From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This list of the notable alumni of the
University of Cape Town is divided into the six faculties of the university: Commerce, Humanities, Sciences, Health Sciences, Engineering, and Law.
Commerce
Raymond Ackerman , businessman, who purchased the
Pick 'n Pay supermarket group from its founder; philanthropist
Roelof Botha , grandson of
Pik Botha ; began his career as an actuary and became a venture capitalist
Polly Courtice , founder Director of the
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and member of the Supervisory Board of
Mercedes Benz Group
Chelsy Davy , ex-girlfriend of Britain's
Prince Harry
Sir
Bradley Fried , ex-chief executive of
Investec Bank ; current chairman of
Goldman Sachs International
Geordin Hill-Lewis , Mayor of Cape Town (2021– )
Nick Mallett , played for and later coached the
Springboks , South Africa's national rugby union team
Tshediso Matona , CEO of
Eskom
Mark Nielsen , CEO of Talent
Mark Shuttleworth , billionaire entrepreneur; founder of
Canonical Ltd ; sponsor of the
Ubuntu Linux distribution; second
space tourist
Humanities
Lauren Beukes , international best-selling author of
The Shining Girls , winner of Arthur C. Clarke Award
J. M. Coetzee , Professor Emeritus,
Literature , 2003
Jean Comaroff , professor of anthropology at the
University of Chicago
John Comaroff , professor of anthropology at the
University of Chicago
Harold Cressy , head teacher and first
coloured person to gain a degree in South Africa
Janette Deacon , archaeologist specialising in heritage management and rock art conservation
Roger Ebert , film critic, graduated with an English degree as part of a
Rotary International program
David Fanning , Emmy Award-winning producer of
Frontline
Bobby Godsell , Masters of Arts, later CEO of
AngloGold Ashanti and Chairman of
Eskom
Johannes de Villiers Graaff , professor of
welfare economics ; economist
Adrian Guelke , Professor of Comparative Politics at
Queen's University Belfast
Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr , deputy prime minister of South Africa, obtained an M.A. at the age of 17
Philip Edgecumbe Hughes , New Testament scholar, Professor at
Westminster Theological Seminary
Edward Neville Isdell , former CEO of
the Coca-Cola Company
Gail Kelly , CEO of
Westpac ; 8th most influential woman in the world, according to
Forbes magazine
David Lewis-Williams , Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand specialising in Upper-Palaeolithic and Bushmen rock art
Gwen Lister , South African-born Namibian journalist; anti-apartheid activist; founder of
The Namibian
Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw , Afrikaans-language poet, playwright and scholar
Archie Mafeje , anthropologist and activist who significantly contributed to the
decolonization of African identity and its historical past, criticising anthropology's typically Eurocentric techniques and beliefs; also known for the "
Mafeje affair "
[1]
Thabo Makgoba , Archbishop of Cape Town, PhD from the University of Cape Town
[2]
Steven Markovitz , award-winning film and television producer
Ebrahim Patel , held positions as South African
Minister of Trade and Industry and as the
Minister of Economic Development , on the University Council of UCT; former staffer in the Southern African Labour and Development Research Unit in the School of Economics
André du Pisani , political scientist and professor at
University of Namibia
Nik Rabinowitz , comedian, actor and author
Mamphela Ramphele , managing director of the
World Bank ; former
Vice-Chancellor of UCT
Isaac Schapera , Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics; leading expert in the anthropology of South African tribesmen
Nora Schimming-Chase , Namibia's first ambassador to Germany, obtained a teaching diploma from UCT in 1961
[3]
Carmel Schrire , Professor of Archaeology,
Rutgers University
Robert Carl-Heinz Shell , South African author and professor of African Studies
Lady Skollie , feminist artist and activist
Lady Kitty Spencer (born 1990), English model
Andries Treurnicht , founder and the leader of the Conservative Party in South Africa
Elizabeth Anne Voigt , archaeologist and director of the
McGregor Museum
Mary Watson , 2006 winner of the
Caine Prize for African Writing
Music
Richard Cock , conductor
Cromwell Everson , classical music composer and composer of the first
Afrikaans opera
Ernest Fleischmann , impresario best known for his tenure at the
Los Angeles Philharmonic
[4]
Malcolm Forsyth , musician; composer; Canadian Composer of the Year; Juno Award winner; member of Order of Canada
Hendrik Hofmeyr , composer and music theorist; winner of the 1997
Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Composition Prize ; Professor of Music at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town
Galt MacDermot , composer of the musical
Hair
Melanie Scholtz , vocalist, operas, jazz, pop, r&b, and classical music; graduated from the School of Opera
Barry Smith , organist, conductor, musicologist, former Associate Professor of Music at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town
Désirée Talbot , operatic soprano and one of the founding members of the UCT Opera Company
Pretty Yende , operatic soprano
Fine art
Anne Bean , British installation and performance artist
Alex Binaris , fashion model
Breyten Breytenbach , author
Roger Ebert , Pulitzer Award-winning American film critic and writer
Kai Lossgott , interdisciplinary artist
Simphiwe Ndzube , visual artist
Claudette Schreuders , South African sculptor and painter
Jonathan Shapiro , South African political cartoonist known as "Zapiro"
Marjorie van Heerden , South African writer and illustrator of children's books
Pauline Vogelpoel , arts administrator at the
Contemporary Art Society and
Tate Gallery
Drama
Jodi Balfour , actress
Katlego Danke , actress
Nadia Davids , playwright, novelist, and author of short stories, and screenplays
Vincent Ebrahim , known for his role on
The Kumars at No. 42
Richard E. Grant , actor
Kagiso Lediga , stand-up comedian, actor and director
Zolani Mahola , lead singer of the South African band
Freshlyground
Zandile Msutwana , actress
Koleka Putuma , poet and theatre-maker
Sciences
Professor
Allan McLeod Cormack ,
Medicine , 1979
Hilary Deacon , Professor of Archaeology at the
University of Stellenbosch specialising in the emergence of modern humans and African archaeology
Emanuel Derman ,
Goldman Sachs financial engineer and author of My Life As A Quant
Jonathan M. Dorfan , director of the
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Professor
Mulalo Doyoyo , South African engineer and inventor; known for inventing
cenocell , a cementless concrete
George Ellis , cosmologist; collaborator with
Stephen Hawking ; winner of the 2004
Templeton Prize
Tim Hawarden , astrophysicist
Michael David Kirchmann , architect and developer, founder of GDSNY
Sir
Aaron Klug , Nobel Prize in
Chemistry , 1982
Paul Maritz , former
Microsoft executive;
VMware CEO
Magdalena Sauer , first woman to qualify as an architect in South Africa
Sydney Harold Skaife , South African entomologist and naturalist
Stanley Skewes , number theorist most famous in popular mathematics for his bound for the point of changeover in magnitude between the number of primes up to a certain number and an important approximation of this, which was for many years the largest finite number ever legitimately used in a research paper
Edith Layard Stephens , South African botanist
Willem Van Biljon , former co-founder of Mosaic Software, acquired by S1 Corporation ; founder of Nimbula, a startup funded by Sequoia Capital
Richard van der Riet Woolley , British astronomer who became Astronomer Royal
Health sciences
Neil Aggett , South African trade union leader and labour activist who died in custody after 70 days' detention without trial
Frances Ames , first woman to receive an MD degree from UCT; first female professor at UCT
Christiaan Barnard , professor, performed the world's first
heart transplant at
Groote Schuur Hospital
Enid Charles , statistician and demographer
Alan Christoffels , bioinformatics scientist, academic, and an author
David Cooper , theorist and leader in the anti-psychiatry movement
Tamaryn Green , medical doctor,
Miss South Africa 2018 and 1st runner-up at
Miss Universe 2018
Cecil Helman , physician, medical anthropologist and author
Margaret Keay (1911–1998), plant pathologist
[5]
Bongani Mayosi , cardiologist and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Mervyn Maze , anaesthesiologist, medical researcher and academic
Riaad Moosa , comedian, actor and doctor
Jean Nachega , physician, infectious diseases doctor and academic
Gisela Sole , professor of physiotherapy at
University of Otago in New Zealand
Max Theiler , virologist awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for developing a vaccine against
yellow fever
Louis Vogelpoel , cardiologist and one of the founding members of the Cardiac Clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital as well as a highly regarded horticultural scholar and researcher
Carolyn Williamson , virologist and microbiologist, professor of medical virology
Heather Zar , paediatric pulmonologist and Chair Department of Paediatrics
Social sciences
Law
David Bloomberg , former
Mayor of Cape Town (1973–1975) and defence attorney for
Dimitri Tsafendas , who fatally stabbed the Prime Minister, Dr
H.F. Verwoerd , in Parliament in 1966
Sheila Camerer , South African politician; former Deputy Minister of Justice; long-serving Member of Parliament of the main opposition the
Democratic Alliance ; ambassador to
Bulgaria ; completed a Bachelor of Law degree at UCT in 1964
Ryan Coetzee , South African politician; former CEO of the
Democratic Alliance and Shadow Minister of Economic Development; chief strategist for
Western Cape premier
Helen Zille ; graduated from UCT in 1994
Beric John Croome , Advocate of the High Court of South Africa; Chartered Accountant CA (SA); taxpayers' rights pioneer; completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree (1980), Certificate in the Theory of Accountancy (1981) and a PhD (Commercial Law) (2008) at UCT
[8]
Zainunnisa "Cissie" Gool , anti-apartheid political and civil rights leader
Zuleikha Hassan , Kenyan politician; Kwale County Woman Representative and Member of Parliament
Stephen Jolly , Australian activist and politician
Fana Mokoena , South African politician and actor, member of the National Assembly of South Africa and a delegate to the National Council of Provinces
Ian Neilson , Executive Deputy Mayor of Cape Town
Dullah Omar , South African anti-apartheid activist; lawyer; Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; minister in the South African cabinet from 1994 until his death
Kate O'Regan , former Constitutional Court of South Africa judge
Albie Sachs , Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
James Selfe , long-serving Member of Parliament with the
Democratic Alliance ; chairperson of the party's federal council; holds a master's degree from UCT
Donald Woods , South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist
Percy Yutar , South Africa's first Jewish
attorney-general and
prosecutor of
Nelson Mandela in the
1963 Rivonia Treason Trial .
References
People History Academic units
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