Dr Jackie Phahlamohlaka

Dr Letlibe Jacob Phahlamohlaka (Jackie) hails from Ga-Phaahla Village in Siyabuswa, Mpumalanga Province. He completed a BSc degree at the University of Zululand and an MSc in Computational and Applied Mathematics at Dalhousie University in Canada in 1991. He received his PhD in Informatics from the University of Pretoria in 2003.

 

Jackie is the Founder Member of the Siyabuswa Educational Improvement and Development Trust (SEIDET) and served as the Chair of its Executive Committee from its inception in 1991/2 until May 2003. Through SEIDET, he played a remarkable role in contributing to the building of an Information Society in South Africa. The work he has done is documented in a book titled Community Driven Projects: “A Case study of science education and Information Technology in South Africa” which he edited in 2008. The book documents research work done within the SEIDET Community by several academics from the University of Pretoria. Jackie is currently the Chairperson of the Board of SEIDET.

 

Jackie was also the Chairman of the Board of the KwaNdebele Computer Education Centre (KCEC) as well as VUKUZENZELE Community Organization during the early and late 1990s. A large number of people from the Nkangala Region of Mpumalanga Province were exposed to Computer Education through these Community Projects. 

Jackie received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Dr JS Moroka Municipality in recognition of the contribution he has made to community service in the Municipality and the Mpumalanga Province.

 

Jackie completed the Executive National Security Programme (ENSP) from the South African National Defence College in 2007. The ENSP is the Defence equivalent of a PhD. He has since supervised more than 40 Commandant Research Papers (CRPs) in subsequent Programmes of the College as well as being a regular presenter to the Programmes on the topic of Broadband Access and National Security, with an ICT focus on Cybersecurity. Through this programme, he has become a key Science, Engineering and Technology mentor to Senior Officers and Generals in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). 

 

He is a regular keynote speaker in the SANDF bi-annual Military Information and Communications Symposium of South Africa (MICSSA), where the South African National Defence Force, through its Command Management and Information Systems Division, seeks to promote Information and Communications related development between the Defence Community, Government and Industry, local and international. It provides the platform where ideas, strategies, requirements and potential solutions can be shared and discussed.

Dr Phahlamohlaka is a member of the South African National Committee for the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). He has been representing South Africa in Technical Committee 9 (TC9) of IFIP since 2004. After serving as the Deputy Chair of TC9 from 2007, he was elected as the Chairperson of TC9 of IFIP in 2010 and served in this capacity until January 2014. He received an outstanding service award from IFIP General Assembly for his contribution.

 

During his term as the Chairperson of TC9 of IFIP, he established a new Working Group in TC9, the WG9.10 (ICT Uses in Peace and War) and this continues to draw much academic interest in South Africa and internationally. The work done by this WG aligns very closely to the research at the CSIR and other South African Universities. 

 

He is also involved with the UNISA ICT4D Flagship whose work is of great interest to WG9.4 of IFIP (Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries) of TC9.

After serving for six years in the Mpumalanga Provincial Government in the Strategic Planning Unit, Office of the Premier, he joined the Department of Informatics, University of Pretoria in January 1996, where he served as a Senior Lecturer for a period of ten years (until Jan 2006). At the University of Pretoria, and in addition to undergraduate and Masters level teaching, he led teams of Honours, Masters and PhD students in a research project that sought to understand how ICT could contribute to socio-economic development in rural communities.  This work significantly contributed to a strong Information Systems academic programme at the University of Pretoria. He also curriculated and established an MCom (Informatics) module on Systems and Decision Making within the Department of Informatics, University of Pretoria

 

Since 2006 to date, Jackie been the Competency Area Manager at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa; where he leads a department that provide science, engineering and technology support to the Department of Defence and other Government Departments. Upon joining the CSIR in January 2006 and in response to the “CSIR call to basics” and return to its key function of directed research ; Jackie initiated a series of seminars and workshops within the CSIR Defence Peace Safety and Security (DPSS) on how to do good R&D work and how to get published. He requested his PhD supervisor and colleague, Professor Dewald Roode to assist him to facilitate the sessions. This led to a CSIR wide adopted RICS Programme which continues to be run by CSIR internal training division, CiLLA. It also established a high publication culture in Jackie’s Competency Area ever since and it continues to lead the entire CSIR DPSS Unit on publication equivalents per year to date. Jackie also served for six years in the Strategic Research Panel of the CSIR, a body within the CSIR that advice the CSIR Executive on Research Development and Innovation. He is currently serving in the Technology Demonstrator Panel of the CSIR.

 

From 2009 to date, Jackie has been a CSIR designated member on the Council of the University of Venda, where he also served in the Senate and the Academic Planning Committee of the University. 

 

Jackie has since 2015 to date been an Advisory Board member of the  Centre for Research in Information and Cyber Security (CRIC), School of ICT at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

 

Apart from his managerial and executive responsibilities, he remains an active researcher. His research interests are in ICT and Socio-Economic Development, Web-based Group Support Systems, and most recently, Broadband access and National Security. In these domains, Jackie is extensively published and continues to give regular talks both nationally and internationally.