postdoc
University of Fort Hare

John is currently a postgraduate student currently studying Master’s in Geography at University of Fort Hare. He studied his Honors Degree in Geography and Environmental studies at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. In terms research he is biased towards climate change, water governance and policy. He participated in some Conferences such as the 5th Global Change conference which focused mostly on climate change 

Khothatso Mokhele
PhD Student
UCT

Khothatso holds a Masters degree in Energy and Sustainable Development from the University of Cape Town (UCT). Prior to it, with a focus on Risk and Foreign Direct Investment flows in South Africa, she completed a Masters degree from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in Political Sciences. Her PhD focusses on the water-energy-food nexus by improving understanding of the nexus interactions in South Africa and further highlight the viability of the application of chosen adaptation programs. She enjoys research that studies humans as economic agents and the implication of their interactions with their surrounding natural environment. Khothatso is in an avid golfer, she loves taking nature walks, and enjoys contemporary dance.

Liezl Mari Vermeulen
PhD Student
KU Leuven

Liezl graduated with BSc, BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees in Geoinformatics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, under a scholarship from the South African Space Agency (SANSA). Her Masters research focused on developing a web application that allows farmers to estimate grazing capacity, sustainable productivity levels, overgrazing etc. using satellite imagery, dynamic ecosystem modelling and the Google Earth Engine cloud geoprocessing platform.  The project aimed to promote more sustainable, robust and climate-smart rangeland management systems for the livestock industry in southern Africa.  After completion of her Masters, she worked as a Remote Sensing and GIS Research Analyst on the TerraClim project at the Centre for Geographical Analysis (Stellenbosch University). This work focused on modelling the impacts of climate change on the South African winelands using satellite remote sensing, machine learning and regionalisation. Liezl also participates extensively in Google Earth Engine activities, including summits and workshops, and serves as a member of the Google Earth Outreach Trainer Network. Liezl has a keen interest in the intersection between geography, ecology, programming and data science and has a passion for transforming theoretical research into practical, community-orientated solutions. More specifically, she hopes to pursue a research career exploring the effects of climate change on various aspects of the environment and community and how remote sensing, big data and machine learning can be used to identify, predict and potentially address these effects. 

Lily Munhendzi
MSc Student
UNIVEN

Munzhedzi Lily is a qualified environmental scientist from Thohoyandou, Limpopo province, South Africa. She graduated with a BSc in Environmental sciences in 2018 and with an honour of Environmental Sciences in 2020, both from the University of Venda.  She worked as a research assistant for Rhodes University in 2019 in the department of Environmental sciences, she also worked as a field research assistant for the Inkawu Vervet Project at Mawana private reserve in 2020, all this experience of working with natural scientists, academics and researchers helped her realize that there is a gap in research with regards to climate change, therefore she decided to be part of the solution and fill in that gap. She is passionate about the environment and climate change and wants to help people adapt to or overcome the challenges brought about by climate change, and doing a masters in Environmental sciences with a research focusing on climate change is the perfect way for her to reach that goal. 

Lufume Sibonise
MSc Student
University of Fort Hare

Sibonise Lufume is from King Williams Town Eastern Cape. He graduated with a degree and honours in Agricultural extension and production from the University of Fort Hare Alice campus. He is a first year Masters student in the faculty of science and agriculture at the University of Fort Hare. The title of the research is: BUILDING/ STRENGTHENING AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES ON CLIMATE SMART TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPORT SMALL SCALE FAMERS OF THE EASTERN CAPE. 

Martin Chari
Postdoc
University of Fort Hare

Martin M. Chari is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow: SAF-ADAPT project in the Risk & Vulnerability Science Centre (RVSC) at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. He holds a Ph.D in Geography and has research interests in the following areas: Geographical Information Systems (GIS); remote sensing; climate change adaptation; vulnerability assessments; adaptation tracking; energy poverty.

Mhlangabezi Slayi
Postdoc
University of Fort Hare

Dr Mhlangabezi Slayi is a Postdoctoral fellow at Risk and Vulnerability Science Center based at University of Fort Hare. He hold at PhD in Agriculture with special interest in Livestock Science. Dr Slayi is a published scholar with strong research interest in community-based intervention models to climate change mitigation and adaptation in communal livestock production. His academic work has been published in various academic platforms including conferences and DHET accredited journals. Currently he is involved in two research projects: 1) Reintroducing indigenous cattle breeds as a climate-resilient model to improve welfare, performance and coping capacity of communal herds; and 2) Establishing the feedlot cooperative systems as a climate smart approach to greenhouse gas reduction and its contribution to improved welfare and production efficiency in communal owned cattle.

Musumuvhi Ndamulelo
MSc Student
UNIVEN

Musumuvhi Ndamulelo is born and raised in South Africa Limpopo Province. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences and an Honors in Environmental Sciences Honors in Geography and Geographic Information Systems. He is currently Doing his masters in environmental Sciences with the University Of Venda, where he is focusing on water quality and GIS. He also Published a paper with Tswane University of Technology about Barriers to Water and Sanitation Safety Plans in Rural Areas of South Africa— A Case Study in the Vhembe District, Limpopo Province. 

Ntandokazi Masimula
PhD Student
UCT

Ntandokazi Masimula is part of the SAF-ADAPT team as a PhD student. She is currently enrolled for a PhD with KU Leuven in Belgium in collaboration with the University of Cape Town. Ntandokazi research encompasses climate change adaptation within the South African context. The research builds on her interests on earth observation technology, global environmental/vegetation change and climate change. She holds a Masters in Atmosphere, Climate and Ecosystems from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden under the Swedish Institute Scholarship. Her masters focused on cropland and tree cover estimation in the Burkina Faso agroforestry parklands. She has worked as an intern with the Earth Observation unit at the Department of Science and Innovation as well as a research assistant with the Land Matrix Initiative on global large-scale land acquisitions.  She aims to passionately contribute to the growing knowledge and development of climate change adaptation strategies in South Africa. 

Patric Nyambo
Postdoc
University of Fort Hare

Patrick Nyambo is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the University of Fort Hares’ Risk and Vulnerability Science Centre, working on a project entitled Water-Energy-Food communities in South Africa: multi-actor nexus governance for social justice? He holds a PhD in Agronomy. His research interests are climate smart agriculture, climate change. Water - Food - Energy Nexus and food security issue.

Pfarelo Nwanamidwa
MSc Student
UNIVEN

Pfarelo is a Masters student under the SAF-ADAPT scholarship at the University of Venda in the department of Geography and Environmental Sciences. She graduated with her first degree with a Bachelor of Environmental Science in 2020 and completed her Honours in Environmental Sciences majoring in Geography in 2021. Pfarelo also obtained her Postgraduate Certificate in education majoring with geography and natural sciences (UNISA) in 2022. She is passionate, curious and has interests in the environment, climate change and the interaction between humans and the environment. Her current masters research focuses on analysis of climate change adaptation actions plan in response to flood disasters.

Ralushai Murendeni
MSc Student
UNIVEN

In 2020, Ralushai Murendeni graduated with honours in geography and in 2019, she graduated with a bachelor of environmental sciences in geography from the University of Venda. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Teaching (PGCE) in Geography and Natural Sciences obtained in 2022 from university of South Africa (UNISA). She is currently studying for her master's degree in geography at the University of Venda. She served as a student tutor at the University of Venda and as a secretary for the Univen branch of the United African Apostolic Church(UAAC).

She is interested in studying topics related to industrial applications of sieving techniques in the ceramic industry, and a comparative study of sediments characteristics of Nzhelele and sand rivers, Limpopo, South Africa. She worked at the University of Venda as a geography lecture assistant in 2022. She is interested in continuing to studying about ceramic industries and their impact on climate change and global warming. In her free time, she enjoy reading and teaching high school learners.

Sibulele Bongoza
PhD Student
University of Fort Hare

Sibulele Bongoza is a PhD candidate from the University of Fort Hare. He has accomplished B.A in Environmental Planning and Development Studies from University of Zululand, BSc Honours in Geography & Environmental Science and MSc in Geography from University of Fort Hare. He has been involved in countless sustainable development community projects in remote areas of different Municipalities within the Eastern Cape Province. Sibulele is an environmental activist passionate about the coordination of resource managers and developers in meeting the 17 SDG’s. 

Siyabonga Jonga
PhD Student
University of Fort Hare

Miss Siyabonga Jonga is currently a second-year PhD student at the University of Fort Hare under the supervision of Prof Amon Taruvinga in the Department of Science and Agriculture. Her doctoral work focuses on Climate change vulnerability and adaptation strategies among rural coastal household farmers. She holds a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of fort hare. Her research for her master’s was on Welfare implications and drivers of women’s participation in rural IK-based livelihood activities: The case of the Amathole District Municipality, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Recently presented one of her papers at the international conference of the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa that was held in Namibia 2022. 

Sizakele Serame
PhD Student
University of Fort Hare

Ms Sizakele Serame is an nGAP Human Geography and Remote Sensing lecturer at the University of Fort Hare, and a PhD Candidate at Rhodes University. Her research focuses on the localization of Geographic Information Systems and Sustainability, through action research. She was a recipient of the 2016/2017 Kader Asmal Fellowship to pursue her Master’s studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her interests include youth activism and sustainability guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As a youth herself, she believes in creating inclusive and safe spaces for previously marginalized youths. 

Takalani Rabakali
MSc Student
UCT

Takalani holds a Bachelor of Earth Sciences (Hons) in Hydrology and Water Resources obtained from the University of Venda, Postgraduate Diploma in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) from the University of the Western Cape and Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Management from Stellenbosch University. She completed her internship Programme at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) secondment to BBI Solutions Company to undertake Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) and Resource Efficiency and Cleaner Production (RECP) Assessment. During this internship she managed to identify and quantify resource conservation opportunities for energy and water. She is extremely passionate about climate change and development research that is why she decided to join the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) to pursue Master’s degree specialising in Climate Change and Sustainable Development programme at the University of Cape Town. Takalani expectation is to gain knowledge, skills and understanding about this programme. Her study focuses on testing the climate change sensitivity of Voëlvlei dam in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The expected outcome of her study will show the gaps that need to be filled in order to incorporate sustainable strategies to help mitigate and adapt to climate change in South Africa.

Thobela Ntsokotha
MSc Student
University of Fort Hare

Mr Xolani Thobela Ntsonkota is currently a second-year MSc student at the University of Fort Hare under the supervision of Prof Amon Taruvinga in the Department of Science and Agriculture and Co Supervised by Dr Zhou. His Master work focuses on AN ANALYSIS OF RURAL COASTAL HOUSEHOLD’S LIVELIHOOD ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE: THE CASE OF PORT ST JOHNS LOCAL MUNICIPALITY, SOUTH AFRICAN. He holds an honours degree in BSc Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare. He recently attended an international conference of the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa that was held in Namibia 2022. 

Tiro Nkemelang
PhD Student
UCT

Tiro is a PhD student with ACDI funded under the South Africa/Flanders Climate Adaptation Research and Training Partnership (SAF-ADAPT) programme. He is working with a team of researchers from the University of Cape Town that looks to locate the fingerprint of anthropogenic climate change on weather and climate extremes, with a focus on extreme wildfire events in South Africa’s Cape Floristic Kingdom. Tiro completed his MSc Climate Change and Development in 2018 from UCT’s Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences under the ACDI’s ASSAR scholarship. He holds a BSc (Hons) Meteorology degree from the University of Reading (UK). He has worked as an Associate Researcher in the Climate Change Division at the Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) and as a Meteorologist with the Botswana Meteorological Services. 

Tshilidzi Manyanya
PhD Student
KU Leuven

Tshilidzi Manyanya is a doctoral researcher in the Arenberg Doctoral School of the KU Leuven under the Forests, Nature and Landscapes division. His research focus is applications of multispectral remote sensing techniques in hydrological studies with a special focus on the role of landscape change in influencing the dynamics green and blue water balance. Tshilidzi joined the ReSider Project in 2019 and later the SAF-ADAPT project through the University of Venda where he obtained his Honours and Master of Environmental Science with a focus on remote sensing and agro-ecology. He has served as a GIS technician in asset management with the Limpopo Department of Public Works as a consultant after serving as an environmental studies facilitator with the UIGC in Thohoyandou and project assistant with the City of Tshwane Municipality in Pretoria. Tshilidzi Started his higher education at the University of Cape Town where he graduated with a degree in Ocean and Atmosphere Science.  

Zolisanani Mpanyaro
MSc Student
University of Fort Hare

For as long as he could remembers Zolisanani Mpanyaro has always loved science and nature. His interest was further peaked when they started on topics of issues relating to threats and impacts of climate change, environmental degradation and disasters management and prevention. This is why he did not waiver when choosing a degree to pursue in varsity.  As a student at the University of Fort Hare, Zolisanani Mpanyaro completed the Bachelor of Science degree, then went on to pursue his honours (in Bachelor of Science, Honours Geography) which he obtained in 2019.  During his time in varsity, he had associated himself with a few outstanding organizations, namely ENACTUS UFH, Junior Chamber International (JCI), Sunrise UFH and HPW habitable planet 22 as well as UFH cleaning and greening. He was elected as the local financial officer of ENACTUS UFH, He was elected as the local PRO of Junior Chamber International (JCI). He also obtained certificates from HPW habitable planet 22. After the completion of his honours degree he went on to be hired as an environmental facilitator until that contract expired. He plans on pursuing his master’s degree. He aspires to pursue a career applicable to both the degree he has obtained and to relevant the fourth industrial revolution.