Masters of Their Craft
At Parvis we are unusually proud – and unusually protective – of our teachers. They are not simply deliverers of syllabi; they are practising economists, composers, engineers, and artists who have chosen, for reasons that still occasionally puzzle their peers, to spend their days with teenagers. The result is a faculty of rare depth, occasional eccentricity, and unrelenting passion.
AP Economics and Finance
Dr. Thabo Mokoena Head of Economics | DPhil Economics (Oxford), MCom (Wits) Thabo spent eight years as a senior economist at the South African Reserve Bank before deciding that shaping policy was less rewarding than shaping minds. He still consults quietly for National Treasury on inflation targeting. Author of Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets: A Behavioural Approach (Oxford University Press, 2021, ISBN 978-019-8773-42-6) and co-author of the widely cited working paper series SARB-ECON-WP/19-04 (2019) and SARB-ECON-WP/23-11 (2023). Known for beginning every Year 12 lesson with the latest JSE closing figures and ending with a question that nobody quite answers correctly the first time.
Ms. Priya Naidoo Economics & Entrepreneurship | MSc Finance (LSE), CA(SA) A former derivatives trader in London who returned to Johannesburg “because Sandton felt too quiet”. Priya runs our student investment club, which has outperformed the ALSI for four consecutive years – a fact she mentions only when parents become anxious about university fees. Regularly invited to judge the Nedbank Young Entrepreneur Challenge.
Mr. Liam van der Westhuizen Behavioral Economics | MA Economics (UCT), CFA Level III Once described in a national newspaper as “the man who predicted the 2022 rand flash crash using Twitter sentiment analysis”. Liam brings data dashboards into the classroom the way other teachers bring chalk.
AP Computer Science and Engineering
Prof. Naledi Tshabalala Head of Computer Science | PhD Artificial Intelligence (Stellenbosch), MSc (MIT visiting) Naledi’s 2024 paper on low-resource language models for isiZulu and Setswana (Proceedings of NeurIPS 2023, ISBN 978-1-7138-74-2) is already required reading at three African universities. She still finds time to coach our robotics team, which she insists is “mostly debugging teenagers rather than code”.
Dr. Ethan Cohen Engineering & Physical Computing | DIng Electronics (Pretoria), Postdoc (ETH Zürich) Built South Africa’s first open-source CubeSat ground station while completing his doctorate. Ethan’s students have won the African Robotics Championship three years running; he celebrates by playing extremely loud klezmer music in the lab – a tradition nobody has successfully outlawed.
Ms. Sarah Kim Algorithms & Cybersecurity | MSc Computer Science (UCT), former ethical hacker (Deloitte Cyber) Sarah spent four years breaking into banks (legally) before deciding that preventing the next generation from making the same mistakes was more fun. Her capture-the-flag teams dominate the national league.
AP Music Performance and Composition
Maestro Pieter de Villiers Director of Music | MMus Conducting (Royal College of Music), DMus (UNISA) Principal Guest Conductor of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic and regular collaborator with the Miagi Orchestra. His critical edition of Stefans Grové’s late orchestral works (Naledi Press, 2022, ISBN 978-0-620-99321-4) won the Kanna Award. Still insists on tuning the school’s Steinway himself every morning.
Ms. Lerato Mthembu Voice & African Contemporary Music | BMus (South African College of Music), artist diploma (Guildhall) A soprano who has sung Brünnhilde at the Staatstheater Darmstadt and marabi standards in Soweto jazz clubs with equal conviction. Lerato’s students occupy half the current National Youth Orchestra vocal seats.
Mr. Jonathan Levy Jazz Studies & Composition | BMus Jazz (Berklee), MMus (Manhattan School of Music) His big-band arrangement of Miriam Makeba’s Pata Pata was performed at the 2024 Joy of Jazz Festival. Jonathan teaches improvisation by refusing to write anything down – “If it’s worth playing twice, it’s worth remembering.”
AP Visual Arts and Design Technology
Ms. Fatima Patel Head of Visual Arts | MFA (Rhodes), former resident at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris Fatima’s installations exploring water scarcity in Gauteng have been exhibited at the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the 2023 Lagos Biennial. She still smells faintly of linseed oil and turpentine, which students consider the signature scent of excellence.
Mr. Luca Rossi Design Technology & Architecture | MArch (Wits), registered PrArch Spent six years with Studio Mas in Cape Town before deciding that mentoring the next generation of African architects was more urgent than another luxury wine estate. His Year 12 sustainable-design cohort won the 2025 Corobrik Student Architecture Award.
AP Mathematics and Physics
Dr. Rachel Goldstein Head of Mathematics | PhD Pure Mathematics (Cambridge), Rhodes Scholar Rachel’s work on elliptic curves over finite fields (Journal of Number Theory, Vol. 247, 2023, pp. 112–156) is quietly revolutionising certain encryption protocols. She coaches the South African IMO team in her “spare” time and still finds the beauty of mathematics most evident in a well-executed Year 12 proof.
Prof. Sipho Ndlovu Physics & Astrophysics | PhD Astrophysics (UCT), SKA postdoctoral fellow Co-discoverer of two millisecond pulsars during his time at HartRAO. Sipho runs our observatory nights with the enthusiasm of a child and the precision of a scientist – usually in that order.
AP Business and Entrepreneurship
Mr. David Nkosi Entrepreneurship | MBA (GIBS), founder of three (mostly) successful start-ups Sold his ed-tech company in 2022 and immediately started teaching teenagers how not to make the same mistakes he did. The Parvis student companies under his mentorship raised R1.8 million for charity last year – a fact he mentions only when challenged on the value of school.
These are the people who turn corridors into debating chambers and classrooms into laboratories of possibility. They argue in the staffroom, collaborate across departments, and occasionally forget where they parked. They are, in short, gloriously human – and the beating heart of Parvis.