Megan has a BA degree in Economics, English and History, with a postgraduate degree in African History from the University of Cape Town. Her work experience includes participatory research, policy development and development practice work in the land reform and rural development sector; freelance journalism and education materials development; and training, capacity building and project management in sustainable city energy planning and implementation.
Megan joined Sustainable Energy Africa in 2004. Megan Euston-Brown has worked in the area of sustainable energy development since 2003 and currently manages the City Energy Support Unit, a programme of Sustainable Energy Africa. The unit offers support to South African cities in their move towards clean energy development and reduced carbon footprints. This involves technical and process information in the areas of policy, and implementation, of energy efficiency, renewable energy deployment and energy poverty alleviation. A substantial focus of the work is on building the capacity of people to tackle these new and complex challenges. Megan has also worked within the region of Africa broadly, providing similar city GHG emissions inventory development and sustainable energy transition support. Megan is an experienced development facilitator and trainer and has worked extensively with local-level energy data collection and institutional development.
Yachika Reddy
Project Manager
Yachika has an MSc in Energy Studies from the University of Cape Town. She joined Sustainable Energy Africa in 2005. Her experience includes project management, training, facilitation, research and data analysis through working in wide-ranging and complex energy and climate change projects involving all three spheres of government (local, provincial and national). Working with the three spheres of government for more than a decade, she has a very good understanding of government’s priorities for development within these spheres. She has in-depth experience in local-level climate and energy data collation, analysis and strategy/policy development.
Zanie Cilliers
Project Manager
Zanie has BSc degree majoring in Environmental and Geographical Science, Ocean and Atmosphere Science, and Archaeology from the University of Cape Town, with a BSc (Hons) degree in Atmosphere Science.
She started working at Sustainable Energy Africa in 2008, after an internship in the City of Cape Town's Environmental Management Resource department.
Zanie's main focus areas include data collation and analysis, writing, greenhouse gas inventories and state of energy reports, and energy modelling, using programmes such as EnergyPlus and LEAP (Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning).
She has developed LEAP energy models at the individual metro level (such as Cape Town and eThekwini) as well as at the regional level (including a model encompassing the 27 municipalities in South Africa with the highest urbanisation level). Modelling outputs at the local level are used to advise the metros in their planning towards a sustainable energy future, while regional models highlight the emissions reduction contribution of urbanised areas in relation to the country.
Zanie has provided technical support to various African cities (Accra, Lagos, Addis Ababa, Tshwane, etc.) in collecting data on greenhouse gas emissions and reporting these emissions according to the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC). She received certification as an Urban Greenhouse Gas Inventory Specialist as part of the World Bank's City Climate Planner Certification Programme.
Simisha Pather-Elias
Project Manager
Simisha Pather-Elias joined SEA in March 2013 as a senior project coordinator.
She has two Master of Philosophy degrees. Her first MSc degree was attained in 2005 in Biotechnology from Rhodes
University following employment as a Scientific Officer at UCT in the Bioprocess Engineering Research Unit. There whilst working on several projects relating to environmental sustainability, her interest in energy and sustainable development was stimulated. In 2009 she pursued her second Master's degree in Energy and Development at the Energy Research Centre at UCT which she completed in 2011. Her research focused on a feasibility study for energy efficiency and renewable energy in the commercial sector.
After brief flirtations at Conservation South Africa, and the Botanical Society of South Africa, Simisha finally found her true home at SEA. Simisha constantly aims to balance her analytical and creative skills by being involved in several projects ranging from climate change mitigation and adaptation, energy and low-carbon modeling, policy and strategy development, and energy poverty in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. She really enjoys working with bright and enthusiastic young minds and holds the graduate placement and mentoring at SEA.
Simisha is passionate about sustainable living, simplicity and tackling challenges in a holistic way. In her personal capacity, she assists in many community development and educational projects.
Tanaka Casandra Shumba
Project Manager
Tanaka joined Sustainable Energy Africa in 2018. She obtained a BSc and MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town. During her studies, Tanaka joined Engineers without Borders through which she developed a passion for using renewable energy to alleviate poverty. In order to pursue this, she enrolled in a Post-Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Development at the University of Stellenbosch where she gained better understanding of the different challenges that plague society, and some of the solutions that are currently being implemented. This experience further encouraged her to use her skills and expertise to bring positive change in society.
Tanaka is very passionate about gender equality and has served as a mentor for SAWomEng’s GirlEng team, which focused on encouraging female high school learners to pursue careers in Science and Engineering.
Joel Nana
Project Manager
Joel, originally from Cameroon, has a B.Eng. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He also has a Master of Science (Research) in Physics with focus on Energy Efficiency Efficiency and is currently pursuing a PhD with the Energy Systems Research Group (ESRG) at the University of Cape Town. Passionate about saving the world, the move to SEA where he could apply his energy modeling skills was a natural fit. He is primarily involved in projects in the Sub Saharan African region among which is the Covenant of Mayors in Sub Saharan Africa.
In his free time, Joel loves playing and listening to music. Grateful for an amazing group of friends, he continually stretches out to connect to new people.
Josh Dippenaar
Project Manager
Josh’s undergrad is in mechanical engineering with a masters in energy policy. He is currently researching part-time towards a PhD in electrical engineering at Stellenbosch University where he is developing a framework for electric vehicle hosting on South African electricity networks.
At SEA, Josh has supported a number of municipalities to manage the technical and financial impact of embedded generation. This has included supporting over 40 municipalities in developing feed-in tariffs for solar PV customers. More recently, Josh has been working to unpack what electric vehicles mean for distribution grids and how cities can support and manage the uptake of EVs.
Bathandwa Vazi
Project Manager
Bathandwa is a qualified town and regional planner and has a post-graduate certificate in Project Management and an Honours degree in Public Administration. She has completed her MBA in 2020.
She has worked in the sector for almost 10 years, both in local government and the private sector, acquiring experience in town and regional planning, project and programme management, policy development and analysis. Her role involved spatial planning and land use management, research and position papers, coordination of training and facilitation, other sectoral and stakeholder relations events. Bathandwa's focus has been on the implementation of renewable energy and energy efficiency over the last 5 years, working on urban development, green energy, electricity, roads and public transport, waste management, and water and sanitation.
Additionally, she has experience within business development, administration and strategic planning as well as digital marketing and communications.
Bathandwa joined SEA in 2020.
Mukta Govan
Finance Manager
Mukta Govan joined SEA in April 2013. She holds a BTech degree in Cost and Management Accounting from Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Mukta has been working in the non-profit sector for more than 10 years, with the key area of these non-profit organisations being local government. Her role is to provide financial management support to the organisation which is achieved through commitment, excellence, passion and attention to detail.
Zukiswa Sidlayi
Senior Finance and Project Support
Zukiswa is the Senior Financial Assistant and Office Coordinator at Sustainable Energy Africa and is responsible for company legal standing, human resource and staff activities, finances and general office administration & project Administration.
She joined Sustainable Energy Africa in November 2006 as a Bookkeeper and a Project Administrator. She previously worked for the Western Cape Education Department as an Admin Clerk for four years. Zukiswa has a B Compt in Financial Accounting from Unisa. She also holds a diploma in Bookkeeping, Personnel and Training Management, Higher Certificate in Human Resource Management and a Certificate in Office Administration.
Megan Hendrickse
Office and Admin Coordinator
Megan joined SEA in April 2018. She holds a Diploma in Conference, Exhibition and Event Management and a Certificate in Frontline and Public Relations from Damelin Management School. Megan has over 15 years of experience as administrator and front office liaison. Her previous experience includes managing admin and events at various sport institutions.
Megan’s daydreams consist of sport and she spends her weekends playing lawn bowls. Megan keeps the office entertained with her stories and loves a lekker laugh at lunchtime!
Leova Saul
Office Assistant
Leova obtained her Grade 11 in 2007. She has over two years’ experience in the restaurant hospitality industry as a Chef. Leova shares her passion for cooking at SEA, where she makes sumptuous lunches for us. She also manages the domestic chores at the office and is also responsible for kitchen supplies and reconciling invoices.
Mark Borchers
Technical Expert
Mark has a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and a M.Sc degree in Energy and Development Studies from the University of Cape Town's Engineering faculty. After working in the civil engineering industry, in 1988 he moved to the Energy for Development Research Centre (EDRC) at the University of Cape Town before co-founding the Energy & Development Group consultancy in 1993 and Sustainable Energy Africa in 2001.
Mark's work has been broad-ranging, from integrated energy planning for the South African government, impact assessment of electrification projects, promoting access to electricity in the SADC region, developing Botswana's energy policy, promoting the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency, sustainable building, and economic analyses of low income household energy options. Over the past decade he has increasingly been involved in developing Energy and Climate Change Strategies for cities around South Africa and Africa, and supporting the implementation of such strategies. SEA has pioneered a city-based approach to transforming a country's energy future.
Mark is a partner in the award-winning Green Building - the first "future normal" green office building in Cape Town. He firmly believes that an 8-hour workday is detrimental to personal wellbeing and society, not leaving adequate space for other critically important areas of life such as personal growth, leisure, family, exercise and community participation (the essay by Bertrand Russsel 'In Praise of Idleness' is informative in this regard). It tends to keep people behaving like sheep instead of being the architects of their own lives. Mark also considers the pursuit of wealth senseless, as it has been conclusively demonstrated that (beyond enough to meet basic needs) more wealth does not improve happiness, keeps people running on a treadmill to nowhere, and fuels the enormous and indefensible disparities of wealth that exist in the country and the world.
