Mavuso Msimang
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Mavuso Walter Msimang | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1941 (age 84–85) Edendale, outside Pietermaritzburg |
| Alma mater | University of Zambia |
| Known for | Politics |
| Political party | African National Congress |
Mavuso Walter Msimang (born 1941) is a South African civil servant and politician. He is a co-founder of African Parks, a Johannesburg-based conservation organization, and was CEO of South African National Parks (SANparks). In the 1960s, he was a member of the military high command of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC).
Mavuso Walter Msimang[1] was born in 1941 at in Edendale, outside Pietermaritzburg, and grew up around missionaries. While living with his grandmother in Jobstown, outside Newcastle during his primary school years, he remained unaware that his parents had divorced, only learning of it when he returned to Edendale to start high school. In 1960 he matriculated at Inkamana High School, a catholic school in Vryheid.[2]
In 1976, he graduated from the University of Zambia with a Bachelor of Science in entomology, specialising in biochemistry.[2] He also holds a Master of Business Administration from the United States International University, California.[1]
Early political involvement
In the 1960s he was stationed at the ANC military base in Kongwa, Tanzania, and 1967 was Chief of Communications of MK.[3] MK was a banned organisation which worked to topple the apartheid government in South African from the 1960s through to the early 1990s, when the country transitioned to majority rule.[4]
He moved to Zambia, where there was a large community of South African ANC members living in exile. Here he met his wife, Ntombi, who was an accountant, and had three daughters, including the writer and political analyst Sisonke Msimang.[5] He earned a BSc in entomology and biology from the University of Zambia in 1976, and a master's degree in business administration in 1984 from the United States International University while living in Kenya. USIU was later taken over by Alliant International University.[6]
Msimang worked as a UN volunteer from 1977[7] and later worked for the UN's World Food Programme in Kenya and Zambia between 1977 and 1984. From 1984 to 1987 he worked in both Ethiopia and Ottawa, Canada, for the World University Service of Canada (WUSC).[8] From 1987 to 1991 he was the country director in Kenya for CARE Canada, and from 1991 to 1993 he was a senior project officer for UNICEF in Ethiopia and Eritrea.