Alison Tilley
Alison is the Executive Director of the Open Democracy Advice Centre . She has a BA LLB degree from the University of Cape Town. She is an attorney, who was formerly in private practice. She was the National Advocacy Manager at the Black Sash, before becoming the Centre's first manager in 2001. She is a founding trustee of the Women's Legal Centre, and is a member of the South African Law Reform Commission Project Committee on Data Protection.
Mukelani Dimba
Mukelani is the Deputy Executive Director of the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC). Mukelani is responsible for training, research coordination and advocacy. The ODAC training unit provides assistance to public and private institutions on best compliance strategies for South Africa’s Right-to-Information laws (Promotion of Access to Information Act and the Protected Disclosures Act). The unit also provides services to civil society formations and members of the public on using the Right-to-Information laws.
Lorraine Martin
Lorraine is the whistleblowing helpline advisor and programme manager of the Protected Disclosures Unit. She has an Economics degree from the University of South Africa, a Teaching Diploma from the University of Cape Town and a Labour Law Diploma from the University of Stellenbosch.
She worked in the private sector for many years before embarking on a teaching career. In 2000 after completing her Labour Law Diploma she became a labour consultant and joined ODAC in 2002. The Protected Disclosures Unit which offers a free, confidential helpline to whistleblowers and organisations wishing to implement whistleblowing structures. It also does advocacy on the Protected Disclosures Act. The Unit tracks the legislation and often assists with submissions to government institutions as well as keeping a keen eye on the jurisprudence developing around whistleblowing.
Radiyah Hendriks
Radiyah is the senior administrator at the Centre. Formerly a litigation secretary, she manages the ODAC office, and the administration of the organisation. She joined the organisation in 2001.
Michelle Desai
Michelle is an Attorney at the Centre. She graduated with a BA LLB from University of Cape Town and was admitted as an Attorney of the High Court of RSA in 1997 and as Conveyancer in 2004.Currently she practices in Freedom of Information and whistle blowing cases.
Pumla Sithole
Pumla Sithole is the junior administrator, and joined the organisation in 2007.
Mkhululi Mazula
Mkhululi Mazula is a fieldworker at ODAC. He has a honorus degree in Social Development from the University of the Western Cape, and has been involved in the NGO field for a number of years working in diverse communities of the Western and the Eastern Cape. Some of the organizations that he has worked for are NACOSA, where he was a trainer, and SCAT where he was a fieldworker for the Eastern Cape regional programme. As a fieldworker at ODAC, he is responsible for building and strengthening networks, and ensuring that communities are aware of PAIA, and are able to use the laws to fully enjoy their rights. Outreach and training programmes in communities are among the core of his duties.
Fola Adeleke
Fola Adeleke is ODAC’s Research Manager and joined the organization in April 2009. He coordinates research in the access to information and litigation units of ODAC. He holds a LLB and LLM degree from the University of Cape Town.
Tobela Tapula
Tobela Tapula is an Advocacy Officer at ODAC. Before joining ODAC in 2009, Tobela was a Policy Analyst at the Public Policy Partnership and he is the recipient of the Andrew W Mellow Foundation Scholarship. In 2007 he worked for the City of Cape Town, in the PAIA unit. At ODAC he is in the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) unit, where he is responsible for advocacy around issues of access to information. Tobela holds an undergraduate Degree in Criminology and Honours in Public Policy from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is currently doing his Masters in Public Administration at the University of Western Cape; his thesis is on Access to Information in South Africa
Emma Levy
Emma Levy is the whistleblowing advocacy co-ordinator at the centre. She holds a first-class postgraduate diploma in labour law from the University of Cape Town and a degree in sociology from Leeds University. She worked as a news journalist for many years in London at The Sunday Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian newspapers.
Intern - James Robert Kinngman
Jim is a rising 2nd Year Student at Harvard Law School from Corsicana, Texas. He graduated from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2009 with a B.A. in English Literature. As an Undergraduate, Jim participated in the European Studies Program on the Classical track, studying abroad at Lincoln College, Oxford, UK, Greece, Turkey, and Italy.
After this program, he participated in a Spanish Immersion Program at Estudio Sampere in Salamanca and Madrid. He is interested in open and transparent governance, and the way that nations deal with the global attention caused by large-scale international events such as the FIFA World Cup.
Intern - Cary Mayberger
Cary Mayberger is our second intern at ODAC, working from June to August of 2010. Cary graduated from the University of Virginia in the United States with her bachelor’s degree in English and French. Cary is currently a 2nd Year law student at Harvard Law School in Massachusetts.
At Harvard Law, Cary is the Vice President of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) and is currently writing an article about equine welfare that she hopes will be published in the Lewis & Clark Animal Law Journal. Previously, she worked for Common Cause, a watchdog organization in Washington, D.C. that promotes and monitors ethics and transparency in government; Cary is excited to be currently working with an organization that espouses similar objectives for South African governance.
