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Sandra Kramer arrived in Pretoria in August 2022 to take up her duties as the European Union’s Ambassador to South Africa after having been Africa Director at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships since June 2019. 

Ambassador Kramer joined the European Commission in 1995 in the Directorate-General for External Relations. During this period she served as Trade Counsellor at the EU Delegation to Indonesia and as Head of Economic Co-operation at the EU Delegation to India.

Subsequently Ambassador Kramer was appointed assistant to the European Commission’s Chief Spokesperson and assistant to the Deputy Director-General in the Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry. She was nominated to head the Communication Unit of DG Enterprise & Industry in 2007.

From 2010 to 2014, she was Head of Unit Programming, Evaluation and Communication at the Directorate-General for Justice before joining the Cabinet of President Juncker as Director of Coordination and Administration with key responsibilities on Budget and Human Resources.

Ambassador Kramer holds a Masters degree in Modern Literature from the University of Groningen, as well as a Masters degree in Economics and International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna and Washington DC.

Albertus Louw is a South African television personality. He is a presenter for SABC environmental television show 50|50, an award-winning producer and has many years’ experience in the production of documentaries, television inserts, and films on social and environmental issues.

Albertus is passionate about conservation, education and solutions for the future.

Busiswa Gqulu, known mononymously as Busiswa or Busi, is a prominent South African singer, songwriter, composer and poet. Born in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, she gained public recognition for featuring on DJ Zinhle's song My Name Is after being discovered by Kalawa Jazmee’s CEO Oskido.

Enrico is currently the Deputy Head of Mission and Head of the Economics and Global Issues Department at the German Embassy in Pretoria. He entered the German diplomatic service in 1997. Since then he has worked in various fields within the Federal Foreign Office in Germany, the Office of the German Federal President and abroad in German missions in Lima, Washington DC, and Beijing. Enrico studied law in Berlin and Bologna. Among others, he co-wrote and edited a book on the profession of diplomacy (4 editions, 2001-2005). He speaks Spanish, English, Italian, and French. Mr Brandt is married and has four children.

Dr Okito Wedi is the founder and CEO of Crtve Development, a pan-African social agency that champions change in Africa. She is a medical doctor and global health and public policy specialist. Her many years of experience in health, policy and social development are founded on a commitment to help tackle health inequity, gender inequality and extreme poverty in the Global South and the world.

Milan Frola is a Czech career diplomat with more than 20 years’ experience.

After graduating in business administration at Silesian University in Karviná, Czech Republic, in 1998, he entered the Czech foreign service. In 2000 he graduated from Academia Diplomática de Chile “Andrés Bello” (the Diplomatic Academy of Chile) in Santiago.

He has served in various countries in Latin America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, and has participated in election observation missions of the European Union in Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Senegal and Mozambique.

Since December 2021 he has served as the deputy head of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Pretoria, and as its minister counsellor for political, human rights and security affairs.

Caroline Wellemans is head of the unit responsible for sustainable finance policy within the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) of the European Commission. The unit is notably responsible for developing new policies and coordinating actions with international partners to mobilise private investors towards green investments globally.

Prior to her current role, she was, among others, deputy head of the sustainable finance unit of the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA), and deputy head of the corporate reporting and accounting unit of DG FISMA.

Wellemans graduated from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management with a master’s in business engineering, majoring in finance.

Thede Rüst joined Nordea Asset Management in 2014 and in 2016 was appointed head of its emerging markets debt team. He is a member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on scaling up sustainable finance in low- and middle-income countries.

He has extensive international experience that includes working in emerging markets such as South Africa and Afghanistan, as well as at the United Nations in New York.

Rüst holds an MSc in business and development studies from the Copenhagen Business School; a BBA from the International Business School in Groningen; a BBA from the University in Macau; and has participated in the MBA programme of Toronto’s Schulich School of Business.

Anh Vu is a PhD candidate in sustainable finance at Queen’s University Belfast. She has been published in Regional Studies, and has served as a reviewer for the International Review of Financial Analysis, and the Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal.

Besides academic research projects, she is a sherpa to Dr Theodor Cojoianu on the Green Technical Advisory Group at the HM Treasury, and has experience working with NGOs, international development organisations, and governmental agencies on funded research and independent advisory assignments.

Martin Jonasson is general counsel at Andra AP-fonden (AP2), as well as a member of its executive management team and secretary to its board of directors. In his role at AP2 he is responsible for legal and tax, and is also part of its corporate governance team overseeing corporate governance issues globally.

He is actively involved in many of its investment activities, in particular with respect to investments in private equity, private debt, real estate and sustainable infrastructure.

Jonasson is a member of AP2’s Risk Management Committee, Investment Committee and Internal Control Committee, and is also a member of its Steering Committee for work on human rights issues.

He has been a panellist at a number of webinars and conferences discussing corporate governance and sustainable impact investing.

Jonasson holds a master’s degree in law from Lund University.

Anneke has led several instrumental sustainable finance deals across Sub-Saharan Africa which has positively contributed towards the development of the sustainable finance market. In her role she is responsible for driving the right behaviour across both client portfolios and within the teams at Standard Bank, as it relates to environmental and social impact and mobilising sustainable finance in the process of doing so. She has been intricately involved in sustainable framework developments for Standard Bank and Standard Bank clients as well as forming part of the pilot and testing team for South Africa’s Green Finance Taxonomy launch earlier this year.

Hlengiwe Radebe is a civil society engagement officer at WWF South Africa and serves on the advisory board of Mukuru Clean Stoves, a Kenyan clean cooking organisation that designs, manufactures and distributes improved, efficient and reliable stoves.

For more than seven years, Hlengiwe has worked with civil society organisations, youth, municipalities and the national government. She has extensive experience working on projects addressing energy access, equitable and inclusive low-carbon development, climate change mitigation and gender mainstreaming in South Africa and other African countries.

Her particular areas of expertise include project management and coordination, research to improve and strengthen policy and enabling environments, and programme design and strategy development for government and donor partners. 

Hlengiwe holds a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Global Change Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2019, she was included in the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans list.

Sibusiso Vilane is an adventurer and inspirational speaker, who was the first black man to successfully summit Mount Everest in 2003. In 2005, he summited Mount Everest again from the north side, thus conquering the mighty Everest from both the south and the north sides.

In January 2008, Sibusiso and his South Pole expedition partner became the first South Africans to walk to the South Pole unassisted and unsupported. His feats include completing the Explorers Grand Slam, reaching the South Pole and North Pole and climbing the Seven Summits, the highest peaks of the world’s seven continents.

He is a keen marathon runner, and after collecting his 10th Comrades Marathon medal in 2019, Sibusido earned his race’s coveted Green Number.

Sibusiso is involved in a number of charities and raises awareness about wildlife conservation by giving his time and supporting these initiatives. He is a patron of the Nature, Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers Congress, and still dreams of attempting a few more big mountains in the future.

Akhona Xotyeni is a passionate climate, youth and human rights activist.

Xotyeni holds a BA in Social Dynamics and a BCom in Environmental Management, and is currently studying towards her Master’s degree in Environmental Management at Stellenbosch University. She is also the Just Green Transition Youth Ambassador for the Royal Danish Embassy in South Africa.

She was recognised in the Environment category of the 2020 Mail & Guardian list of Top 200 South Africans and Inside Education’s 100 Shining Stars, as well as the Gradstar Top 100 and by Stellenbosch University’s rector for her excellence in leadership. Xotyeni is currently primarily a youth climate consultant, public speaker and writer on climate-related topics and policies.

Anda is a research officer and economist at the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement). She is in charge of research projects on inequality, poverty and international migration. She has a PhD from DIAL (Dauphine University Paris and IRD), specialising in development economics, with a focus on migration and the labour market in the Middle East and North Africa.

Her current research focuses on the impact of emigration on countries of origin, inequalities and social cohesion, and aid effectiveness. In connection with her research, Anda worked on the development of computable general equilibrium models for simulating the effects of migration policies and on migration impacts and profiles.

Since 2004, she has worked regularly with various international organisations that are active on these issues.

Jack Radmore is passionate about the green economy and uncompromising in his aim to provide energy to those who need it most.

A master’s degree in economics and sustainable development led to his current role as the energy programme manager at GreenCape, an organisation that drives the widespread adoption of economically viable green economy solutions from the Western Cape, with hopes of expanding throughout the developing world in the next five years.

At GreenCape, Radmore is responsible for managing the strategic direction of the company’s renewable energy-related activities in South Africa and around the continent. He advises key local, provincial and national government organisations on how green infrastructure can best interface with government institutions, businesses and academia. Through his work, he has identified and removed barriers to economically viable energy and energy-efficient interventions.

Radmore has also developed and is leading South Africa’s first dedicated off-grid management unit to provide energy services to impoverished off-grid communities in South Africa. The unit is currently servicing three sites and empowering more than 6 000 people.

Berthold Schirm is a senior adviser at GET.invest, a European programme that mobilises investment in renewable energy in developing countries based in Brussels. His educational background is in natural science and renewable energy. Berthold has worked for more than two decades with GIZ in international development cooperation, managing and coordinating projects and programmes in the areas of sustainable management of natural resources, biodiversity, climate adaptation and mitigation. In doing so, he has worked and lived in South and South-East Asia, the Caribbean and Europe. For the past two years, he has been working with GET.invest, supporting the programme’s country windows in Mozambique, Burundi and Eswatini.

Moliehi Mafantiri is a budding environmental scientist with an ecofeminist lens. Currently, she is a climate action and coordination intern at the South African Climate Action Network, working on the Climate Ambition to Accountability Project. She works closely with civil society organisations across South Africa to support and strengthen stakeholder engagement. Additionally, she is a master’s candidate in Environment and Society at the University of Pretoria. Her interests lie in sustainable development, where it pertains to climate justice and feminism. Her research also explores sustainable textile value chains in Lesotho.

Yasirah Madhi is a climate researcher at the Institute for Economic Justice think tank in Johannesburg. She previously worked on building climate capacity in South Africa at the African Climate and Development Initiative and holds a Master’s in Climate Change and Sustainable Development from the University of Cape Town. Yasirah currently works on the Climate Ambition to Accountability Project, focusing on the just energy transition, mainstreaming climate justice and incorporating a gendered approach. She is also part of the WWF Youth Climate Champions Programme coordination team, which develops platforms to capacitate youth on climate policy and engagement.