Special Guests

Special Guests

Prof Tawana Kupe

Prof Tawana Kupe has been the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria since January 2019. Before joining the University of Pretoria, he held the positions of Vice Principal responsible for running the university, Deputy Vice Chancellor Advancement, Human Resources and Transformation, Deputy Vice Chancellor Finance and Operations and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Wits University. He holds BA honours and master’s degrees in English from the University of Zimbabwe, as well as a DPhil in Media Studies from the University of Oslo in Norway. In December 2019, Prof Kupe received an honorary doctorate from Michigan State University in the US, and another from the University of Montpellier in France, in October 2021.

He was the founding Head of the Media Studies Department at Wits University and lectured at Rhodes University. Prior to his tenure at Rhodes, Prof Kupe worked in various academic capacities at the University of Zimbabwe, including as Chairperson of the Department of English, Media and Communication Studies. Prof Kupe has a notable publication record, having authored journal articles, books and book chapters in his main discipline, media studies and journalism. He edited the book Broadcasting Policy and Practice in Africa and co-edited Go Home or Die Here. He is also Managing Editor of the African Journal of Information and Communication. Additionally, Prof Kupe is a member of the advisory boards of the Journal of African Media Studies and the Global Handbooks in Media and Communication Research series; he also sits on the editorial board of Literary Studies. In 2020, he was elected to the international council of the International Association for Media and Communication Research. The organisation supports and develops media and communication research throughout the world, and encourages the participation of emerging scholars, women and those from economically disadvantaged regions.

Prof Kupe is the Africa Co-Chair of the Australia-Africa Universities Network, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Michigan State University-led African Alliance Partnership and Chairman of the Montpellier University of Excellence International Advisory Board. He is a board member of the Association of African Universities, the African Research Universities Association, a council member and trustee of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the South African representative of the Austria-Africa University Network. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation in South Africa and its representative on the board of ASSAf, and the South African Sustainable Development Goals Policy Support Initiative’s Advisory Committee.

He is an active member of several civil society organisations in the media space and has served as Chairman of the Board of the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism since 2009. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of Media Monitoring Africa since 2005, steering the agency in its mandate of promoting media accountability and the role of the media as an integral institution in sustaining democracy. Prof Kupe is a board of a new organisation, Campaign for Free Expression, which focuses on protecting and enabling free expression for all. He is a popular speaker, academic expert and regular commentator on issues of media performance on radio, television and print media in South Africa for both local and international broadcasters and publications.

Prof Sunil (BT) Maharaj

Prof Sunil (BT) Maharaj is a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He as a combined experience of more than 35 years in industry as a microwave and RF design engineer, academia and consulting. He holds a BSc Engineering (Electronic), MSc Engineering (Electronic), MSc Operational Telecommunications and a PhD Engineering. He is also a professional engineer registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), a Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and Senior Member of IEEE. In 2018 he was the founding Chair of the IEEE SA Section Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) Chapter. He has been involved in organizing many conferences and technical events such as IEEE Africon, IEEE ICC 2010, as General Conference Chair for IEEE VTS 2019 Wireless Africa Conference and the 2020 Virtual World Engineering Education Federation and Engineering Deans Council Conference. He has been the first African Dean to be elected as the Global Engineering Dean Council Chair and assumed the Chair in November 2021. Sunil has more than 170 international peer reviewed conference and journal articles, 2 international patents and winner of 10 national and international awards. His research interests are in broadband wireless communications with focus on 5G cognitive radio sensor networks resource allocation, OFDM-MIMO systems, wireless channel modelling and edge computing communications systems. He is currently the President of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) and serves on the board of 2 companies and is also the Chair of TuksNovation NPC Board which is a hi-tech business incubator and accelerator.

He was appointed as Vice-Principal: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education on 01 August 2022.