Groote Schuur Board Members
Members of the Board are drawn from the hospital leadership and staff; the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences as its academic partner; and the community at large which it serves.
In addition, persons with expertise may be nominated by peers and appointed by the Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) for the Provincial Government of the Western Cape.
- Rev M Magadla –Chair
- Mr H Kajie – Vice-chair
- Dr B Patel – Head of Institution
- Dr Z Brey
- Mrs A Bezuidenhout
- Prof G Fieggen
- Mr TJ Ledwaba CA (SA)
- Mrs N Mia
- Dr I Ntatamala
- Prof W Spearman
- Dr J Werner
Activities
- Support the hospital in all its spheres
- Support patients with transport costs, personal items and food parcels where appropriate
- Oversee volunteers who contribute to the operations of the Facility Board
- Manage on site income generating projects such as parking, food outlets, used book sales and hairdresser
- Manage donations and bequests
Board Members
Reverend Mzwabantu Magadla is an Anglican priest serving the parish of Claremont, St Matthew’s for the past four years.
Reverend Magadla has served as a Board member for many organisations including You and Your Money, Fikelela AIDS Ministry, etc. He is currently serving as a Board member of The Warehouse Trust, Groote Schuur Hospital Facility Board and Fikelela Children’s Centre (FYCC). He has served in many leadership capacities within the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) in the Diocese of Cape Town.
He holds degrees in Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Theology, National Diploma in Management and has completed advanced certificates and short courses in Management, Theology and facilitation.
Mr. Hassen Kajie is a Chartered Accountant in private practice with 36 years’ experience in the profession. He is a partner at a national firm of Chartered Accountants with international affiliations. He completed all his university studies part time and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1983.
He is 64 years old, married, with one daughter and three grandchildren.
He appreciates the outdoors and enjoys walking, hiking and cycling.
His passion is providing a good service to his clients and to offer good advice to clients, friends and family so that they may benefit from his expertise in the field and offers them sound advice on many occasion. Mr. Kajie finds tremendous fulfillment in serving the community, assisting people in difficulty and solving their problems.
Dr. Zameer Brey has worked in senior leadership positions where his core role was that of change agent. Currently he is the TB program lead in South Africa for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He previously served as a process analyst for the Western Cape Department of Health; His expertise centres on improving efficiency and quality in healthcare using existing resources relating to personnel, equipment and finances.
He is a qualified medical practitioner who also holds a MBA and PhD in Lean and change management from UCT.
Most recently he led the South African Medical Association as Acting General Manager and currently is the COO of the South African TB Vaccine Initiative, a global leader in vaccine development.
Dr. Z Brey was one of the first recipients of the Allan Gray scholarship which fully funded his MBA studies. His work has already positively impacted thousands of patients and he is determined to make a difference to healthcare delivery in this country and sees his core role as inspiring and enabling others to effect improvement.
Dr. Bhavna Patel
Dr Bhavna Patel (BSc, MBChB, MFamMed, FCFP, FCPHM, MScMed (Bioethics and Health Law) is a medical doctor and the Chief Executive Officer at Groote Schuur Hospital.
Dr Patel completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Cape Town, after which she worked as a private practitioner for ten years. She then joined Groote Schuur Hospital as a Medical Manager in 2002, became the Chief of Operations of the Hospital in 2010 and Chief Executive Officer in 2013.
In addition to her medical degree, Dr Patel also has a Bachelor of Science degree and an additional four Masters in Family Medicine, Public Health and Bioethics and Health Law. As a medical manager, she has covered a wide range of portfolios and gained extensive management experience that placed her in an ideal position to take on these lead roles at the hospital. In addition, Dr Patel led five research studies and has four publications.
Ms. Annelise Bezuidenhout is the Director Finance at Groote Schuur Hospital.
After completing her tertiary education, she worked as an article clerk, but decided to follow a teaching career. She taught Mathematics and Accounting to high school learners for almost 18 years and was Deputy Principal at Vredenburg High.
In 2000, she decided to pursue a career in the corporate world, holding various high level posts such as a Financial Accountant at Sea Harvest, a Commodity Specialist at Saldanha Steel, Accountant at Mykonos Casino and Financial Manager at Queens Casino. She was appointed Director of Finance at Groote Schuur Hospital in 2012.
Her passion in life is to travel and to see and experience the world.
Graham Fieggen grew up in the Eastern Cape, matriculating from Woodridge College. After graduating MBChB from UCT, with time on the SRC and an intercalated BSc(Med) en route, he stayed at Groote Schuur Hospital for Internship and then 6 months as a Trauma Unit SHO- the best job in the world for a junior doctor! This was followed by an MSc(Neuroscience) in London and General Practice on the Canadian prairies before returning to Cape Town to specialise in Neurosurgery.
Graham worked as a paediatric neurosurgeon at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital for 10 years before being appointed as the Helen and Morris Mauerberger Chair and Head of the Division of Neurosurgery. While at RCWMCH he worked closely with the Children’s Hospital Trust and returned to GSH convinced of the need for a similar Trust. His long term vision for developing neuroscience at UCT culminated in the Neuroscience Centre project on the Groote Schuur campus, which has been supported by philanthropic donors together with the Province and the University. He was appointed as Head of the Department of Surgery for 2017-2021 and currently serves as president of the Society of Neurosurgeons of South Africa (2018-2020).
His clinical and research interests span functional and paediatric neurosurgery and he has held various leadership positions including president of the International Society for Paediatric Neurosurgery, and he currently serves as president of the Society of Neurosurgeons of South Africa. Graham and Karen, a medical geneticist, are proud parents of Joshua and Liam, both students at UCT.
Mr TJ Ledwaba carries an extensive experience in the auditing and financial management field. He has over the years supported SMMEs to create successful enterprises to unlock the potential to revitalise communities and strengthen local and national economies.
He is currently a qualified Chartered Accountant, member of the Western Cape High Court and a General Tax practitioner. TJ Ledwaba completed his chartered accountant trainee articles from BDO South Africa and was placed on a SAICA fully funded board exams preparatory program.
Mr TJ Ledwaba emerged from a humble background which motivates him always to instill hope in other people’s lives and lives to make a change. He also has a strong passion in personal academic development and does provide tertiary tutorials through TeachMe2 support interventions.
Mrs Mia is dedicated to the work of poverty alleviation among the underprivileged members of our society. She has served on various Boards and organizations with similar aims and objectives, such as the Hospital Welfare Board and the GF Jooste Facility Board.
She has championed and has been involved in the aid and relief programmes for these organisations and has a keen interest in the education and training committees.
Mrs Mia has a strong administrative background, having spent 15 years in the corporate banking sector. In addition to this, she also spent a number of years as an educator at Jamatul Nisa, where she taught Islamic Spiritualism and mental wellbeing.
Mrs Mia is dedicated to fulfilling her passion to uplift the impoverished in society
Dr. Itumeleng Ntatamala is a young and energetic medical graduate from the University of Cape Town and the recipient of the prestigious Chevening Scholarship Award through which he obtained a Masters Degree in Occupational Health from the University of Birmingham in 2016.
He also holds a Unisa Postgraduate Diploma in public health and an HIV Diploma from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa.
He has worked as a rural doctor in Limpopo Province and is currently a registrar in Occupational Medicine, having practiced at the staff health clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital and the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health.
He has a special interest in improving the working experience of all categories health care workers with the ultimate aim of improved and safe quality care for all patients accessing public health services.
Professor Wendy Spearman is Head of the Division of Hepatology, Department of Medicine, and Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town. She is Head of the Liver, Porphyria and Liver Transplant clinics at Groote Schuur Hospital.
She completed her 2 year Hepatology Fellowship under Professors Ralph Kirsch and Simon Robson at the UCT/MRC Liver Research Centre in 1991 and obtained her PhD in 2008 from the University of Cape Town on “The effect of two novel C-type lectins, Ba100 and Ba25, isolated from the venom of the puff adder, British Arietians on T lymphocyte proliferative responses.” She is actively involved in outreach Liver education programmes and was appointed by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care to develop Training modules on the management of Hepatitis B for sub-Saharan Africa. She is a co-lead of the ‘Viral Hepatitis in sub-Saharan Africa” ECHO Clinic program. She was appointed as the lead consultant to develop the National Guidelines on the management and prevention of viral hepatitis in South Africa. Her research interests include viral hepatitis, liver transplantation, drug-induced liver injuries and novel immunosuppressants.
Dr Jesse Werner graduated from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery. Her experience as a medical practitioner in three provinces of South Africa has served as useful in her career.
After graduating from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business Associate in Management Programme, she went on to continuing public service as a Deputy Director in Infrastructure and technical management support in the Western Cape.
Dr Werner is currently a public health medicine registrar at the University of Cape Town. She is passionate about Health System’s strengthening, with a particular interest in the District Health System.
In her current position she has gained experience in Quality Assurance, Information Management as well as Programme Impact and Evaluation in the Western Cape Department of Health.
Vera Hlayisi is a multiple award-winning Audiology clinician, lecturer, researcher and health leader currently based at the University of Cape Town. As a clinician, Vera has vast experience in audiology across most sectors including rural public healthcare sector, corporate private, biotechnology field and is now in academia. As a lecturer and researcher, she is a published academic author in regional and international journals within her interest areas. Vera is passionate about healthcare leadership in her field and the broader context, to this end, she is serving in the executive board of the South African Association of Audiologists as well as the coordinator for the Person Centered Care South African Chapter for the Ida institute. Outside healthcare, Vera is passionate about youth empowerment to increase transformation and socioeconomic development in South Africa and Africa as a whole, she contributes to this as a director at an NGO Little Big Ideas.