Board Members Azhar Cachalia (Chair) Zyda Rylands (Deputy Chair) Jody Kollapen Nomsa Masuku Karrisha Pillay Barney Mthombothi Nomfundo Walaza

Azhar Cachalia (Chair)

A judge of the High Court in Johannesburg since 2001, Azhar Cachalia has a long history of active involvement in the South African struggle for democracy and was instrumental in the formation of the United Democratic Front in the 1980’s. A Wits University graduate, he specialized in Human Rights and Administrative law while practicing as an attorney. In 1992 he studied Constitutional Law at Yale University in the United States. In 1996 he joined the government as Secretary for Safety and Security, responsible for police reform and the development of the National Crime Prevention Strategy. In 1999 he returned to legal practice. He has served on the Board of the OSF-SA since 2000.

Zyda Rylands (Deputy Chair)

Director of People at Woolworths’ head office, Zyda Rylands is a qualified accountant and has held financial positions at several large corporations. She serves on the boards of a number of schools and technikons and in 1997 received the Black Management Forum’s Manager of the Year Award. She was nominated among the top ten for the Impumelelo/BMF Business Personality of the Year in 2001 for her achievements.

Jody Kollapen

Mr Jody Kollapen is the Chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), a constitutional body set up in terms of Chapter 9 of the South African Constitution to protect and promote human rights. He was appointed by President Mandela on the recommendation of Parliament and reappointed for second term by President Mbeki.

He has a B.Proc degree and LLB degree from Wits.  He practised law in Pretoria, South Africa from 1981 to 1992 focussing on public interest law and during this period he represented a number of persons prosecuted in terms of apartheid laws. He joined Lawyers for Human Rights, a leading human rights NGO, in 1992 and served as its National Director from 1994 until 1995.

He was requested by President Mandela to be part of a panel entrusted with the task of interviewing and making recommendations on persons to be appointed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

His areas of interest include human rights within the administration of justice, equality and the advancement of socio-economic rights. He is presently chairperson of the Equality Review Committee.

He currently serves on the boards of various national and international human rights bodies, including the Legal Resources Centre and the Human Rights Foundations. He has spoken and participated in numerous workshops and conferences on human rights issues both nationally and internationally and written extensively on human rights issues and on constitutionalism.

Nomsa Masuku

Nomsa completed her junior degree at the University of Swaziland majoring in English Languages and Literature and African Languages and Literature. She went on to do her Masters in Arts (Linguistics) and Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language at the University of Sydney, Australia. She then did her PhD in the area of Applied English Linguistics (Text Linguistics/Discourse Analysis and Construction of Knowledge) at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

She was employed by the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa for eight years where her portfolio included the strategic development of programmes that assist the Commission to contribute to the entrenchment of constitutional democracy. She also had oversight over the Commission’s provision and promotion of voter and balloting education. She is currently employed by Standard Bank as the Head of Corporate Social Investment.

Karrisha Pillay

Karrisha Pillay is a practising advocate at the Cape Bar with a particular interest in constitutional and administrative law. Before entering the legal profession, she was a researcher at the Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, where her work focused on socio-economic rights. Advocate Pillay has served on the boards of various non-governmental and community-based organisations.

Barney Mthombothi

Barney Mthombothi  is currently editor of Financial Mail. He joined this leading financial magazine January 1, 2005. He was the editor of Sunday Tribune, Independent Newspapers' flagship in KwaZulu Natal, a position he took up in 2003. He had last worked at the Sunday Tribune as a young reporter in the 1980s.
Previously, he was editor-in-chief of SABC radio news, leaving that position in 1999. After a stint at the Financial Mail as an editor-at-large, he rejoined the SABC in November 2000 as chief executive of SABC news - the result of a merger of the radio news and television news divisions. He left the SABC in July 2002.
One of SA's most highly respected editors, Mthombothi has also held senior positions at The Star and the Sowetan. He is a Niemann fellow of Harvard University and a former Reuters fellow at Oxford University

Nomfundo Walaza

Nomfundo is a qualified Clinical Psychologist who completed her training at the University of Cape Town (UCT).  She earned a Bachelor of Social Science (B Soc Sci) degree in Sociology and Psychology in 1986, completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Psychology a year later, and obtained a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology from UCT in 1991.

Nomfundo worked at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital from January 1990 to July 1994.  Nomfundo joined the Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture in August 1994, as the co-ordinator of the Urban Violence project. She was appointed as the Director of the Trauma Centre in September 1996 where she worked until 2005.

Nomfundo has been lecturing and doing consultative work since leaving the Trauma Centre.