List of University of the Witwatersrand people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of notable alumni and staff of the University of the Witwatersrand.
Arts
- Aggrey Klaaste, journalist, editor of the Sowetan, 1988–2002
- Angelique Rockas, pioneer of multi-racial and multi-national theatre London
- Anton Hartman, musician
- Athol Williams, award-winning poet and social philosopher
- Aura Herzog, Israeli writer
- Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, Zulu poet, novelist, and educator, first black South African to receive a PhD
- Candice Breitz, artist, video and photography
- Cecil Skotnes, artist
- Claire Johnston, singer, known as the face and voice of Mango Groove
- Clare Loveday, composer
- Clement M. Doke, linguist
- Clinton Fein, artist, activist
- Hans George Adler, musicologist; collector and classical music promoter, Honorary Doctor of Philosophy (1978)
- Ed Jordan, musician, composer, singer-songwriter, actor, TV and radio presenter; wrote and produced the orchestral score for Spud
- Elisabeth Eybers, poet
- Eric Fernie, art historian
- Ernest Fleischmann (1924–2010), executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
- Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal, linguist, expert in Bantu and Khoisan languages
- Ezekiel Mphahlele, writer and academic
- Ferial Haffajee, editor of the City Press; former editor of The Mail and Guardian in South Africa
- Fred Khumalo, journalist and author
- Gary Barber, American film producer of South African descent; chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 2010-2018; co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment
- Gavin Hood, writer, producer and director, directed Tsotsi
- Gideon Emery, actor
- Harold Jenkins (Shakespeare scholar), notable Shakespeare scholar
- Herman Charles Bosman, writer and journalist
- Ingrid de Kok, author and poet
- Ivan Vladislavic, novelist
- Janet Suzman, actress, director
- Jani Allan, writer and journalist
- Jerry Mofokeng, actor
- Jillian Becker novelist, essayist, critic and expert on terrorism
- Johnny Clegg, musician
- Judith Mason, painter
- Kendell Geers, artist
- Kevin Volans, composer
- Kitso Lynn Lelliott, filmmaker and multimedia artist
- Lewis Wolpert, developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster
- Lionel Abrahams, novelist, poet, editor, critic, essayist and publisher
- Lionel Ngakane, filmmaker
- Lisa de Nikolits, writer
- Lucy Allais, philosopher
- Manfred Mann, keyboard player for the bands Manfred Mann and Manfred Mann's Earth Band
- Mbali Dhlamini, artist
- Mbongeni Buthelezi, artist known for "painting" in plastic
- Motswedi Modiba, singer-songwriter[1]
- Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991
- Phaswane Mpe, poet and novelist
- Pieter-Dirk Uys, entertainer, AIDS activist
- Raymond Heard, journalist, editor, media executive, political strategist
- Ruona J. Meyer, journalist, International Emmy Award nominee
- Sibongile Khumalo, singer
- Stan Katz, broadcaster
- Shannon Esra, actress
- Shulamith Behr, art historian
- Thuso Mbedu, actress
- William Kentridge, artist
- Rayne Kruger (1922–2002), author
- Cecily Sash (1924–2019), painter, professor
- Zoe Ramushu, writer, director, producer
Architecture and design
- Denise Scott Brown, architect, planner, writer and educator
- Rory Byrne, former chief designer for the Ferrari Formula One team
- Pancho Guedes, Portuguese architect, participant of Team X
- Allan Greenberg, American architect and one of the leading classical architects of the twenty-first century.
- Theo Crosby, was an architect, editor, writer and sculptor, engaged with major developments in design across four decades
- Michael Sutton, architect
Business and entrepreneurship
- Vusi Thembekwayo, founder and CEO of MyGrowthFund Venture Partners; at 23 founded MOTIV8 Advisory; former "dragon" on Dragons' Den (Mzansi Magic, 2014–2015); recipient of the GQ Business Leader of the Year Award (2020), Guardian Award at the EMY Africa Awards (2024), and District 74 Communication and Leadership Award (2025); author of Vusi: Business & Life Lessons from a Black Dragon (2017) and The Magna Carta of Exponentiality (2018)
- Adrian Gore, CEO of Discovery Holdings Ltd; Chairman of Destiny Health Inc. in the USA and Prudential Health Limited in the UK
- Affiong Williams, founder and CEO of Reel Fruit, a Nigerian company that focuses on processing and distribution of locally grown fruits
- Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services
- Charles Chinedu Okeahalam, economist and businessman, CEO of AGH Capital Group; former Liberty Life Professor of Financial Economics and Banking, University of the Witwatersrand
- David Frankel (entrepreneur), is a South African-born American businessman. He is the co-founder of Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital fund with offices in New York City and Cambridge
- Derek Keys (born 1931), finance minister of South Africa, 1992-1994, in the cabinets of F W de Klerk and Nelson Mandela
- Desmond Lachman (born 1948), economist and former IMF Deputy Director
- Donald Gordon, founder of life insurance company Liberty Life in 1958 with R100,000 when he was 27 years old; awarded a knighthood in 2005
- Elizabeth Bradley, Non-Executive Chairman of Toyota SA Limited; former Executive Director of AngloGold
- Gail Kelly (born Gail Currer), Australian and South African businessperson; first woman CEO of a major Australian bank or top 15 company (2002)
- Gary Barber, Chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Bachelor of Commerce; certificate in the Theory of Accountancy
- Gene Sherman, philanthropist, academic and expert on art, fashion and architecture.
- Gordon Schachat, co-founder of African Bank Limited and prominent art collector
- Graham Mackay, former Chairman and Ex-CEO of SABMiller plc, the world's second largest beer brewer
- Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore, one of the world's largest commodity trading companies; on the boards of mining companies Xstrata plc and Minara Resources Ltd
- Kay Yarms, Founder of Saxx Beauty
- Koos Bekker, former CEO of Naspers
- Lael Bethlehem, former CEO of the Johannesburg Development Agency; Investment Executive at Hosken Consolidated Investments
- Ludwig Lachmann, economist and important contributor to the Austrian School
- Maria Ramos, economist and businesswoman; CEO of ABSA Group since 2009; former CEO of Transnet
- Martin Morgan, Chief Executive Officer and Director of DMGT
- Meyer Feldberg, Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley
- Nathan Kirsh, South African-born Swazi business magnate, with a property empire spanning the UK, Swaziland and Australia; has Swazi citizenship; has residency status in the UK and the USA
- Nthato Motlana, giant of South African business and the anti-apartheid struggle; one of the accused, with Mandela and 18 others, in the 1952 Defiance Campaign Trial
- Patrice Motsepe, South African mining magnate; according to Forbes magazine, worth more than R17-billion after adding a further R7-billion to his net worth in 2009
- Patrick Soon-Shiong, South African-American surgeon; founder, chairman, and CEO of Abraxis BioScience
- Percy Tucker, Founder of Computicket, the first electronic theatre booking system in the world in 1971
- Rodney Sacks, chairman, and CEO of Monster Beverage
- Ron Dembo, is an academic and entrepreneur
- Ronnie Apteker, founder of Internet Solutions, one of South Africa's largest internet service providers
- Sarah Langa, Social media influencer and founder of Luvant and Heaton Consulting
- Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, diamond and gold mining entrepreneur; financier; philanthropist; controlled De Beers; founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa
- Sir Mark Weinberg, South African-born British financier; founder of Abbey Life Assurance Company
- Sir Winfried Franz Wilhelm Bischoff, Anglo-German banker; chairman of Lloyds Banking Group plc; former chairman and former interim CEO of Citigroup; knighted in 2000
- Sol Kerzner, hotel and gambling magnate; created the most successful hotel group in South Africa, Sun International; Chairman of the Board of Kerzner International, based in the Bahamas
- Steven H. Collis, CEO of Cencora (previously AmerisourceBergen);
- Tony Trahar, former chairman of Anglo American; educated at St John's College and the University of the Witwatersrand
- David Sikhosana, Business Magnet, Founder and Chairman of DSH Group, Educated at the University of the Witwatersrand[citation needed]
- Tsakani Maluleke, Auditor-General of South Africa (2020–present)[2]
Education
- Prof Adam Habib, Vice-chancellor of SOAS University of London, former Vice-chancellor and Principal University of the Witwatersrand
- Prof Brenda Gourley, higher education pioneer; accountant
- Colin Bundy, Warden of Green College, Oxford; former Director and Principal of School of Oriental and African Studies, former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University of London; former Vice-Chancellor and Principal of University of the Witwatersrand
- David B. A. Epstein, is a mathematician known for his work in hyperbolic geometry, 3-manifolds, and group theory, amongst other fields
- Garth Saloner, Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business
- Hazel Sive, is a South African-born biologist and educator
- Jane den Hollander, Vice-Chancellor and President, Deakin University, Australia
- Prof. Loyiso Nongxa, Vice-chancellor and Principal University of the Witwatersrand
- Prof. Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, mathematics education researcher and academic.* Max Price, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town, Johannesburg; former dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
- Mark Mostert Professor of Special Education at Regent University author and lecturer on Eugenics, Facilitated Communication and "useless eaters"
- Meyer Feldberg, dean of Columbia Business School 1989-2004; president of the Illinois Institute of Technology 1987-1989
- Michael Stevenson, President and Vice-Chancellor, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
- Patrick Deane, Principal of Queen's University, Canada
- Peter Sarnak, awarded the Wolf Prize 2014, Honorary doctorate 2014: University of the Witwatersrand
- Prof Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University, former Vice-chancellor and Principal University of Johannesburg
Engineering
- John Burland,[3] is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Investigator at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Imperial College London.[2]
- Sir John Lazar (engineer),[3] is a British investor, engineer and businessman 1 who was appointed as president of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2024.[2]3
- Lewis Wolpert,[3] was a South African-born British developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster
- Michael Bear (lord mayor),[3] is a civil engineer and management leader in both the construction and property industries in the UK and abroad
- Rob Pullen,[3] major contributor to the practice of water resources engineering and especially to the wider engineering profession in South Africa
- Matthew Rabinowitz, is a doctor of engineering and co-founder and executive chairman of Natera, a clinical genetic testing company
- Sir Jack Zunz,[3] was a British civil engineer and former chairman of Ove Arup & Partners. He was the principal structural designer of the Sydney Opera House
- Trevor Wadley, was a South African electrical engineer, best known for his development of the Wadley Loop circuit for greater stability in communications receivers and the Tellurometer, a land surveying device.
- Jules Fejer was an engineer with South Africa's National Institute for Telecommunications Research (NITR), He published the first estimate of the life expectancy of the recently launched Sputnik in Nature.
- Malcolm McCulloch was a professor of Engineering at the University of Oxford, researching and teaching in the fields of Sustainable Energy, Transport and Energy for Devolopment.
Historians
- C. I. Hamilton, British naval historian
- Cornelis de Kiewiet
- Nthabiseng Mokoena, Lesotho's only female professional archaeologist
- Bruce Murray
- Charles van Onselen
- Charles Hilliard Feinstein
Legal profession
- Michael Arnheim (1944–), London Barrister and author
- George Bizos (1927–2020), human rights advocate, represented Nelson Mandela during the Rivonia Trial
- Amina Cachalia (1930–2013), anti-Apartheid activist, women's rights activist, and politician
- Arthur Chaskalson (1931–2012), President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and Chief Justice of South Africa
- Azhar Cachalia (1956– ), Judge at the South African Supreme Court of Appeal; anti-apartheid activist; a founding member of the United Democratic Front; served as Secretary for Safety and Security
- Beric John Croome (1960–2019), Advocate of the High Court of South Africa; CA (SA); taxpayers' rights legal pioneer; completed a Higher Diploma in Tax Law (cum laude) at Wits in 1989; awarded the Edward Nathan Friedland Tax Prize for the year; 2002 nominee for the University's Convocation Honour Award for his contribution to commerce and industry
- John Dugard (1936– ), professor of international law and writer[4]
- Richard Goldstone (1938– ), judge and international war crimes prosecutor; considered one of several liberal judges who issued key rulings that systematically undermined Apartheid
- Anthony Gubbay (1932– ), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe
- Nicholas Haysom (1952– ), diplomat and UN official; Chief Legal Adviser to President Nelson Mandela; until May 1994, an associate professor of law and deputy director at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at Wits
- Bob Hepple (1934–2015), legal academic and leader in the fields of labour law, equality and human rights
- Joel Joffe, Baron Joffe (1932–2017), lawyer and peer in the House of Lords; defence attorney for the leadership of the African National Congress at the Rivonia Trial
- Sydney Kentridge (1922– ), advocate and Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court
- Dikgang Moseneke (1947– ), Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand and Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa
- Mervyn E. King (1937– ), former Justice of the Supreme Court of South Africa and director of the Global Reporting Initiative
- Jody Kollapen (1957– ), Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, former commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission, and former head of Lawyers for Human Rights
- Thuli Madonsela (1962– ), advocate, professor of law, and former Public Protector of South Africa
- Ismail Mahomed (1931–2000), appointed to the Constitutional Court in 1994; was made Chief Justice in 1998, a position he held until his death in 2000
- Bheki Maphalala, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Eswatini
- Margaret H. Marshall (1944– ), Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- Lazar Sidelsky (1911-2002), Attorney that hired and mentored Nelson Mandela
- Michael Sutherland (1954– ), Australian politician and former Speaker of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
- Nomatemba Tambo, diplomat, politician, and High Commissioner of South Africa to the United Kingdom
- Charles Theodore Te Water, Honorary Doctor of Law (1955)
- I. India Thusi, Law professor at Indiana University Bloomington
- Johan D. van der Vyver, I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Emory University School of Law, formerly a professor of law at Wits
Medicine
- Alan Menter (MBBCh, 1966, Wits), dermatologist; expert on psoriasis; Chairman of the Division of Dermatology; Director of the Dermatology Residency program for Baylor University Medical Center; Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
- Basil Hirschowitz, inventor of the first fiberoptic endoscope
- Catherine Nyongesa, radiation oncologist
- Glenda Gray, President of the South African Medical Research Council, pediatrician
- Helen Rees, is a medical doctor, and the founder and Executive Director of Wits RHI
- Irma Brenman Pick, psychoanalyst
- Jack Penn, known for his innovative techniques in plastic surgery, notably the Brenthurst splint
- James Ware, surgeon
- John Brereton Barlow - Barlow's syndrome
- Jonathan Lewis, surgical oncologist; biomedical researcher; developer of cancer drugs[5]
- Joseph Sonnabend, physician, scientist and HIV/AIDS researcher, notable for pioneering community-based research, the propagation of safe sex to prevent infection, and an early multifactorial model of AIDS.
- Julien Hoffman, paediatric cardiologist; cardiac physiologist; expert in the epidemiology of congenital cardiovascular malformations
- Lars Georg Svensson, cardiac surgeon
- Lionel Hersov, child psychiatrist, researcher and academic
- Mary Malahlela, first black woman doctor in South Africa
- Martin Israel, pathologist
- Nandipha Magudumana, medical practitioner and celebrity doctor incarcerated and investigated for aiding a fugitive's prison escape
- Norman E. Rosenthal, author, psychiatrist and scientist who in the 1980s first described seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and pioneered the use of light therapy for its treatment
- Nthatho Harrison Motlana, activist, academic, businessman, Mandela family physician
- Phillip Tobias, palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg; known for his work at South Africa's hominid fossil sites; anti-apartheid activist
- Priscilla Kincaid-Smith, "the mother of nephrology", appointed Commander of The Order of the British Empire (Civil) in 1975, for services to medicine; appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia; first woman to become President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (1986–1988); won Australian Achiever Award in 1997 for a lifetime's work in renal health
- Raymond Dart, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, 1925-1943, the longest term of service in that capacity; announced the discovery of the Taung skull, the first of Africa's early hominids, and named the species Australopithecus Africanus
- Rhian Touyz, MBBCh, MSc (Med), PhD, FRCP, FRSE,[1] FMedSci, FCAHS[2] is a Canadian researcher
- Salome Maswime, obstetrician-gynecologist, global health expert and activist
- Saul Levin, U.S.-based psychiatrist
- Selig Percy Amoils, Inventor of the Cryoprobe, recipient of the silver Order of Mapungubwe in 2006
- Shereen Usdin, public health specialist
- Sir Terence English, cardiac surgeon who performed the first successful heart transplant in the UK in 1979
- Sydney Brenner, biologist; 2002 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, shared with H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston
- Sylvia Weir, pioneered the use of robotics in autism therapy
- William Harding le Riche, epidemiologist; established the first non-segregated health centre in Knysna
- Aaron I. Vinik, physician-scientist known for advanced research on diabetes
Politics and public service
- Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nobel Peace Prize winner
- Athol Williams, state capture whistleblower and anti-corruption advocate[6][7][8]
- Ishtar Lakhani, feminist activist
- Achille Mbembe, philosopher and political scientist, staff member at Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research
- Adrian Guelke, political scientist
- Ahmed Kathrada, politician, anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner
- Barbara Hogan, Minister of Public Enterprises in the Cabinet of South Africa; former Minister of Health
- Baron Joel Joffe, human rights lawyer who represented Nelson Mandela in the Rivonia Trial
- Bernard Friedman, senior lecturer in otolaryngology; founder of the Progressive Party
- Connie Mulder, former politician
- Dennis Brutus, former political activist and poet
- Dion George, politician
- Eduardo Mondlane, father of Mozambican independence
- Essop Pahad, anti-apartheid activist and politician
- Geoff Makhubo, mayor of the City of Johannesburg
- Gwede Mantashe, politician; ANC secretary general and chairperson of the South African Communist Party
- Harry Schwarz, lawyer, politician, ambassador to United States and anti-apartheid leader
- Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid activist and member of Parliament
- Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance
- Jan Hofmeyr, politician
- Jef Valkeniers, doctor and politician
- Joe Slovo, Communist politician; long-time leader of the South African Communist Party; leading member of the African National Congress
- John Matisonn, political journalist and author
- Lucien van der Walt, sociologist and co-author, along with Michael Schmidt, of Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (Counter-Power vol. 1)
- Lulama Xingwana, politician
- Mamphela Ramphele, academic, businesswoman, medical doctor and anti-apartheid activist
- Mmusi Maimane, politician and former DA leader
- Natan Gamedze, Swazi Prince, Supreme Court Translator and Orthodox rabbi
- Regina Twala, political activist and the first Black woman to graduate from the university
- Robert Sobukwe, political dissident; founded the Pan Africanist Congress in opposition to the apartheid regime
- Rupert Taylor, political scientist
- Ruth First, anti-apartheid activist and scholar
- Sir Michael Bear, former Lord Mayor of London 2010/11
- Solly Malatsi, spokesperson of the DA
- Teresa Heinz Kerry, philanthropist, wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry
- Thulas Nxesi, Minister of Public Works
- Thuli Madonsela, Public Protector of South Africa
- Tony Leon, politician and former leader of the Democratic Alliance
- Tshilidzi Marwala, academic, businessman and political theorist
- Vivienne Thom, Australian former public servant and current independent consultant and intelligence specialist
- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Political activist during apartheid.
- Teeko Tozay Yorlay, Liberian diplomat
Science and technology
- Lucinda Backwell, paleoanthropologist
- Aaron Klug, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1982
- Arthur Bleksley, Professor of Applied Mathematics and astronomer
- Danie G. Krige, mining engineer who pioneered the field of geostatistics
- David Forsyth, computer vision researcher at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- D. G. M. Wood-Gush, was a South African-born animal geneticist and ethologist
- David King, chemist, academic, head of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group
- John Edmund Kerrich, first head of the statistics department; famous for experiments in probability performed while interned in WW2
- David Lewis-Williams, Professor emeritus of Cognitive Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand; founder of the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand
- David Pettifor, physicist
- Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, known for her work in materials science
- Bernie Fanaroff, physicist and Project Director at South African Square Kilometre Array Project
- Frank Nabarro, solid state physicist, DVC
- Friedel Sellschop, physicist[9]
- H. J. De Blij, geographer, professor, television personality, analyst[10]
- Helen Nissenbaum, scholar of online privacy and security; professor of information science at Cornell Tech
- Herbert Sichel, statistician
- Himla Soodyall, geneticist
- James Kitching, Karooo paleontologist
- Jan C. A. Boeyens, chemist
- John Burland, Emeritus Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Imperial College London
- Kim Man Lui, software engineer
- Lee Berger, paleoanthropologist, winner of the first National Geographic Prize for Research and Exploration
- Lewis Wolpert, graduated in Civil Engineering; popular science lecturer and writer
- Marlene Behrmann, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at Carnegie Mellon University
- Peter Sarnak, mathematician, head of School of Mathematics at Princeton
- Phillip Tobias, paleoanthropologist and anatomist
- Raymond Dart, anatomist and anthropologist; discoverer of the Taung Child
- Ron Clarke, paleoanthropologist
- Beric Skews scientist, faculty member
- Selig Percy Amoils, ophthalmologist and biomedical engineering inventor
- Seymour Papert, artificial intelligence pioneer and inventor of the Logo programming language
- Sir Basil Schonland, founding director of the Bernard Price Institute of Geophysics at the university
- Tingye Li, pioneer in lasers and optical communication
- Wanda Orlikowski, information systems scholar
- Susan Shore (scientist), audiologist and innovator
- Frank Talbot (1930–2024), ichthyologist; BSc. 1949; former director of the Australian Museum[11]
Social Sciences
- Audrey Richards, social anthropologist
- David Webster, social anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist
- Deborah James, anthropologist
- Ellen Hellmann, social anthropologist
- John Blacking, ethnomusicologist and social anthropologist
- Max Gluckman, anthropologist
- Robin Cohen, social scientist
Sports
- Ali Bacher, former Test cricketer and an administrator of the United Cricket Board of South Africa
- Gary Bailey, football (played for England)
- Hugh Baiocchi, golfer
- Gordon Day, sprinter
- Colin Dowdeswell, tennis player
- Bruce Fordyce, marathon and ultramarathon athlete who won the Comrades Marathon a record nine times (eight times consecutively)
- Chick Henderson, rugby union footballer and commentator
- Ian Holding, squash
- Stephen Jack, cricket
- Joe Kaminer, rugby
- Syd Levy (born 1922), tennis player; competed at Wimbledon, the French Championships, the U.S. Open, and Davis Cup, and won a silver medal at the Maccabiah Games
- George Mallory, first South African to summit Mount Everest (in the footsteps of his grandfather, of the same name)
- Alan Menter, chosen for the Springbok rugby team in 1968
- Paul Nash, sprinter
- Mark Plaatjes, marathon runner
- Hendrik Ramaala, winner of the 2004 New York City Marathon and 2004 Mumbai Marathon; has two silver medals from the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 1998 and 1999; in 2006 he won the men's Great North Run; two-time national champion in the 5.000 metres
- Odette Richard, gymnastics
- Wilf Rosenberg, rugby
- Richard Snell, cricketer
- Mandy Yachad, former cricketer and field hockey player who represented the South African national team in both sports
Miscellaneous
- Akiva Tatz, rabbi, medical ethicist, author and orator
- Cedric Phatudi
- Giles Henderson, CBE, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford
- Imran Garda, news anchor for Al Jazeera English.
- Jonathan Drummond-Webb
- Ken Costa, Chairman of Alpha International
- Sheila Lapinsky, anti-apartheid and LGBTQ+ activist
- Thabo Makgoba, South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
- David Lopato, Chartered accountant, psychic and spiritual medium - president of the Society for Psychic Advancement, Johannesburg from 1961.