Mande Toubkin
President
Mande Toubkin fANSA; fEMSSA is a South African nursing leader and healthcare executive who serves as general manager for emergency, trauma, transplant, disaster management and corporate social investment at Netcare. She oversees Netcare’s emergency, trauma and transplant services, the Netcare Foundation’s social investment programmes, and national disaster management initiatives, and has been recognised with the Forum for Professional Nurse Leaders Leadership Excellence Award for her contribution to nursing and healthcare leadership.
Her qualifications include diplomas in General nursing, Midwifery and Pediatric nursing science, Medical and Surgical Trauma Nursing and Medical and Surgical Intensive care nursing, as well as a Master of Science in Medicine (Emergency Medicine), and she is a Fellow of both the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa and the Academy of Nursing of South Africa. She also holds leadership roles in professional bodies, Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa, and treasurer of the South African Transplant Society Director of the Netcare foundation.
She is also named by the Hospital Association of South Africa as being recognised and awarded the HASA “Excellence in Health Care ” award
Mande has completed the Applied Compassion Training (ACT) programme at the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) and is listed as a Compassion Ambassador. Her 2022 ACT capstone project is titled “Code Purple, Paying it Forward Because Every Drop Counts reflecting a focus on compassionate, related health care.
Professor Feroza Motara
Immediate Past President
Adjunct Prof Feroza Motara has been Academic Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine since 2016 and Head of the Emergency Department at CMJAH since 1994. She has held multiple leadership roles including immediate past president of EMSSA, CMSA examiner and convener, vice chair of both the MAC and Disaster Committee at CMJAH, Provincial Head of Emergency Medicine, South African representative to the International Federation of Emergency Medicine, and Chair of the IFEM Finance Committee.
She is a registered Emergency Medicine specialist with additional specialist qualifications in Family Medicine, Health Care Management, Travel Medicine and a Diploma in HIV Medicine, and has numerous peer‑reviewed publications. Under her leadership, the Division has pioneered initiatives such as an early mentorship programme for registrars, expansion of the training platform, and growth from three specialist-run units to consultant-led services across almost all Emergency Medicine departments in southern Gauteng, with consultant numbers increasing from 8 to 45 and further posts in the private sector and honorary lectureships locally and abroad.
Strategic partnerships with Netcare, UJ, EMSSA, the University of Pretoria, Gift of the Givers and others have produced outstanding registrar training outcomes, including 100% CMSA exit exam pass rates, strong national and international demand for graduates, and a supernumerary programme that has supported the development of Emergency Medicine departments in Nigeria, Zambia and Malawi. A PPP between Netcare, Wits and the North West Province has resulted in specialist training posts and graduates now staffing five hospitals in the province, while registrar numbers overall have increased from 8 to 35 in five years, supported by mentorship and comprehensive emotional, social and academic support programmes.
Dr Craig Beringer
Vice President: and Head of Pocus Special Interest Group | Co-opted Head of Pocus Special Interest Group
Dr Sashen Murugan
Secretary Treasurer | Co - opted Head of AI in Emergency Medicine
Dr Sashen Murugan is an Emergency Physician and has been the Head of the Netcare Milpark Emergency Department for the past 6 years and now the Head of Netcare N1 City Hospital Emergency Department . Sashen did his undergraduate training at UCT and thereafter specialised in Emergency Medicine at the University of Wits.
He has a wide range of experience in both public and the private sector. Sashen has been the medical director of the 947-cycle challenge for the past 2 years and is the current chairman of the Netcare Emergency Department Ethics and Advisory Committee for the past 2 years.
Sashen is a teacher at heart with a keen interest in advanced airway management as well as advanced resuscitation techniques including intravascular resuscitation.
Professor Clint Hendrikse
Associate Professor | Co-opted Head of Triage Interest Group
Clint Hendrikse is an Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Cape Town, a position he has held since 2023. He has been a joint staff member of UCT and the Western Cape Department of Health since 2015, combining academic leadership with frontline clinical service as an emergency physician overseeing emergency care in Metro West, Cape Town.
His work is grounded in policy, guideline development, and evidence-based decision-making, with a strong focus on strengthening emergency care systems and improving access to quality emergency services in South Africa and across the continent. As Deputy Editor of the Journal of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (JCMSA), he contributes to advancing academic publishing and supporting emerging authors.
He also plays an active role in capacity building through the African Federation for Emergency Medicine, co-leading a context-specific research methods course for early-career researchers across Africa.
Dr. Conrad Groenewald
Dr Conrad Groenewald is an Emergency Medicine Intensivist in private practice and holds the prestigious European Diploma in Intensive Care (EDIC). He completed his Emergency Medicine training at the University of Cape Town (UCT), qualifying as a POCUS instructor during his registrar years. He went on to serve as Lead Emergency Medicine Consultant in Kimberley, Northern Cape, contributing to clinical leadership and service development.
He completed a Critical Care Fellowship at Oxford in the United Kingdom, with advanced training in point-of-care ultrasound and critical care echocardiography, and holds a qualification in Executive Leadership from Oxford Saïd Business School. He is a national Advanced POCUS instructor and examiner and regularly presents and facilitates ultrasound and critical care workshops at national conferences.
Dr Groenewald’s goal within EMSSA is to strengthen the specialty’s structural position by advocating for formal recognition, fair reimbursement, and equitable treatment of Emergency Physicians by governing and funding bodies. He is committed to building a more unified and assertive collective voice for Emergency Medicine — one capable of engaging decisively in policy, funding negotiations, and professional governance to secure sustainable parity for the discipline.
His academic interests centre on metacognition and heuristic self-awareness in high-stakes clinical decision-making. He has developed a mechanistic and physicochemical framework for approaching complex acid–base disorders, reflecting his commitment to disciplined, systems-based clinical reasoning.
Dr. Santel De Lange
Co-opted Head of Education and training Special Interest Group
Santel de Lange holds a PhD in Nursing Science and a master's degree in nursing (Clinical Fields of Study), with specialist qualifications in Trauma and Emergency Nursing and Nursing Education. Her work focuses on advancing nursing practice in acute care settings, with particular interests in emergency nursing, interprofessional communication and collaboration, and evidence-based practice.
She is an active member of the Emergency Medicine Association of South Africa, the African Federation of Emergency Medicine and its Nurses Forum, and the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Alpha Beta Beta Chapter). She collaborates with national and international organisations to strengthen and improve emergency care.
Dr Andrew Redfern
Co-opted Head of PECSA Special Interest Group
Dr Andrew Redfern is a paediatrician and paediatric emergency medicine specialist based at Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital. He is actively involved in clinical research and the development of paediatric emergency medicine in South Africa.
His research areas include use of chest ultrasound in paediatric LRTI and TB, paediatric readiness and PEM curriculum development.
His clinical research, leadership roles and collaborations are motivated by a desire to improve emergency care for children in all less-resourced settings across the continent.
Dr Steve Holt
Co-opted Head of PVT Practice Special Interest Group
Dr. Steven Holt is a leader in emergency medicine and healthcare innovation. A registered emergency physician with the HPCSA, Dr. Holt graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1994 and has since built the largest consultative emergency medicine business in South Africa.
As the founder and managing director of ER Consulting Inc. and CEO of the First Care Group of Companies, his entrepreneurial drive has led to the creation of innovative healthcare ventures, including ambulance services, training, primary and virtual healthcare, and consulting businesses.
His recent focus has been integrating AI and technology into healthcare, with the launch of CareFirst Virtual Healthcare and Velocity Healthcare—pioneering platforms that merge AI with expert medical care to revolutionise the delivery of healthcare services.
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