The Oliver Tambo Fellowship Programme (OTF), a South African health leadership and management development programme, celebrates 25 years!
The Oliver Tambo Fellowship Programme (commonly known as the OTF), celebrates 25 years of contributing to capacity development of health management and leadership in the health sector. This milestone was celebrated at a special gathering of alumni, partners, colleagues and friends, and current and past OTF staff, in November 2019. Attendant was Mr Dali Tambo, son of the late Oliver Reginald Tambo, the visionary and legendary South African leader after whom the programme is named.
Members of the class of 1994, with OTF staff and the guest of honour, Dali Tambo
From l to r: Maylene Shung King (1994); Leslie London (1994), Reno Morar (1994), Dali Tambo, Jud Cornell (1994) Precious Nobongoza, Sue Machutchon, Lucy Gilson, Hassan Mahomed (1994)
This makes the OTF the longest running South African postgraduate training programme dedicated to strengthening the leadership capacity of public sector health managers. It has had a primary focus on South African public sector managers, but more recently has also had graduates from the NGO world and from other low-and-middle income countries.
The programme had its beginnings in the Health Economics Unit under the leadership of Professor Di McIntyre, where it first opened its doors in 1994 as a postgraduate diploma in Health Management, Economics and Finance or DHMEF. Two years later it became, officially, the OTF programme and the core qualification later evolved into a postgraduate Diploma in Health management. The programme is now located in the Health Policy and Systems Division, where under the leadership of Professor Lucy Gilson, the core qualification further evolved into a postgraduate Diploma in Health Leadership, emphasising its current primary orientation towards equipping leaders to navigate and lead in the world of complex health systems. Associate Professor Maylene Shung King is the current programme convenor.