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The Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology is proud of Prof Loyisa Nongxa, the Chairman of the National Research Foundation Board, on his appointment as the Vice-President of the International Mathematical Union, which took place during the General Assembly in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
 
Prof Nongxa has always been an achiever and leader, having achieved a distinction as the top matric student in South Africa in 1972. He then studied for a BSc degree at Fort Hare University and obtained his BSc (Hons) in 1976 and his MSc in 1978. Prof Nongxa then obtained a DPhil from the University of Oxford 1982. In 1978, Prof Nongxa became South Africa’s first African Rhodes Scholar.
 
He contributed regularly at annual South African Mathematical Society conferences and after his travel ban, enforced by the apartheid regime, was revoked in 1993, he made presentations at many international conferences. He was a founding director of the Centre for Mathematical and Computational Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand, and also served at the University of the Western Cape as Professor of Mathematics and as Dean of Natural Sciences.
 
The Chairperson of the Science and Technology Committee, Ms Lindiwe Maseko, said: “Given Prof Nongxa’s impressive track record, we are not surprised at his appointment and we congratulate him. We are confident that this son of our soil will make us even prouder and will put South Africa and the continent of Africa firmly on the map in the science and mathematical arena. We wish him well.”

Issued by Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of The Chairperson of The Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology, Ms Lindiwe Maseko