REDSSA
Welcome to Stellenbosch University
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​​​​​​​​​​Centre for Medical Ethics & Law

​​REDSSA

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​REDSSA Core ​Team

The REDSSA Research Team is made up of a multi-national network of data scientists, bioethicists, legal experts, academics and administrative staff. The bioethics consortium includes representation from all over sub-Saharan Africa including Cameroon, eSwatini, Ethiopia, ​Ghana, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.​


 

Professor Keymanthri Moodley​​

Keymanthri Moodley is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law (CMEL), Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University. Keymanthri is a specialist family physician, bioethicist and has served as a Principal Investigator on numerous clinical trials. In 2017, she was appointed as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Medicine, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC), USA. Additionally, Professor Moodley is a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa (ASSAf) and completed an Executive MBA in 2015. She is an NRF-rated researcher and has served on the SAMRC Board, the NHREC and in international organisations: WHO, International AIDS Society (IAS), NIH DSMBs and the WHO SAGE Ebola Working Group. The CMEL was re-designated as a Collaborating Centre in Bioethics in 2019 by the WHO. Professor Moodley serves as Principal Investigator for the REDSSA project.

 

​​Professor Stuart Rennie

Stuart Rennie is an Associate Professor in Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill (USA), Core Faculty at the UNC Bioethics Center and Extraordinary Professor in Medicine at Stellenbosch University. He obtained his Masters in Anthropology and PhD in philosophy from Leuven University (Belgium). A member of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) Ethics Working Group, he is currently an investigator in projects on the ethics of HIV research with pregnant adolescents, decision-making in HIV cure trials, and the use of HIV DNA for public health surveillance. Professor Rennie’s current teaching and research interests focus on research ethics, public health ethics and medical ethics in developing countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Rennie serves as co-Principal Investigator for the REDSSA project. ​


 

Nezerith Cengiz​​​

Nezerith Cengiz is a ​​bioethics graduate presently working as a researcher on the REDSSA project at the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University. She completed her MSc in Bioethics and Health Law at the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her dissertation focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in health care an​d virtue ethics. Other research-related interests include the ethics of xenotransplantation. Nezerith has worked as a research assistant in vascular surgery, ophthalmology, and data science. She has served as a Research Ethics Committee (REC) member on the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa and currently serves on the Tygerberg Hospital Clinical Ethics Committee and Stellenbosch Health REC.​​

 

Professor Sharon Kling

Sharon Kling is an emeritus associate professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), Stellenbosch University. She is a past president of the College of Paediatricians of South Africa and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Allergy Society of South Africa (ALLSA). She is a member of both the Clinical Ethics Committee at Tygerberg Hospital and the Undergraduate Research Ethics Committee of the FMHS. She holds an MPhil in Applied Ethics and is currently completing her doctorate, which critically examines the work of clinical ethics committees in South Africa. She serves as a co-investigator for the REDSSA project.

 
 

Qunita Brown

Qunita Brown completed her undergraduate studies (BA Degree) and postgraduate studies (Honours Psychology) and (Masters Research Psychology) (Cum Laude) at the University of the Western Cape. Ms Brown has a background working in research in the fields of crime and violence prevention, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. She currently serves as a research assistant on the REDSSA project.

Siti Kabanda

Siti Kabanda has a Master of Science and a Master of Public Health, both obtained from the University of Cape Town. She currently serves as a research assistant on the REDSSA project.​

 
 

Dr Marietjie Botes

Marietjie has transitioned from a 20-year career as a practising attorney in health law and biotechnology to academia focusing on interdisciplinary research in the intersection between science, technology, law, and ethics. She holds the degrees of BProc, LLB, LLM (Intellectual Property Law) and a PhD (Biotechnology Law). Her research interests include the regulation and ethics involved in advanced medical products such as gene therapies, gene and stem cell research, the use of big (geospatial) data in the context of health emergencies and pandemics, Digital Health technologies - in particular with regard to implanted devices such as Brain-Computer Interfaces and their impact on fundamental rights, including online behavioural manipulation and how it shapes debates around digital ethics and its push towards digital constitutionalism. Marietjie published widely on these topics, both nationally and internationally, and serves as co-editor for the special edition on Digital Ethics for the Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Journal (Springer Nature). She is an elected member of ASSAf involved with the second consensus study on gene therapies in South Africa, and one of the invited experts and co-authors of the SA Country Reports on COVID-19 in which she addressed various legal issues with regard to pandemic management. In her free time, Marietjie collaborates with artists and scientists to create comics which she uses to teach and stimulate debate around biotechnology and digital ethics. She serves as the project coordinator for the REDSSA project.​

Picture1.jpg ​​Celeste Youle 

Celeste Youle has over 15 years of administrative experience​ and currently serves as an administrative assistant for the REDSSA project. Her past working experience includes the role of an administrator for the South-to-South Department of Pediatrics at Stellenbosch University and her most recent role as a program assistant for Family Health International. 


REDSSA Research Team 

Legal Experts (SA)

  • Professor Jerome Singh
  • Professor Annelize McKay
  • Dr Dirk Brand ​

Data Scientists (SA)

  • Professor Kanshukan Rajaratnam
  • Professor Bruce Watson

​Ethics Consultants

  • Dr Sergio Litewka (University of Miami, USA)
  • Professor Eric Juengst (University of Miami, USA) ​
  • Dr Caesar Atuire (University of Ghana)
  • Professor Effy Vayena (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, ETH Zürich).

Stakeholder Engagement 

  • Dr Suzanne Day​ (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
  • Dr Karel Caals​ (University of ​Singapore) 
  • Prof Walter Jaoko (University of ​Kenya)
  • Dr Cheryl Baxter
  • A/Prof Wim Delva​​
  • Neetha Shagan Morar​​

Netw​ork

  • REASA (Research Ethics Association of Southern Africa) 
  • ARESA (Advancing Research Ethics training in Southern Africa​)

consortium.jpgConsortium of African Bioethici​​sts

  • Cameroon: Marceline Djuidje Ngounoue
  • eSwatini: Babazile Shongwa
  • Ethiopia: Liya Wassie​
  • Ghana: Ama Edwin
  • Kenya: Walter Jaoko, Stephen Ombok Muhudia, Lillian Omutoko
  • Lesotho: Francis Rakotsane
  • Liberia: Jemee Tegli
  • Malawi: Francis Masiye, Tiwonge Mtande​, Limbanazo Matandika
  • Mozambique: Esperenca Sevene
  • Namibia: Mareli Claassens
  • South Africa: Shenuka Singh​, Theresa Burgess
  • Uganda: Joseph Ochieng
  • Zambia: Alwyn Mwinga, Victor Chalwe
  • Zimbabwe: George Chingarande, Farayi Moyana​

Grants Management (SA)

  • Eugene Baugaard ​​​​

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