Siphile Hlwatika - President & Alumni Association Representative to Council
Siphile Hlwatika was recently elected by Alumni Association members to serve on the University Council for a four-year term. Mr Hlwatika is the current Alumni Association President and has an LLB (’17), PGDip in Labour Law Practice cum laude (’18), and LLM in Labour Law cum laude (’22).
He is a Senior Associate at ENSafrica, Africa’s largest law firm, specialising in employment litigation and general employment law across various sectors. He is also a Research Associate in the Labour and Social Security Law Unit at Nelson Mandela University.
During his student years, Siphile was actively involved in the student movement and served on the SRC, contributing to various university governance committees and gained valuable insight into institutional and regulatory frameworks.
His message to alumni is the following:
“We aim towards reigniting our alumni’s interest in the Alumni Association’s work. It is without doubt that our alumni constitutes the largest stakeholder of the University and it continues to significantly grow each year. As a result, wherever we go, here and abroad, we ought to carry our namesakes’ legacy, ethos and values.
The University’s alumni is central towards achieving the University’s Vision 2030 Strategy, which is aimed at, amongst others, pushing the frontiers of knowledge and cultivating socially conscious graduates who make a positive impact on society. We are thus required to collaborate with our respective areas of expertise and experience, through strategic enablers, to ensure the achievement of transformative engagement and impactful research, innovation and internationalisation. As the University’s alumni, it is certainly in our hands to make a difference.”