Dear Staff and Students

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Refiloe Masekela as the new Dean and Head of the School of Medicine, effective 1 July 2025.

Professor Masekela currently serves as Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health in the College and holds a faculty appointment at the Africa Health Research Institute. She brings to this new role over two decades of academic and clinical experience, underpinned by an outstanding record of research, leadership, and postgraduate supervision.

Her academic journey began at the University of Pretoria, where she served as a lecturer and registrar in paediatrics from 2001 to 2005. She subsequently undertook fellowships in paediatric pulmonology at both the University of Pretoria (2005–2006) and the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium (2006–2007). Prof Masekela went on to hold academic positions at the University of Pretoria, including Senior Lecturer (2008–2009), Adjunct Professor (2010–2013), and Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Clinical Unit (2012–2014).

She joined the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2015 and has since provided exceptional leadership as Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health.

An accomplished scholar, Professor Masekela has authored nine book chapters and published 116 peer-reviewed journal articles. She has delivered 14 keynote addresses at international conferences, and her research has had both national and continental impact, particularly in the field of epidemiological and translational lung health across sub-Saharan Africa. Her work aligns strongly with Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being.

She has been instrumental in major initiatives such as the SAMRC-funded Paediatric and Adult African Spirometry Studies, which have collected lung function data from over 9,000 individuals across the continent. These findings have informed national policy and resulted in the adoption of spirometry reference equations by the South African Thoracic Society and the South African Society of Occupational Health.

Professor Masekela has also contributed to prominent international collaborations, including the NIHR-funded Global Health Research Group on Achieving Control of Asthma in Children in Africa (ACACIA). In 2019, she chaired the expert team that developed the South African Childhood Asthma Guidelines, now widely adopted in clinical practice nationwide.

A passionate educator and mentor, she has successfully supervised three PhD and 33 Master’s graduates and is currently supervising four PhD and eight MMed candidates.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Masekela on this well-deserved appointment. We look forward to her continued contributions to the College of Health Sciences and the broader University community. We are confident that she will provide principled and visionary leadership during this important phase of Project Renewal.