Members and Stakeholders/Supporters

Member Profiles

Romy Stander is a director and co-founder of the NGO, Water for the Future(2017-). Romy’s background is in producing large-scale interior design projects for blue chip companies around the world, with a particular passion for integrating handmade African crafts. She is committed to understanding how materials are made and how this process benefits the maker, immediate community, and environment. In 2016, Romy was hired by the founders of Nandos to enhance work- and guest- experience through considered and sensitive beautification projects around Nando’s upliftment projects in Mozambique. Her “from the-ground-up” approach expands to her singular focus on a holistic approach towards the remediation of the daylight point of the Jukskei River, directly behind the celebrated head office of Nando’s known as Central Kitchen, which she has developed into a team effort.

Holly Lufele is Rhodes University graduate with a Bachelor of Social Science (Hons). Holly has worked in the Human Capital arena for over 10 years. Over that time, she held various Human Capital business partnering roles in the Technology and Financial Services Sector, she has a wealth of experience in driving and executing the people strategy across various functions, coaching leaders and helping organizations scale. She is currently a HR Leader at Amazon Web Services in EMEA. Holly is a strong advocate of Inclusion Diversity and Inclusion efforts and support in building inclusive work cultures.

Jane Isabel Eagle obtained a Bachelor of Arts (University of Natal) in 1979 and a Masters in Town and Regional Planning (University of Natal) in 1986. She has worked in both provincial and local government as an urban planner for over 10 years, dealing with a broad range of issues including housing, economic development, environmental management, spatial planning, and land use management. She subsequently focused on environmental sustainability, managing various sectors including air quality and climate change, waste management and catchment management, and water quality. She served in various positions at the City of Johannesburg, including unit head for environmental management at the Northern Metropolitan Local Council (City of Johannesburg), assistant director for environmental quality management, and assistant director for catchment management for the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Most recently, as Deputy Director of Open Space Planning in the Environment and Infrastructure Services Department of the City of Johannesburg, She was responsible for policy, planning, and regulation in respect of the city’s open spaces, green infrastructure, and stormwater management. A key focus of her work was the role that green infrastructure can play in terms of adaptation and resilience in the face of climate change, particularly in respect of improved water resource management and water security, sustainable urban drainage systems, and the mitigation of flood risk.
Jane Eagle previously served on the Board of Trustees for The Greenhouse Project and was an advisory board member for the establishment of the Crocodile Marico Catchment Management Agency. She is a former chairperson of the Johannesburg Municipal Pension Fund and currently serves as a trustee on the Phumula Retirement Fund.

Professor Mehita Iqani is South African Research Chair in Science Communication at Stellenbosch University, and advises WFTF on making complex data more accessible to audiences. Her research is interdisciplinary, spanning the politics of waste, consumption and inequality, cultural theory, critical discourse analysis, and strategic communications. She is the author of three monographs, most recently Garbage in Popular Culture: Consumption and the Aesthetics of Waste (2020, SUNY Press). She is the co-editor of four collections, most recently Media Studies: Critical African and Decolonial Approaches (2019, OUP) and African Luxury: Aesthetics and Politics (2019, Intellect and University of Chicago Press). She has also published widely in and reviews for key international journals, is Associate Editor of Consumption Markets and Culture, and is on the board of International Journal of Cultural Studies and Communication Theory. Her PhD is in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Jessica has worked with Water for the Future NPC as a research and development consultant since 2020, leading communications strategy, copywriting and website development, and has published peer-reviewed research on the Jukskei river corridor in Johannesburg. She has been a post-doctoral researcher and Research Fellow with the South African Chair of Science Communication at Stellenbosch University (2022-). Her background straddles conventional academia and practice-based research in the arts. Webster closely observes the evolution of threats that already cause intense suffering to South Africa’s disadvantaged majority and to its natural ecologies. Her critical writing and practice engage the psychologies of agency and collectivity in the face of climate change and trauma.

Independent Financial Advisor and Consultant, Director and Non-Executive Credit Committee Member
Inal has over 18 years Investment and Corporate Banking experience across sub-Saharan Africa in Infrastructure, Energy, Oil & Gas, Extractives and Asset Finance. She has a deep understanding of Cross Border African Trade and Export Credit Agency Finance.
Inal is an Independent Advisor and Consultant focussing on Project Finance and DFI/ Agency and Export Finance transactions in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this she was the Head of Structuring in the Markets Division of RMB. She also established and built an Export Credit Finance and Credit Risk Mitigation Business for the Bank. She was a Director in the Project and Capex Financing team at Absa/Barclays Capital and a Senior Account Manager at the Industrial Development Corporation.
Inal has worked on a number of leading green and brownfields Infrastructure Projects on the Continent and has developed relationships in the Finance industry with Multilateral and Development Finance Institutions, Export Credit Agencies, Private and Company Market Insurers, Impact Capital Funds and Project Sponsors.
Inal is a strong supporter of the African Just Transition Finance Agenda and actively participates in the broader ESG and Sustainability Finance agendas.
Inal holds an LLB (summa cum laude) from the University of Natal and an LLM from the University of Cambridge (Newnham College) and a Certificate in ESG Investing from the CFA Institute. Inal is an admitted Attorney and admitted Notary Public of the High Court of SA. In addition Inal is a Non-executive Credit Committee member of Old Mutual Alternative Investments – Infrastructure Debt and sits on the Board of Kgwale le Mollo Bursary Foundation (SA).
In recognition of her excellence within the Finance Industry Inal was nominated by Trade Finance Global (TFG) for 2023’s 100 Women in Trade, Treasury and Payments – Export Finance Category.

Muskaan leads WFTF's communications across various donor funded projects, from social media and content creation to monthly reporting, documenting workshops and stakeholder engagements, acting in a supporting capacity for proposal writing and event coordination. She occasionally guides visitors on the Jukskei River tours, providing a youth and community perspective. Her work during the SUNCASA project led to an opportunity to turn a long held love of photography into documentary storytelling, capturing the community's everyday resilience and highlighting the positive change WFTF is creating in this community. Alongside her communications work, Muskaan facilitates mental health and work-readiness workshops with School of Hard Knocks and Harambee Youth Employment. She holds a BA in Psychology and Linguistics from Eduvos and has a deep love for nature and the environment, learning so much from the experts around her. She hopes to help carve out more space for youth in the green economy space and to keep building awareness around climate change.

Mmapule brings over 20 years of hands-on experience in alien invasive plant clearing and chainsaw operation to the role. Before joining WFTF, she spent 12 years employed by Working for Water and a further 11 years running her own subcontracting company, delivering clearing and foliar spray programmes on sites from the Hennops River to ARC Irene and CSIR. During the SUNCASA project, she has led site implementation across multiple project areas, clearing 59.4 hectares of alien invasive vegetation over two years while overseeing daily operations on site and mentoring teams in chainsaw operation, herbicide application and safety protocols. She is a qualified Pest Control Officer (PCO), Health and Safety Representative and First Aider, and has continued adding to her certifications since joining WFTF. For Mmapule, the role has been a chance to bring decades of field knowledge under one roof and to pass it on, with mentoring the next generation of teams, now as much a part of her work as clearing the land itself.

Stakeholders and Supporters