Engender’s Management Committee (Board of Directors) is incredibly diverse, with members from across South African society sectors, and one leading organisational development and human resources expert based in the United States. Members’ expertise include research; human rights and gender activisms; law; organisational development, management and human resources; as well as programme management.

• Bernedette Muthien - Director
• Waheeda Amien
• Sally Gross
• Rashid Lombard
• Nolitha Mazwai
• Rodney Plimpton
• Mandisa Zitha

Bernedette is an independent scholar-activist, engaged in strategic interventions (including research and facilitation) in the areas of human rights, conflict resolution, gender and gender-based violence, as well sexualities and HIV/AIDS. She is committed to transformation, equity (with justice), and non-violence.

She has published creative writing and academic work widely, written for diverse audiences, and believes in accessible research and writing.

At the end of 2003 Bernedette co-founded a non-profit organisation, Engender, to formalise the work she had engaged in since leaving the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town, at the end of 2001. Engender provides research & capacity building for communities of people on genders & sexualities, human rights, justice & peace.

Her community activism is integrally related to her work with international organisations, and her research necessarily reflects the values of equity, social change and justice. Bernedette has published both creative writing and academic work in South Africa and abroad. She has written for diverse audiences and is committed to accessible research and writing.

AFFILIATIONS include: Executive Council of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) 2000-2006, and still serves as co-convenor of its Global Political Economy Commission. Member of Amanitare, the African network of gender NGOs. Member of the International Advisory Board of the international journal, Human Security Studies, as well as the International Resource Network on Sexualities, administered by CUNY. Regional Editor (Africa & Asia) of the international journal, Queries.

Bernedette is originally from a large working class black family of mixed origins. Her absolute commitment to human rights and social and economic justice is rooted in both her personal background, as well as her anti-apartheid activism. She honed her skills in community organising with grassroots movements during the eighties. Due to intense student activism her teenage years were marked by expulsions from schools and university, detentions and imprisonment.

Bernedette’s professional life has echoed the belief that the personal is political, and the global local, and hence her work has consistently centred on the issues of gender, human rights, and peace.

Waheeda Amien holds a Law degree (BA LLB) from the University of Cape Town, and a Master of Law degree (LLM) in Constitutional Litigation from the University of the Western Cape. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of Gent, Belgium. Her thesis focuses on Muslim women's complex rights to equality and is entitled "The conflict between the right to freedom of religion and Muslim's women's right to equality - multicultural accommodation of Muslim Personal Law and/or Shari'a in constitutional jurisdictions". She has worked at the Public Defender's Office (Legal Aid Board), Parliament, two South African universities, and one foreign university. Her working experience includes research on women's and children's rights, as well as the intersectionality of law, race, gender, and other diversity issues; equality and diversity training for magistrates; lecturing in gender law; and having practised as a public interest and human rights lawyer. She has been a board member of a number of progressive organisations in South Africa, and has published especially in the areas of gender and human rights law. Some of her work can be accessed online at:

Sally Gross is a former exiled anti-apartheid activist, and now Research Coordinator/Vetting Officer for the Regional Land Claims Commission in Cape Town. Sally was born intersexed, classified male at birth, and reclassified female at the age of 40. She holds a Masters degree from Oxford University, where she served as a Roman Catholic priest. Sally is an Elder of the regional Society of Friends (Quakers), and expert on diverse spiritualities (including Judaism and Buddhism).For further information on intersexuality in Africa:

For further information on intersexuality in Africa
Contact: Sally Gross
Intersex Society of South Africa (ISOSA)
Suite No. 171
Private Bag X18
Rondebosch 7701
Cape Town, South Africa
Email: isosa "at" engender.org.za

Rashid Lombard is an internationally renowned photographer and jazz fundi, and CEO of ESPAfrika, the Cape-based company responsible for the largest jazz multi-event in the southern hemisphere, the North Sea Jazz Festival. Please visit the following websites on http://www.espafrika.com for more info on espAFRIKA or http://www.capetownjazzfest.com for the latest on the Cape Town Jazz Festival (former North Sea Festival, Cape Town).

Nolitha Mazwai is a lawyer and Rape Crisis Cape Town’s Advocacy Coordinator. Nolitha is a qualified lawyer who has consistently chosen human rights practice over commercial interests. She graduated with B.Proc and LLB degrees from the University of the Western Cape in 1996 and 2000 respectively, and served her articles of clerkship from 1998 to 2000 at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), a public law interest NGO. She subsequently chose to work with refugees and asylum–seekers in a national project managed jointly by the Department of Home Affairs, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). At present Nolitha works as Advocacy Co-ordinator with Rape Crisis, an NGO for women survivors of sexual violence, where she lobbies for improved legislation for survivors of rape, prepares survivors for court testimony and networks with other social service agencies on behalf of her clients. Nolitha is of necessity very active in the Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women, and serves on their Provincial Management Committee, as well as the Cape Town Executive Committee. She is also the proud mother of two young children.

Rodney Plimpton has more than 30 years of hands-on experience in management consulting, senior team facilitation, and human resources with both Fortune 500 clients, and smaller firms. He holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth, with High Distinction, and a Ph.D. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is certified as a Senior Human Resource Professional by the Society for Human Resources Management, and has been a member of the Organization Development Network since 1971.

Rod’s consulting career started in Boston with Harbridge House in 1966, where he specialized in management development for clients such as Volkswagen of America, John Deere, Steelcase, and the Electric Utility Marketing Institute.

After obtaining his PhD at Stanford Rod taught organizational behavior at the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth, before founding Organizational Consulting Services in Concord, MA in 1979. He joined Temple, Barker and Sloan Inc. in Lexington MA in 1982, which later became Mercer Management Consulting. He helped to establish their organizational consulting practice and was leading the Energy and Utility practice in 1996 when he left to become Senior Vice President for Human Resources for American Electric Power (AEP) in Columbus, Ohio. Rod retired from AEP, as planned, in the summer of 2001, and currently resides in Acton MA.

Rod’s consulting career has had a strong emphasis on improving organizational performance through a variety of approaches. His work has included facilitating meetings with senior management teams to identify their most critical issues and develop solutions; improving organization design and structure; revamping compensation, measurement and reward systems; improving information and control systems; and changing the organizational culture. At AEP he was responsible for a human resources department with 300 employees and a $45 million budget serving 22,000 U.S. employees, and lead the merger integration planning for AEP’s merger with Central and Southwest in 2000.

Larger clients have included the major divisions of AT&T, The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Gulf Oil, more than a dozen major electric utilities, Kaiser Aluminum, May Department Stores, McDonald’s Corporation, Nestle, and US West. High tech and entrepreneurial clients have included Germanium Power Devices, Foster-Wheeler Corporation, and Management Decision Systems.

He is currently on the Boards of Engender, in Cape Town, South Africa, The Household Goods recycling Ministry in Acton, MA, and The Camden Yacht Club.

Mandisa Zitha was born in the small North West town of Mafikeng during the period of the 1976 June 16th uprisings. She developed her passion for the arts while attending a liberal high school, where she revelled in storytelling in all forms. A short stint in the concert promotion and music industry honed her production skills and led her to the film industry and the position of administrator of the Independent Producers’ Organisation. As the facilitator for Women of the Sun, Mandisa resurrected the organisation through a membership drive, weekly newsletters, screenings and the African Women’s Festival. At that time, the organisation initiated a short film series for emerging women filmmakers. Mandisa developed strong production skills as a production manager in Total Eclipse’s short film series commissioned for SABC3.

Feeling the need to evolve and attain a more holistic approach to film, Mandisa decided to pursue a degree in Film and Media at the University of Cape Town, majoring in scriptwriting and documentaries. She received the class medal for her Senior Project based on a radio script. Mandisa’s quiet passion and determined focus is evident in the success of the projects she undertakes. She brings both production experience and academic skills to the Encounters festival, and to Engender’s Management Committee.