Meet the team

Kristiina Lahde
Chief Technical Advisor

Kristiina has a Masters of Science in Engineering from Helsinki University Of Technology (Currently part of Aalto University) in Finland.

She has worked in various roles in the ICT industry in Finland and internationally, from multinationals to SME’s, as an account manager, entrepreneur and CEO of an incubator, in sales, HR, logistics, consulting and recruiting to mention a few.

Kristiina relocated from Finland to South Africa for the duration of the programme.

Thiru Naidoo-Swettenham
South African Programme Coordinator

Thiru has a strong background in Science and Technology, formerly as researcher and project leader in Plant Biotechnology at CSIR in Durban and Pretoria for 15 years, and more recently as a development consultant and operations analyst  in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and ICT for Development (ICT4D) at the World Banks’ office in South Africa.

Her academic background includes degrees in both Science – Chemistry,  Biology and Plant Pathology, and Commerce.

Thiru brings to SAFIPA her knowledge and experience in project management and organisational management; monitoring and evaluation; stakeholder and relationship management; strategic thinking and planning; and risk assessment and sustainability.

Cleophas Dzinotyiweyi
Project Manager

Cleophas Dzinotyiweyi manages high-profile projects and provides strategic operations support at the CSIR Meraka Institute. His professional experience spans 23 years and includes experience in strategic ICT Management in a vertically integrated mining, manufacturing and trading corporation; project management on a major IT Implementation Project with an international bank; management consultancy with a leading global consulting and audit houses; and hands-on IT Systems Development on various engagements.

Cleophas holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computing Science and Mathematics, a Master of Business Administration (MBA), and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Lorraine Shikwane
Project Officer

Lorraine brings to the team an extensive experience in project management and administration, previously gained at SABS as project leader in ISO ICT standards and SANAS as programme administrator for the accreditation of Calibration and Testing laboratories. Previous employment also includes the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as Committee Coordinator for Professional Boards. Lorraine has a degree in social sciences from the University of the North, and has obtained a  Fundamentals of Project Management certificate, a Masters diploma in HR (RAU) and a Management Assistant certificate among others.

Lorraine is responsible for coordinating the administrative and planning processes of SAFIPA, project management, admin functions and stakeholder liaisons. She assists the  South African NPC in ensuring the effective and efficient performance of the SAFIPA programme and provides support for identified capacity building requirements for approved projects and academic institutions.