Our Team

Jenny was appointed by the Minister in 2013 to oversee the establishment of Sol Plaatje University through chairing the five person Interim Council set up for this purpose. She has received honorary awards from both Commonwealth of Learning (CoL) for her significant contribution to distance education and the University of Pretoria for her contribution to education in South Africa. As the person ultimately responsible for OER Africa, she will work closely with the Co-Leaders and the Project Manager profiled below.

Tony is a Programme Specialist at Saide in the area of teacher education, and works with Neil Butcher as a co-leader of OER Africa. He has worked on several projects involving the development of learning materials for schooling and higher education, as well as on research projects for educational bodies in South Africa and internationally. Prior to joining Saide, Tony worked in several leadership roles at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, published extensively and supervised postgraduate students.

Neil contributes to OER Africa as its OER strategist and brings extensive international research and experiences in higher education, distance education, and educational technology, built over two decades. Together with Tony Lelliott, he leads OER Africa. Neil has been involved in the work of OER Africa since its inception, and will retain an overall strategic role for the project as a whole. 

Ephraim is a Programme Specialist: Quality Assurance at Saide. Ephraim has supported a number of countries in Southern Africa in developing quality assurance frameworks for both contact and Open and Distance Learning institutions. He brings to OER Africa his wealth of experience in working with African Universities, his work in these institutions involved supporting the adoption of the AgShare methodology in training postgraduate students in Agriculture. 

Andrew is Institutional Lead at the University of Pretoria and is currently a project manager supporting projects that exploit Open Education Resources (OER) and Technology for Education Ministries, and both Higher and Basic Education institutions. These institutions have been spread around the developing world including West and East Africa, SADC countries India, Oman and the Caribbean.

Monge Tlaka is the Website Manager for OER Africa, Her role involves managing the website development, manages the website technical team and hosting environment.  Monge is also part of th OER AfricaCommunication Team and produces online marketing materials, website content and keywords for Search Engine Optimizations (SEO).

Jabulani Sithole is the Knowledge and Communications Manager at Saide, charged with ensuring effective knowledge management and communication of Saide and its various initiatives, including OER Africa. He also supports OER Africa’s advocacy work. Jabulani brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in development communications, advocacy and knowledge management.

James Swash is the Senior Website developer for OER Africa. His role involves the technical development and maintenance of the website. James is also involved with the generation and reporting of the website usage.

Sarah Hoosen is a senior researcher at OER Africa, and since 2009 she has worked with the OER Africa team to conduct research and prepare toolkits and resources to guide and document its various initiatives. Sarah has also published on issues related to distance education and open educational resources to wider audiences: she has conducted desktop research, and prepared papers, briefs, and guides to provide information and analysis resources for those involved in policy debates in the area of OER.

Mohini Baijnath is a researcher, junior website developer and social media manager for OER Africa. Her role entails conducting research for OER Africa projects, maintaining the website and managing OER Africa’s social media accounts.

Sheila Drew is a Programme Specialist – Early Childhood Development with the South African Institute for Distance Education (see www.saide.org.za ). She works as part of the OER Africa team, bringing her expertise in programme and materials design and development for open and online learning. Sheila has worked primarily in teacher education in early childhood care and education (ECCE) and foundation phase. She has co-ordinated a number of large collaborative design projects bringing together a range of education organisations and institutions. Sheila has been one of the South African in-country co-ordinators for the African Storybook Initiative (ASb). ASb aims to increase access to and use of children’s stories in local languages in Africa..