Our Research - Desmond Tutu Health Foundation

Robert Appelbaum - Board Member

Robert is a senior partner of Webber Wentzel, a major South African law firm. Robert specialises in mergers and acquisitions, project related and other transactional work, in the main in the health and technology arenas. Robert has worked in, and is expert in a number of African jurisdictions including Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Mozambique, Kenya, Namibia and others.

Robert was lead attorney for Business Unity South Africa and Business 4 South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic and he was and remains led attorney to the South African National Department of Health in relation to COVID-19 vaccines.

Robert was previously Honorary Business Representative for the Middle East and Africa Group for International Enterprise Singapore; the government agency driving Singapore’s external economy. He has also been recognized in several International journals as an expert several legal fields. Robert has BA and LLB degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Robert is the co-author of two books, namely “Public Offers of Company Securities” and of “Business Rescue and Compromise Offers”.

Kevin Osborne - Board Member

With over 25 years of experience in the health and development sector – from the nurturing of non-government and community based HIV organisations in South Africa to leading international science based advocacy agencies – Kevin brings a solid understanding of policy and service delivery integration that is grounded in community centered realities.

With a background in education and human rights, Kevin has managed a number of large scale international and regional HIV programmes by forging sustainable partnerships with government, communities, UN agencies, the private sector and other development stakeholders. Many of these have intentionally focused on addressing the structural barriers that impede service access – especially for key populations. The PLHIV Stigma Index – which is now routinely used as a tool to capture changes in HIV- related stigma and which has been applied in over 45 countries – was his brainchild.

His leadership roles include being the Executive Director of the International AIDS Society in Geneva; the chief of party for the PEPFAR- and USAID-supported key population focused LINKAGES project in Washington, DC; the Country Director for PATH in South Africa and the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s Global HIV Advisor in London.

Kevin has been living with HIV for over half his life and is a passionate advocate for ensuring that policies and strategies make a tangible difference in the lives of those whose voices are either seldom heard, listened to or discounted.

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Dr Khosi Kubeka

Dr Khosi Kubeka is a Senior Lecturer in UCT’s Department of Social Development, having joined the department in 2010 as an AW Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Dr Kubeka represents the interests if the University of Cape Town on the DTHF board. She currently teaches research methods and coordinates all the research programmes in her department. Dr Kubeka’s areas of research and interest lie in Youth Developmental Wellbeing, specifically youth exclusion and inclusion in education, health and the economy, as well as youth contribution to community development.

Professor Robin Wood - Executive Director

Professor Robin Wood has had a distinguished career in medicine, both within South Africa and further afield. He is currently the Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town and director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine. His first foot on the ladder was as student medical officer at a hospital in Peru, followed by stints in the United Kingdom and later, Zambia. In 1990 he took up a Clinical Fellowship at Stanford University.

He subsequently served at the New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town where he became Principal Specialist and Head of Department of Medicine. It was in this setting that he confronted the HIV epidemic leading to the establishment in 2004 of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre within the Institute for Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town. He has A-rated academic status and has influenced health policies within South Africa and abroad. A prolific writer, he has published numerous research papers, articles and several books and is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards.

Charles Abrahams

Charles Abrahams practices as a qualified attorney-at-law with specialist experience in business and human rights law, sovereign debt, complex class action litigation, public interest and human rights law, and competition law. He is a senior partner at Abrahams Kiewitz Incorporated. He frequently participates in and is often invited to contribute to domestic and international conferences and seminars.

In particular, he has participated as an expert consultant in the mandates of Professor John Ruggie, then Special Representative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General for Business and Human Rights that led to the adoption by the United Nations Human Rights Council of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. He is currently a consultant for the UN, drafting the commentary on the Guiding Principles of Foreign Debt and Human Rights. Among other accolades and honours, he was Cape Law Society Human Rights Attorney of the Year, 2012.

Mpho Ndebele

Mpho Ndebele is a retired professional social worker who has served on various boards, including the Environmental Development Agency, the National Business Initiative, Black Sash, Impumelelo Innovations Awards, Brimstone Investments and Siphumelele Investments. She served as the first Executive Director of the Social Change Assistance Trust, an independent fundraising and grantmaking development agency. In 2010 she was appointed the first lay-Canon in the Diocese of Cape Town and the first woman and lay-person to be selected as Chancellor of St George’s Cathedral.

Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe

Eldest daughter of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond and Mrs Leah Tutu, Thandeka is deeply concerned about public health. She has a Masters degree in Public Health from Emory University, Atlanta, USA. She has served as Research Project Coordinator, Rollings School of Public Health, Emory University; Director, Africa Projects University of California; and Programme Manager, Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Soweto. Currently, Thandeka is CEO of Tutudesk – an international organisation based in Johannesburg that promotes a simple plastic table that is changing the lives of learners in under-resourced countries around the world, including South Africa.

Peter Grant

Peter Grant joined the University of Cape Town Finance Department in 1983. In 1990 he became the second most senior person within the department until his retirement in 2015. He also took on the responsibilities of acting-Director Finance from time to time. The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation has benefitted greatly from his financial expertise.

Professor Linda-Gail Bekker - Executive Director

Professor Linda-Gail Bekker is the deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre a research centre within the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town. She is also the chief operating officer of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation and immediate past president of the International AIDS Society. She has had a distinguished career as a professor of medicine and is a principal investigator of numerous groundbreaking studies in the field of HIV and TB.

Zohra Ebrahim - Chair

Zohra Ebrahim holds an HDE degree from the University of Cape Town. After two years of teaching, she rose to become the national civic coordinator of the United Democratic Front. She subsequently became the first black female President of the South African Institute of People Management. Zohra’s leadership at company and organisational level is rooted in years of community involvement and institution building. She has a profile that few women in South Africa have attained in the community, business, and political fields. Among her awards are the Lebone Women Achievers 1997, and she was elected as one of the Global Leaders of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1998. Her extensive knowledge, skills and experience across both the private and public sector make her an invaluable member of the DTHF team.

Professor Linda-Gail Bekker MBChB, DTMH, DCH, FCP (SA), PhD

“Are you healthy?” Linda-Gail Bekker believes passionately in the right of every citizen to health and wellbeing. At the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation she has brought together rigorous clinical research with community development. As an NPO the Foundation is able to raise funds to support outreach projects particularly those engaging youth. With a deep concern for the vulnerability of young people growing up in adverse situations, her vision is to create and sustain a centre of excellence for adolescent health and wellbeing.

Professor Robin Wood DSc (Med), FR (SA)

A pioneer in the introduction of treatment and clinical care of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Robin Wood was a staunch activist for access to antiretroviral therapy when this medication was denied to South Africans. A prolific writer and ardent investigator, his passion is to answer the question, “Why does tuberculosis continue to ravage our communities when the disease is curable and has been brought under control in many urban situations?”