Prof Tobias Chirwa

Programme Director

Prof Tobias Chirwa is the Programme Director for the consortium of advanced biostatistics training in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSACABT). He is the Head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and manages the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences statistical support services. Prior to this, he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Malawi (UNIMA) and a Research Fellow in Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He has also held positions of responsibility like the Dean, Faculty of Science; Head, Department of Mathematical Sciences at UNIMA and was also the President of Statistical Association of Malawi. He has led postgraduate capacity building initiatives including the Norwegian-funded NUFU PhD programme, MSc Biostatistics and Informatics at UNIMA. Further, he has continued to be active in curriculum development while at Wits – developing short courses in biostatistics; MSc programmes in Biostatistics and Research Data Management. He is also co-Director of a University of North Carolina (UNC) and Wits Fogarty (MSc and PhD) training grant on AIDS Implementation Science and Advanced Cohort Analyses, together with the WHO/TDR Implementation Research.

Prof Eustasius Musenge

Deputy Director

Eustasius Musenge is a Deputy Director/Senior Lecturer in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Coordinates the Biostatistical modules of the Masters degree programs. He is a Faculty member of the consortium of advanced biostatistics training in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSACABT) and sits in the Executive Committee meetings. He is a National Research Foundation rated scientist with 40 publications in scientific peer review journals. He is the South African co-Principal investigator of the NIH GeneXpert Tuberculosis study and was involved in several successful grants in the School of Public Health. Areas of research interests have been spatiotemporal modeling of geo-statistical data for HIV/TB mortality data, modeling of large sparse cohort data, infectious disease modeling, analysis of genetic data, propensity score matching and structural equation modeling.

Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala, PhD

Kandala is Professor of Biostatistics at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Western Ontario, Canada and a Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics, Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is currently a Visiting Senior research Scientist at the African Population and Health Research Center : West Africa Regional Office, Dakar, Senegal.

He was, until recently a Professor of Biostatistics & Head of Applied Statistics Research group at Northumbria University, United Kingdom (UK). He is also a Visiting Professor of Health Technology Assessment at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK.

Prior to this, he worked as Head of Health Economics and Evidence Synthesis Research Unit at the Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg and was Associate Professor in Health Technology Assessment, a joint appointment with the University of Oxford and University of Warwick.

Kandala pioneered Bayesian spatial modelling of maternal and child health outcomes using large scale household data in Africa the approach now widely used in spatial demography to quantify the impact of environment on human health. Over 25 years, his main research interests are in capacity building in Biostatistics in Africa and Bayesian statistical methods and their application to epidemiology and population health including maternal and child health both in the developing countries and command economies, using large scale household data. He has supervised 20 PhD and over 30 MSc students across various institutions.

He has conducted and analysed several population and clinical trials data and he is part of the leadership of the DELTAS Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB) training programme funded by the Wellcome Trust in partnership with the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) from 2015-2026. He has published widely in the field of statistics and population health and serves in several research funding board including UK Medical Research Council Global Health board, Wellcome Trust, Canadian Institute of Health Research Board, German Science Foundation, and the Swiss Science Foundation.

His four recent books are titled (1) Advance Techniques in modelling Maternal and child health in Africa, Springer (2) Female Mutilation around the World: Analysis of Medical Aspects, Law and Practice (2018) with Springer Nature, (3) Statistical Modelling of Complex correlated and clustered data using Household surveys in Africa (2019) with Nova Science Publishers, and (4) Adolescents and Youth sexual and reproductive health in Central Africa. Le Harmattan, Paris, France (2021).

Prof Jonathan Levin

Caroline Vika

Programme Manager

Caroline Vika is the Programme Manager under the SSACAB project at the Wits School of Public Health. She holds a Master’s in Public Health and, Health Promotion from London Southbank University. She brings extensive experience of managing a maternal immunisation Consortium, surveillances, epidemiology, randomised clinical trials and implementation science projects within the Wits Health Consortium Units, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases-NICD (SA) and international and multiple countries projects. Some of projects were funded by different funders like the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Clinton Health Access Health Initiative (CHAI), Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis (TAG-TB) and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA). She also brings experience of lecturing and supervising Public Health, Health Research, Leadership and Strategic Management in Healthcare dissertation students.

Vuyisani Keeper Ngobeni

Divisional Grant Manager

Vuyisani Keeper Ngobeni is the Divisional Grant Manager. He has B.Com degree in Accounting, Management Accounting and Finance from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has over twelve years of experience working at different healthcare organizations which include Netcare, Life Healthcare and Medi-Clinic. The positions held include finance manager, accountant, bookkeeper, senior accounts clerk and senior admin clerk. He wants to pursue career with CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) in order to get more insights about planning, monitoring, control analysis, evaluation and risk management and apply the skills in his work.

Nqobile Dlamini

M&E Manager

Nqobile Dlamini is an M&E Manager under the SSACAB II project at the Wits School of Public Health, Johannesburg. She holds a master’s degree in Public and Development Sector Monitoring and Evaluation, from the Witwatersrand University and an Honours Degree in Public Management and Governance from the Johannesburg University. She has previously worked as an M&E Assistant from Youth Health Africa, an organization affiliated with The Aurum Institute. Nqobile brings extensive experience in working within various projects, managing data, and developing proposal under the Business Development unit. Some of the projects were funded by different funders like the Sibanye Stillwaters, Youth Employment Service (YES) and TB HIVCARE.

Mlungisi Mphetshwa

Community & Public Engagement Manager

Mlungisi Mphetshwa is the Community & Public Engagement Manager for the SSACAB II programme based in the Wits School of Public Health, Johannesburg. He hold a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion from Walter Sisulu University and a Post-graduate Diploma in HIV/AIDS Management from Stellenbosch University. Mlungisi is highly experienced in community engagement in both the public and private sectors. In his previous role, Mlungisi was the District Demand Creation Coordinator for the Centre for Communication Impact of South Africa (CCISA) & Social Behaviour Change Communication Coordinator for Foundation for Professional Development (FPD). He has worked as a Healthy Lifestyle Program Coordinator and Centre Manager for Kwanobuhle Love-life Centre Based in Eastern Cape province of South Africa. In his current role, Mlungisi intends to strengthen and sustain effective Community & Public engagement services within the Consortium and wider scientific Community.

Promise Majozi

Project administrator

Promise Majozi is a project administrator for the SSACAB II programme. She is also a communications specialist, with the purpose of developing, executing and maintaining a communications strategy that helps to formulate collaborations internally and externally, through media outreach and social media creation.