Rumbidzai has an educational background in Chemical Engineering, Biomaterials and Environmental Law from UCT. She currently works for the DFFE in the GHG Inventory & System directorate, where she is responsible for the Energy sector inventory, the quality control of South Africa’s national GHG inventory and GHG improvement projects.

Michelle Sithole joined CER as an Attorney in the Pollution and Climate Change Programme in July 2021. She holds an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand. Following the completion of her LLB degree, she went on to complete her articles of clerkship at Webber Wentzel in Johannesburg. In 2018, she joined Corruption Watch’s Legal and Investigations team. In 2019, Michelle went on to serve as a law clerk to Justice Edwin Cameron and later Acting Justice Margaret Victor at the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Prior to joining CER, Michelle completed a stint as a legal researcher to the Chairperson of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector Including Organs of State and then moved on to work on class actions as an Attorney at Richard Spoor Inc.
Michelle is passionate about defending human rights and is committed to using the law as a means of helping the most vulnerable members of society.

Mapula Tshangela is currently the Director of Climate Change Mitigation Sector Plan Implementation with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). Her responsibilities includes management of private sector greenhouse gas mitigation plan regulations and support to Provinces and Local Government on their climate change mitigation strategies and plans implementation. She supports education initiatives on climate change mitigation capacity building and training.

Tshangela was previously Senior Policy Advisor: National Sustainable Development. She managed several initiatives including National Strategy for Sustainable Development, National Green Economy Summit, conceptualization of the National Green Fund, the South Africa Green Economy Modelling report, and the Environment Sector Research, Development and Evidence (R, D&E) Framework.

Tshangela was Director: Cabinet & Cluster Policy Coordination and Deputy Director: Pollution and Waste Information at the DEA from 2007 to 2011 and was seconded during 2017/18 as Acting Chief Director: Environmental Management at KZN EDTEA.

Prior to joining the DEA in 2007, Ms Tshangela worked at Eskom in generation, distribution and Head Office positions between 1997 and 2007, including in impact assessments, environmental sustainability performance reporting, environmental, waste, air quality and pollution management, water cycle chemistry, laboratory chemical analysis and quality control systems.

With three years of experience in the climate and sustainability consulting space, Josh has assisted clients in both the public and private sector to execute on their ESG ambitions. His work, although wide ranging, has been primarily focused within the sphere of greenhouse gas emissions. This includes carbon budget policy studies for national government alongside GHG reporting and strategy development for internationally listed mining houses. He is technically strong, evidenced by his DFFE accreditation as a GHG independent verifier, but has also honed a rounded consulting skillset. Although primarily climate-focused, Josh is equipped to advise on broader sustainability topics. Specifically on the topic of circular economy, he developed and presented capacity building courses to government stakeholders on the concepts of circularity within the South African context. He also completed a 7-week secondment at Partners for Innovation, Amsterdam, working on LCA and circular design projects within their Circular Economy team.

Josh started his career at Sasol as a Chemical & Process Engineer. He initially worked on process monitoring and optimization within the Secunda Refinery before spending time in the petrochemical company’s project hub. He worked on a large variety of tasks including, amongst others, the development of tools to track greenhouse gas emissions and optimise business value chain performance. This work showcased his ability to combine skillsets in engineering fundamentals and data analysis to deliver value. During this time, he also focused on water usage within factories and used his skillset to identify opportunities to reduce water consumption. Having spent a year working in project execution teams, Josh is adept at writing project documents – be it scope definitions, feasibility reports or design packages. He holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town.