
Mr Bothwell Deka
(National Treasury, Chairperson of PSC)

Mr Mojalefa Mahoto
(Acting Deputy Director General, Department of Small Business Development)

Elize Koekemoer
(Director Policy Research at Department of Small Business Development)
The EDSE Team

Nigel Gwynne-Evans
(EDSE Programme Team Leader)
Nigel is an SMME and regional development expert with 30 years experience in the South African public sector and in various research and development organisations. He joined EDSE from the Department of Trade and Industry where, as Chief Director for African Industrial Development, he was actively involved in the regional integration, industrialisation and development agenda and in agro-processing opportunities. He also managed a research programme into regional value-chains, pursued investment opportunities across the continent and initiated work on the 4th Industrial Revolution. Nigel’s earlier career included posts with the Overseas Development Agency (in London), the Western Cape’s Department of Economic Development and the investment promotion agency, Wesgro. He was instrumental in the establishment and management of cluster development agencies and other innovative projects, including the Cape Town Film Studios, the GreenCape Initiative, the Saldanha IDZ, the Learning Cape Initiative and the Atlantis Green Manufacturing Zone. Nigel has a Masters in Economics from the University of London and Economics degrees from Stellenbosch.

Daniel Chiwandamira
(Programme Planning & Management Expert)
A highly experienced southern African and continental expert with over 30 years experience, Daniel has worked on many private sector development programmes, leading project life cycle management and administration teams in Angola, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In so doing, Daniel has a nuanced understanding of the political economy of trade development and value chain analysis. As Senior Non-Key SMME Programme Planning and Management Expert for the EDSE Programme, he focuses on strengthening stakeholder ownership through building the planning, implementation, management, monitoring and reporting capacities of the Programme’s implementing partners. Daniel was the team-leader for the design of the EDSE Programme. Daniel is passionate about the agenda for employment creation through value chain development, SMMEs financing, and support for the reduction of red tape, SMME related research and capacity-building measures. He has demonstrated expertise in analysing the economic impact and job creation potentials of development programmes having carried out various consulting programmes for governments, private sector, regional economic communities and international organisations.

Patricia Rwasoka-Masanganise
(Agriculture Development/ Agribusiness Linkages Expert)
Patricia has 28 years of policy and practical experience, working on various socio-economic developmental issues across sub-Saharan Africa with governments, bilateral and multilateral organisations, and non-governmental development organizations. Her experience spans agriculture and enterprise development, agribusiness linkages, market systems and value chain analysis and development, food and nutrition security, evidence-based public policy making, grants management, and partnership development and management. Patricia leads EDSE’s agri-sector team in improving the competitiveness of agribusiness SMMEs in South Africa, focussing on public and private sector partnership arrangements. Patricia was most recently the Senior Regional Development Assistance Specialist for USAID’s Southern Africa Regional Mission, having managed the US government’s Feed the Future Initiative in the Southern African region for five years. She has worked for the Government of Zimbabwe, consulted for the SADC Secretariat and UN agencies. Patricia has an Honours degree in Agriculture from University of Zimbabwe, a Masters’ degree in Agricultural Economics (with distinction) from the University of London and is a PhD candidate in Rural Development Planning with the University of Pretoria.

Lana Hopkinson
(SMME Policy and Regulation Expert)
Lana has over 35 years of experience, spread across a large number of countries, in SMME development, competitiveness and innovation, cluster and value chain development, and in education and training. Her private sector development experience spans the levels of SME policy development, business development services delivery to SMMEs, as well as small business management. Lana leads the EDSE Programme’s work on policy and regulatory issues. The EDSE programme is the fourth EU-funded project in South Africa that she has worked on. Lana was responsible, inter alia, for the development of the government of Serbia’s National Innovation Strategy and the design and implementation of its National Innovation Audit. She has also worked with the Government of the UAE; on the development of the industrial strategy for Abu Dhabi; the development of Turkey’s cluster strategy and was responsible for the formulation of the EU IPA II Competitiveness and Innovation programme in Albania. Her cluster development and value chain development experience includes tourism and destination management, ICT and software, ceramics, jewellery, fruit and wine production, aerospace, automotive and other sectors. Lana has worked on a wide range of projects funded by the EU, USAID, GIZ, World Bank, DFID, ADB, UN and Sida.

Martin Feinstein
(SMME BDS Expert)
Martin is an SMME development expert with more than 40 years experience working in the South African public and private sectors. As the key expert for SMME support in the EDSE Programme, he works with the Small Enterprise Development Agency and the Department of Small Business Development, as well as a wide range of SMME development organisations, to support ecosystem collaboration, innovation and impact. After a successful career in media and publishing, Martin was appointed as the first CEO of the Proudly South African campaign under the auspices of NEDLAC. After building a member base of 4,000 enterprises, he launched the Enablis entrepreneur network for the Government of Canada, Accenture and First National Bank, followed by a stint as CEO of The Business Place Network. He served on the board of Seda for 4 years, and conceived South Africa’s largest business plan competition, Small Business Stars. He has also launched numerous other programmes, including Business LaunchPad, Soweto Business Stars, the Galeshewe SMME Village, Grow-Net, My Future/My Business, Fit-for-Finance, the JUMP entrepreneur support platform, and iMentor.

Kate Philip
(Township Strategy Development Expert)
Dr Kate Philip’s experience with enterprise development began after the 1987 mineworkers strike, when she was appointed to head a unit set up by the National Union of Mineworkers to establish co-operatives for dismissed workers. As CEO of the Mineworkers Development Agency, she oversaw the establishment of eight Development Centres providing business development services, appropriate technology, access to finance and market access support. The agency also commercialised products derived from the indigenous marula fruit, developing a value chain from the bottom up that involved 4,000 women in 42 villages and broke into international markets. Lessons from these experiences are reflected in her book, Markets on the Margins: Mineworkers, Enterprise Development and Job Creation (James Currey, 2018). Thereafter, Kate headed a strategy project for the South African Presidency, focused on addressing economic marginalisation, including the informal sector. For GTAC in National Treasury, she supported the Economies of Regions Learning Network, providing inputs to public officials on themes including clusters, value chains, SEZs, technology transfer to SMEs and innovation systems. More recently, for the Cities Support Programme of National Treasury and the World Bank, she developed a conceptual framework for the role of cities in township economic development.

Zora Madikizela
(SMME Access to Finance Expert)
Zora Madikizela is a development Finance Expert and entrepreneur with 25 years of experience. She spent seventeen years at the Industrial Development Corporation, financing sectors including, Agri-business, Chemicals and the Healthcare value chain. Zora was instrumental in the creation of a unique and transformative Township and Rural Hospital Fund for BEE Entrepreneurs developing 20 SA hospitals, through investment in projects, mainly new hospitals. She is a business consultant providing mentorship to SMMEs, with a special interest and passion in developing start-up companies. She is a member of the Institute of Directors.
Zora is the Access to Finance Expert for ESDE and supports sefa to catalyse blended finance through targeted technical assistance to existing and new wholesale lending clients through a Fund of Funds structure. Matched funding with tailored technical assistance, is expected to leverage EUR30m budget support in lending to youth, women and people living with disabilities. The innovative wholesale investment funds target Enterprise and supplier Development, Agriculture, green, & Microfinance.
Zora previously worked at the Commonwealth Development Corporation and National Productivity Institute. She has a BSc. Honors , Agricultural Technology & Management from Cranfield Institute of Technology, and a Post graduate Diploma in Development Studies from Cambridge University.

Annie Sugrue
(Cooperatives Expert)
Annie Sugrue is an award winning champion of sustainable development with more than 20 years experience in the development arena. She was one of the founders and the Executive Director of the innovative flagship Ecocity Project of the City of Johannesburg which demonstrated the “Small is Beautiful” green economy approach to local economic development in a township setting. Annie is a value chain expert which allows her to support a wide range of SMMEs and cooperatives, identifying new and innovative market opportunities for start-up and established businesses. Annie heads the EDSE Programme’s cooperative policy team which will assist communities and entrepreneurs to establish small enterprises and cooperatives in a range of value chains that contribute to sustainable development. Her policy expertise allows her to identify and propose changes to remove blockages in systems and to create enabling environments that make it easier for small business to flourish and grow. She advises government and development agencies in the region on key policy interventions in all areas linked to sustainability. Annie has a BSc (Hons) from Trinity College, Dublin and an MSc from the University of Witwatersrand.

Chido Makonese
(Finance & Operations Manager)
Chido has worked for The Palladium Group for 10 years in various capacities on a number of projects. He has considerable experience in Financial Operations, Project Management and Stakeholder Relations. Chido has a BCom in Econometrics, B Com (Hons) Risk Management and is a certified PRINCE 2 practitioner.

Jennifer Rathebe
(Food Safety & Security Expert)
Jennifer has extensive experience in Botswana and South Africa, and in the wider region, in the food safety sector in developing food safety management systems and policies. She has represented both the Botswana and South Africa governments at the specialist committees of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Committee of the World Trade Organization. She was also appointed, in her personal capacity, as the developing country representative responsible for food safety on the working group and policy committee of the Standards and Trade Development Facility – jointly established by the FAO, the World Organization for Animal Health, the World Bank and the WTO. Over the past 10 years she has worked on regional SPS projects in SADC and COMESA to facilitate intra-regional trade, with a particular emphasis on improving market access by removing standards-related barriers to trade faced by small-scale agriculture producers and identifying the real SPS-related costs in cross-border trade. Jennifer has an MSc degree in chemistry from Salford University and a BSc degree in biology and chemistry from Keele University.

Thati Tladi
(Agribusiness Linkages Expert)
Thati is an agribusiness development specialist with over 19 years experience in agribusiness research, development and project management consultancy spread across the public sector (14 years) and the private sector (five years). His agri-business linkages work for the EDSE Programme has four components: facilitating activities to improve the competitiveness of Agri SMMEs by improving access to BDS and promoting inclusion in supply chains of large multinational / local corporations, government and state-owned enterprises; designing an institutional assessment for the Department of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development to identify pathways for effective delivery of BDS; working with relevant state entities and private sector companies to identify agribusiness opportunities for funding through SEFA, the provision of BDS by SEDA and/or DALRRD and linking agri SMMEs to corporate supply chains; facilitating a participatory review and implementation of the Integrated Cooperative Strategy which will be led by the DSBD. Thati is an Agricultural Economist with honours in Agricultural Economics from University of Limpopo. He also possesses an MBA from Management College of Southern Africa (MANCOSA). Thati spent his earlier professional career at Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and the KwaZulu Natal Department of Agriculture.

Tamiko Sher
(SMME BDS Expert)
Tamiko Sher is an entrepreneur and strategic consultant with direct hands-on BDS delivery experience of over 27 years across the private and public sectors, with more than 6 000 SMMEs, including mentorship, diagnostics, workshops and programme design and delivery in the metals and minerals beneficiation, light manufacturing, retail/FMCG and tourism sectors. She has established a number of small business initiatives, including the African Trade Jewellery Collection, providing direct support to SMMEs and developing market access to museums, high-end tourist destinations, and lodges in Southern Africa, including direct support to SMMEs to enable exports to 11 countries. Tamiko has overseen multiple teams of up to 28 people executing entrepreneurship ecosystem projects, writing publications and case studies, and conducting analytical and solutions-based SMME research. Her own research, the 2016 Entrepreneurship Research Study: Voices of Entrepreneurs in Johannesburg, led to the development of the City of Johannesburg’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystems Summits and Symposium and was incorporated into the country’s largest metropolitan’s economic development policy.

Ursula Seloma
(Finance & Operations Assistant)
Ursula, the EDSE Programme’s finance and operations assistant, completed her Btech degree in Operations Management from the University of Johannesburg in June 2018. Her Btech modules included operations management, financial practices, operations technique, organisational effectiveness and quality assurance. During her studies Ursula interned and volunteered at various organisations, illustrating her committment to use every opportunity to learn and expand her knowledge as far as possible.

Asmita Pashotam
(Policy SMME Expert)
Asmita Parshotam, a trade and international development expert, has worked in South African and European think tanks, respectively the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM). Asmita is also an admitted attorney of the high court of South Africa, having served her legal articles at Bowmans, a corporate law firm in Johannesburg. Within the EDSE Programme, Asmita works in the Policy and Regulatory team, headed by Lana Hopkinson. Her research at the South African Institute of International Affairs involved regional agro-processing and value chains, trade, gender and investment issues, as well as mega-regional trade agreements. She has also worked at the World Trade Organisation developing expertise on legal issues related to agriculture and commodities. She read for a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Arts in International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Wendy E Lambert
(Township Strategy Junior Expert)

Ms Lambert brings 22 years of experience in various corporate sectors, in different managerial roles, across a wide field of operational and strategic experiences. Her EDSE Programme work involves township economy issues to which she brings a very clear understanding of the challenges facing township entrepreneurs, having successfully set up two businesses operating from South African townships. In addition, she has spent more than 10 years as a community leader, organising a multitude of community leaders to improve living conditions, including the business environment and consumer safety. She operates her own radio programme on entrepreneurship issues, from an Eersterust-based radio station. She previously managed EY’s CSR programme which promoted the participation of black women in South Africa’s economy. Wendy is a frequent guest speaker at women’s conferences. Wendy has already organised various Public-Private Dialogues and other stakeholder engagement events for the EDSE Programme.

Thami Obozua
(Events coordinator, Communication Expert)
Thami is an events coordinator with more than 13 years in business organisation experience, working with government, public, industrial organisations and private sectors. As the EDSE Programme events coordinator, she works closely with EDSE staff and programme stakeholders to ensure that awareness of the programme is maximised through high impact events coordination, supported with appropriate publicity material. Thami joined EDSE from the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry where, as the corporate services and events manager, her main role was to recruit new members, developing suitable briefing packs for prospective members. Thami has organised a number of bilateral trade and economic conference with South Africa’s partners, including the US State of Florida, Tawain, Greece, and Cyprus. She also organised various SACCI breakfast engagements with senior government officials including former president Jacob Zuma, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogeong, and the SARB Governor, Lesetja Kgangyago.

Vusi Zwane
(Township Economy Expert)
Vusi has more than 20 years experience covering various aspects of Business Development Service, SMME development, regulatory and transformation issues, access to finance and impact assessment. He has worked on numerous SMME support programmes and business development services in South Africa, in particular in Gauteng (Soweto, Alexandra and Tshwane) and has held senior positions in various sectors, including the tourism industry. Vusi has been involved in supplier development programmes through a private sector initiative and has undertaken various BEE consulting projects. He has also run his own consulting business on SMME and business development services work.

Phozisa Mkele
(Media and Social Media)
Phozisa Mkele is a seasoned public relations specialist. She has experience is in communication strategy development, content development, media relations and digital media strategy development. Phozisa has a Corporate Communication degree from the University of Johannesburg and two Honours degrees from Wits in Journalism and English Literature – Creative Writing. She is working toward the completion of her Masters in 2019. In her previous positions she has worked as PR Manager for Regenesys Business School where she managed two PR agencies and a team of four. Here she conceptualized strategies for campaigns, managed high profile events and produced content for the business school. At Sun International she worked as Head of Events and Entertainment for the Group, with a strong focus toward profiling the Sun City resort domestically and within the African continent.
Since she started consulting Phozisa has worked on content production for the City of Johannesburg’s and its entities namely City Power, Department of Economic Development and Group Strategy, Policy Co-ordination and Relations departments. Phozisa has also consulted for SALGA’s Innovation and Knowledge Management unit providing content production services. Most recently she has consulted for the University of Johannesburg Centre for Entrepreneurship, National Empowerment Fund, Barloworld Group, MTN Group Africa, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Accenture and the UNDP’s YAS portal.

Richard Humphries
(Communications Content)
Richard’s lengthy career started in journalism (with the Pretoria News) after which he worked in the public policy research environment (at Rhodes University, the Centre for Policy Studies and the Human Sciences Research Council). Over the last 15 years, Richard has worked on innovative African virtual policy networks (the Southern African Regional Poverty Network, ANSA-Africa) and two important African trade and regional integration initiatives (TradeMark Southern Africa and the Trade Law Centre). His work for these agencies involved the sourcing of policy-relevant content for distribution to policy specialists in governments, development agencies, civil society and academia.

Denver Tavira
(Access to Finance Expert)
Denver has worked in the banking industry for over 25 years, most of which has been in SME-focussed roles, including enterprise and supplier development, SME guarantee schemes and alternative funds. Before joining the EDSE Programme team, Denver spent the last four years as the Vice President: Public Sector Enterprise and Supplier Development at Absa Corporate and Investment Bank. The key responsibilities of this role included the negotiation and structuring of bespoke wholesale SME Finance solutions for public sector institutions and their SME suppliers, managing SME finance programmes by providing input for SME funding requests, assisting with post-lending (investment) management and adhoc mentoring of SMEs. Denver holds a Bachelors in Industrial Psychology as well as an MBA from Henley Business School. His dissertation topic was “ Black SME Financing and Enterprise and Supplier Development: catalysts for social innovation in the South African banking sector”.

Andile Silika
(Access to Finance Expert)
Andile is part of the EDSE Access to Finance team as an expert on SMME fund management issues. He has a 20-year track record across multiple sectors spanning SMME development and funding, Supply Chain Finance, capital raising, supplier management, credit risk management, business and process optimisation. He has managed varied sets of operational spheres in banking, microfinance and SMME finance in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Kenya and Uganda. He also has experience in fund operations having originated and structured off balance sheet transactions in the renewable energy sector. Part of his entrepreneurial ventures in the past include: deal origination and structuring as part of a private equity joint venture, provision of structured trade finance through a Rural SMME procurement financing programme and a partnership with an FMCG entity to source bulk produce from local farmers and to create rural processing hubs.

Dimakatso Malwela
(Gender Equality & Social Inclusion (GESI) and Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) Expert)
Ms Dimakatso Malwela is a founder and current CEO for Women of Value South Africa, an organisation that received the 2019 Gauteng Premier Inclusive Economy Award. The organisation is represented within four Africa Sub-Regions, serving on the UNWTO Leadership Task Force, a committee represented by Africa Ministers of Tourism and currently chaired by the Ghana Minister of Tourism. Dimakatso is a former SADC Women in Tourism Committee representative in the region under the formation of former (Regional Tourism Organisation in Southern Africa) RETOSA.
Dimakatso is also Editor in Chief for an Africa Regional Publication, Letlotlo Magazine and a former Chairperson for the Gauteng Cooperatives Provincial Working Group under the formation of the Gauteng Department of Economic Development.
Dimakatso is also an entrepreneur within the manufacturing sector. She was featured on Black Business Quarterly Magazine (BBQ) in 2016, Opportunity Magazine in 2015 and in the 2019 was named Entrepreneur Mentor for Tony Elumelu Foundation. Dimakatso was part of the Gauteng Premier’s Office Young Woman Development programme where she obtained Advance Project Management qualification with UNISA where she is currently pursuing studies in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. Dimakatso has received an Honorary Doctorate for Women and Youth Empowerment Programme within the Region.

Zama Bodlani
(SMME Access to Finance Expert)