Our Commissioners

Dr Lotter holds a BA LLB from Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg) and an LLM and LLD from the University of Pretoria. She was a Professor in Criminal Law at Unisa from 1997-2019. Dr Lotter first served as a commissioner of the BCCSA from 2000-2010. She was again appointed as a commissioner in 2017 and reappointed in 2022. She is a member of the Pretoria Society of Advocates.

Mr Makeketa has been a commissioner of the BCCSA since 2008. He obtained his LLM specialising in Jurisprudence (cum laude) and holds Postgraduate Certificates in Advance Media and Broadcasting Law

Dr Chait is an internationally recognised documentary filmmaker who returned to South Africa as the special advisor to the SABC Group Chief Executive Officer. She assisted in the formulation of the White Paper for Film and Video and established the first code of conduct for television content before becoming an SABC Board Member. She has been a judge for the International Emmy® Awards and been voted one of South Africa’s top women in the media. She was also the founder of Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking. She is a Fulbright scholar and received her D Phil in Political History from Oxford University.

Mr Chemaly holds a BComm (Law) and LLB from the University of the Free State and is currently registered for an LLM in Legal Philosophy. He practices as an attorney, specialising in Media Law, and previously lectured on the subject of Communication Ethics to undergraduate students. Before taking the appointment to the BCCSA in 2022, he was a presenter at and trained broadcasters on campus radio before briefly experimenting with community radio. He subsequently left all broadcasting interests to apply his acquired knowledge within the BCCSA.

Dr Chicktay holds a BProc degree as well as an LLB,  LLM and a PhD degree from Wits University. He also studied Negotiation and Mediation at Harvard Law School. He has lectured in Alternative Dispute Resolutions (ADR), Labour Law and Constitutional Law at Wits University and has published extensively in accredited South African and international law journals. He has co-published a number of books relating to ADR with Mr Patelia, inlcuding Mediation, Negotiation and Arbitration –  a practical guide to Dispute Resolution (2014) and Appropriate Dispute Resolution (2015). In addition to his academic work, Dr Chicktay is also a practicing mediator and arbitrator in labour law, commercial law and land disputes.

Isaac Dhludhlu is a Chartered Public Relations Practitioner (CPRP) and an Associate Member of the National Press Club (NPC). With over 16 years of extensive experience in corporate communications, he has served across diverse sectors, including the security cluster, legal services, transport, military, and water sectors.
He holds a BA in Communications from the University of South Africa (Unisa), an Advanced Diploma in Management from the Southern Business School (SBS), a Senior Leadership Development Programme Certificate from the University of Cape Town, and a Certificate in Strategic Management from Unisa.

Dr Linda Venter holds a D Litt et Phil (Communication) from the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Her work experience includes a term in public relations at UJ; Broadcasting Assistant at the SABC’s Bureau in Washington DC (1983-1987); Ad Hoc Commissioner of the Publications Appeal Board from 1992-1997; lecturer at UJ from 1988 until 2000; and Head: Department of Communication and Media Studies at Monash University from 2001-2008. She has been a commissioner of the BCCSA since 2008 and is an Independent Communication Consultant at present. She is the author of numerous articles in accredited scientific journals and contributed several chapters to books in her fields of specialisation, mass media and publications control.

Advocate Tlhakung was admitted as an advocate of the High Court in July 2003 after having served pupillage with the Johannesburg Bar (Group 21). She was recruited by SARS and appointed as an in-house tax litigation counsel in June 2004. She joined the Nedbank Group at the end of 2008, where she was appointed Group Tax Law Specialist. She re-joined SARS LBC – Revenue Risk and Intelligence Division in July 2011 as a Tax Compliance Risk Specialist and now holds the position of Intelligence Analysis Specialist for the Global Banking Sector. She currently serves on the ECSA Board as a VC – Finance and Staff Committee Member.

An experienced media and communications professional; education editor, worked for a number of publications in print and broadcast with e.tv Sunrise, contributing to radio stations, managing PR for At Vogue on behalf of National Geographic Channels; he enjoyed a term as an examiner on the Film & Publications Board; contributed to OPUS, a book on Nelson Mandela; currently a communications professional in the financial sector and was special correspondent to Bloomberg BNA; he has been to Oxford and the US on journalism fellowships, receiving awards for writing on gender, children and human rights.