Governance

SPII is registered as a not for profit charitable trust, and is registered as a Nonprofit Organisation with the Department of Social Development.
SPII is governed by a Board of Trustees.

The Board currently consists of:

Sharon Ekambaram

Sharon is the Director of Medecins Sans Frontiers in South Africa, before which she worked with the AIDS Consortium and the Chris Hani Institute. Sharon is a committed activist and is passionate about socio-economic justice. She has worked with the Treatment Action Campaign since its inception.

Seema Naran

Seema is the Deputy to the Representative of the Flemish government in South Africa. She has worked previously at the EU Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa and at the Black Sash.

Nhlanhla Ndlovu

Nhlanhla has a BA and Masters Degree in Social Policy Programme with the University of Durban-Westville now known as the University of KwaZulu Natal where he
worked as a Research Assistant and served as the President of the SRC and the University Convocation. He has worked as a trainer with SAB’s Project Noah,
a researcher at Centre for Community and Labour Studies, and did organisational development work for NGO and Local Government in KZN.
He has served as the Director of the Rural Development Services Network. He has worked as a Programmes Coordinator for South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco).
He has been an associate with Spark! Strategic Development Services. More recently, he served as Senior Programme Manager for the National Youth Service Programme.
Nhlanhla is a Keystone associate; chairs the Board of JOWEDET.

Langa Zita

Langa Zita is a parliamentarian in the National Assembly and also an active member of the South African Communist Party. An independent and brilliant thinker, Zita brings depth and understanding to the trust on issues of poverty and social polarity.
He is also the convenor of the South African chapter of the Third World Network and serves on numerous progressive NGO boards, including COPAC.

Roy Naidoo

Roy works as the Finance Officer at the Aids Consortium in Johannesburg. He has a forward looking approach to integration of financial and management obligations.
Roy has a ANC Youth League background, and currently at the Aids Consortium Roy manages youth intervention programmes, and is the Income Generation implementer.

Wiseman Magasela

Wiseman is a Deputy Director General in the national Department of Social Development for Social Policy, which seeks to ensure alignment of department’s social policy thrust to other government poverty research, measurement and social exclusion analysis initiatives.
He read for a D. Phil at St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford, and has published widely on issues pertaining to constitutional rights and poverty reduction and eradication.

Horst Kleinschmidt

Horst Kleinschmidt has a distinguished history as an activist against apartheid and as a human right campaigner. Before being forced into exile in 1976, he had served as Vice President of the National Union of South African Students and later as Personal Assistant to Ds. Beyers Naude in the South Africa Christian Institute. The apartheid state took various steps against him between 1968 and 1975, including charges under the Riotous Assemblies Act and the Suppression of Communism Act. In 1975 he was detained and held in solitary confinement under the Terrorism Act. During 15 years in exile he headed the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa and served the African National Congress in various capacities. Since his return in 1992 he was Director of both the Kagiso Trust and the Mvula Trust. He also served as civil servant and headed the Marine and Coastal Management component in Government for five years. He is semi-retired and devotes his time to writing on South African history.

Glenn Farred

Glenn trained in philosophy and political science. He has previously worked at the Cemical Workers Industrial Union, the Trust for Christian Outreach & Education, the International Commission of Jurists (Swedish Section) and the SA NGO Coalition.