Appointment of New Executive Director

25 April 2024

Following an extensive search process, the Trustees of the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) are delighted to announce the appointment of Naseema Fakir as our new Executive Director. Naseema, who will formally begin her role on 1 May 2024, was acting Executive Director following the resignation of Nicole Fritz late last year and has shepherded the Foundation admirably throughout this interim period. We are now delighted to be able to make her appointment permanent.

Naseema’s career has been spent in the support and extension of social justice in South Africa with a particular focus on transitional justice, migration and refugee policy, and environmental law. She spent over a decade at the Legal Resources Centre, including a role as Regional Director of the Johannesburg office between 2011 and 2018. She was also Head of the Refugee Law Clinic at Lawyers for Human Rights before our Foundation first welcomed her as Director of Litigation in 2023. Naseema has an LLB from Wits University and is a former member of the Johannesburg Bar.

We believe that Naseema will be an invigorating new leader of the HSF. Our Foundation’s engagement with South African society is constantly evolving. For the next part of our journey we look forward to Naseema’s reimagining of our role in it – always though, through a vision of a society that upholds the values of equality, freedom and dignity for all, and in a way in which the universal values of Helen Suzman shine bright.

Issued by Kalim Rajab, Chairperson, HSF, 25 April 2024