Centre for Environmental Rights – Advancing Environmental Rights in South Africa

CER’s Chairperson and Non-Executive Director

The CER Board is pleased to announce the appointment of non-executive director Nompi Ndawo Vilakazi as its new Chairperson. Nompi, a qualified chartered accountant (SA), has been a non-executive director of CER since June 2020 and has served as the Chairperson of its Finance & Audit Committee since September 2020.

Nompi began her career at the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, where she completed her CA articles. She went on to fulfil roles at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, Nedbank Ltd. and the National Empowerment Fund, before taking up the position of Chief Financial Officer at New Leaders Foundation. Nompi is currently Chief Strategy and Implementation Officer at the Small Enterprise Foundation.

Over the course of her 20-year career in the financial and development sectors, Nompi also acquired a Post-Graduate Diploma in Innovation and Design Thinking from Emeritus, Professional Coaching qualification from the UCT Graduate School of Business, received accreditation as an Enneagram Practitioner and trained in Facilitation, Organisation Development and Change Management with the Worlds View Academy. She has a passion for the arts and social development.

“To serve on the Board of the CER is a platform to contribute to raising the consciousness in the public and private sector that financial health and profitability in organisations is only a part of a greater, collective responsibility. As captains of industry and society, we have the ethical duty to ensure that the results and returns we seek are sustainable beyond the foreseeable future, and include taking care of the ecosystems on which our businesses rely, and on which they surely have an impact,” says Nompi of her membership of the CER Board.

“We are privileged for the leadership of our Board to be vested in a person of Nompi’s calibre and expertise. She brings a strong sense of ethics and integrity, expertise on financial resilience, and a passion for environmental justice to the Board of the Centre,” says Melissa Fourie, Executive Director.

Nompi takes over from Prof Tracy-Lynn Field, who has chaired the CER Board since December 2017, and has been a non-executive director since August 2016. Under Tracy-Lynn’s leadership, the CER has refined its corporate governance and adopted a number of key corporate governance practices.

Tracy-Lynn, a respected and widely published academic and lecturer in the field of environmental, water and climate law, was appointed as the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship at the University of the Witwatersrand in July 2021.

“We extend our profound gratitude to Tracy-Lynn for her service to the Centre for Environmental Rights over the past six years. She has provided visionary leadership on corporate governance and strategic approach, while encouraging a culture of compassion and self-care in our organisation. We wish her every success with her new position,” says Wandisa Phama, CER Deputy Director.