List Of Alumni Of The University of Cape Town
List Of Alumni Of The University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has a long history of turning forth outstanding graduates that have a lasting impact on their areas. From important leaders and forward-thinking thinkers to experienced professionals and ground-breaking researchers, the school has fostered a wide variety of skills. Join us as we commemorate the accomplishments of a few illustrious graduates who graduated from UCT’s esteemed halls. List Of Alumni Of The University of Cape Town
Commerce
- Roelof Botha, grandson of Pik Botha; began his career as an actuary and became a venture capitalist
- Chelsy Davy, the ex-girlfriend of Britain’s Prince Harry
- Nick Mallett, played for and later coached the Springboks, South Africa’s national rugby union team
- Tshediso Matona, CEO of Eskom
- Mark Shuttleworth, billionaire entrepreneur; founder of Canonical Ltd; sponsor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution; second space tourist
Humanities
- Professor Emeritus J. M. Coetzee, Literature, 2003
- Lauren Beukes, international best-selling author of The Shining Girls, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
- Jean Comaroff, professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago
- John Comaroff, professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago
- Harold Cressy, head teacher and first colored person to gain a degree in South Africa
- Janette Deacon, an archaeologist specializing in heritage management and rock art conservation
- Roger Ebert, the film critic, graduated with an English degree as part of a Rotary International program
- David Fanning, Emmy Award-winning producer of Frontline
- Bobby Godsell, Masters of Arts, later CEO of AngloGold Ashanti and Chairman of Eskom
- Johannes de Villiers Graaff, professor of welfare economics; the economist
- Adrian Guelke, Professor of Comparative Politics at Queen’s University Belfast
- Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, deputy prime minister of South Africa, obtained an M.A. at the age of 17
- Philip Edgecumbe Hughes, New Testament scholar, Professor at Westminster Theological Seminary
- Edward Neville Isdell, former CEO of the Coca-Cola Company
- Gail Kelly, CEO of Westpac; 8th most influential woman in the world, according to Forbes magazine
- David Lewis-Williams, Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand specializing in Upper-Palaeolithic and Bushmen rock art
- Gwen Lister, South African-born Namibian journalist; anti-apartheid activist; founder of The Namibian
- Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw, Afrikaans-language poet, playwright, and scholar
- Steven Markovitz, award-winning film and television producer
- André du Pisani, political scientist and professor at the University of Namibia
- Mamphela Ramphele, managing director of the World Bank; former Vice-Chancellor of UCT
- Isaac Schapera, Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics; leading expert in the anthropology of South African tribesmen
- Carmel Schrire, Professor of Archaeology, Rutgers University
- Robert Carl-Heinz Shell, South African author and professor of African Studies
- Lady Skollie, feminist artist and activist
- Andries Treurnicht, founder and leader of the Conservative Party in South Africa
- Mary Watson, 2006 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing
READ: University Of Cape Town Course List
Music
- Richard Cock, conductor
- Cromwell Everson, classical music composer and composer of the first Afrikaans opera
- Ernest Fleischmann, impresario best known for his tenure at the Los Angeles Philharmonic[1]
- Malcolm Forsyth, musician; composer; Canadian Composer of the Year; Juno Award winner; member of Order of Canada
- Hendrik Hofmeyr, composer and music theorist; winner of the 1997 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Composition Prize; Professor of Music at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town
- Galt MacDermot, composer of the musical Hair
- Melanie Scholtz, vocalist, operas, jazz, pop, r&b, and classical music. Graduated from the School of Opera
- Barry Smith, organist, conductor, musicologist, and former Associate Professor of Music at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town
- Pretty Yende
Fine art
- Anne Bean, British installation and performance artist
- Breyten Breytenbach, author
- Roger Ebert, Pulitzer Award-winning American film critic, and writer
- Kai Lossgott, an interdisciplinary artist
- Jonathan Shapiro, a South African political cartoonist known as “Zapiro”
Drama
- Vincent Ebrahim, known for his role on The Kumars at No. 42
- Richard E. Grant, actor
- Zolani Mahola, lead singer of the South African band Freshlyground
- Kagiso Lediga, stand-up comedian, actor, and director
Sciences
- Professor Allan McLeod Cormack, Medicine, 1979
- Hilary Deacon, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Stellenbosch specializing in the emergence of modern humans and African archaeology
- Emanuel Derman, Goldman Sachs financial engineer and author of My Life As A Quant
- Jonathan M. Dorfan, director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
- Professor Mulalo Doyoyo, a South African engineer and inventor; is known for inventing Cancel, a cementless concrete
- George Ellis, cosmologist; collaborator with Stephen Hawking; winner of the 2004 Templeton Prize
- Sir Aaron Klug, Chemistry, 1982
- Paul Maritz, former Microsoft executive; VMware CEO
- Magdalena Sauer, the first woman to qualify as an architect in South Africa
- Sydney Harold Skaife, South African entomologist and naturalist
- Stanley Skewes, a number theorist most famous in popular mathematics for his bound for the point of changeover in magnitude between the number of primes up to a certain number and an important approximation of this, which was for many years the largest finite number ever legitimately used in a research paper
- Willem Van Biljon, former co-founder of Mosaic Software, acquired by S1 Corporation; founder of Nimbula, a startup funded by Sequoia Capital
- Richard van der Riet Woolley, British astronomer who became Astronomer Royal
READ: University of Fort Hare Notable Alumni
Health Sciences
- Neil Aggett, South African trade union leader and labor activist died in custody after 70 days’ detention without trial
- Frances Ames, the first woman to receive an MD degree from UCT; the first female professor at UCT
- Professor Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital
- Enid Charles, statistician, and demographer
- David Cooper, theorist, and leader in the anti-psychiatry movement
- Margaret Keay (1911-1998), plant pathologist
- Bongani Mayosi, cardiologist and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
- Max Theiler, a virologist awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for developing a vaccine against yellow fever
- Heather Zar, pediatric pulmonologist and Chair Department of Paediatrics
Social sciences
- John Karlin, an industrial psychologist whose research led to the rectangular push-button telephone
- Debora Patta, broadcast journalist, and television producer
- Joel Pollak, editor-in-chief of Breitbart News
Law and government
- Sheila Camerer, South African politician; former Deputy Minister of Justice; long-serving Member of Parliament of the main opposition the Democratic Alliance; ambassador to Bulgaria; completed a Bachelor of Law degree at UCT in 1964
- Ryan Coetzee, South African politician; former CEO of the Democratic Alliance and Shadow Minister of Economic Development; chief strategist for Western Cape premier Helen Zille; graduated from UCT in 1994
- Beric John Croome, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa; Chartered Accountant CA (SA); taxpayers’ rights pioneer; completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree (1980), Certificate in the Theory of Accountancy (1981) and a Ph.D. (Commercial Law) (2008) at UCT
- Stephen Jolly, Australian activist, and politician.
- Zainunnisa “Cissie” Gool, anti-apartheid political and civil rights leader
- Ian Neilson, Executive Deputy Mayor of Cape Town
- Kate O’Regan, former Constitutional Court of South Africa judge
- Dullah Omar, South African anti-apartheid activist; lawyer; Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; minister in the South African cabinet from 1994 until his death
- Justice Albie Sachs, of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
- James Selfe, a long-serving Member of Parliament with the Democratic Alliance; chairperson of the party’s federal council; holds a Master’s degree from UCT
- Lady Kitty Spencer, daughter of the 9th Earl of Spencer and niece of Diana, Princess of Wales
- Donald Woods, South African journalist, and anti-apartheid activist
- Percy Yutar, South Africa’s first Jewish attorney-general, and prosecutor of Nelson Mandela in the 1963 Rivonia Treason Trial
Note: The aforementioned article gives a rundown of famous University of Cape Town alums. Visit UCT’s official website for a complete list, or look at reliable websites that highlight the accomplishments of UCT graduates.
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