DATE OF BIRTH
16 August 1952
MARITAL STATUS
Married, one daughter
EDUCATION
1982 MA in Industrial Planning, Moscow Plekhanov Institute of National Economy.
1987 PhD (Economics), Moscow Plekhanov Institute of National Economy.
1990 Post-graduate Diploma in Quantitative Development Economics, University of Warwick.
1991 MA (Economics) in Social and Development Studies, University of Manchester.
CAREER
1972-1975 Founder member and office bearer of the Natal Youth Organization and the National Youth Organization, which mobilized the youth in the struggle against the Apartheid regime.
1976-1977 Forced to go into exile. Worked in the scholarship section of the African National Congress (ANC) in Tanzania.
1977-1987 Studying in the USSR. Was the head of the South African Students’ Union in the Soviet Union.
1987-1989 Served as a researcher in the Department of Economic Policy of the ANC in Zambia. During the period also worked as a part-time lecturer at the Zambian National Institute for Public Administration.
1990-1991 Studying in the United Kingdom.
1992-1994 Research Coordinator and Senior Research Officer for the Macro-Education Policy Unit, University of Durban-Westville.
1994-1996 Private Secretary to the then Minister of Economic Affairs and Tourism for KwaZulu-Natal.
1996-2003 Chief Director, Department of Economic Affairs and Tourism in KwaZulu-Natal.
2003-2005 Executive Director of the National Institute for Economic Policy.
2005 to date Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.
HOBBIES AND INTERESTS
Music, poetry and reading.