Director and Co-Founder
Sue Bannister
Sue Bannister is an experienced programme executive with a proven aptitude for managing a wide range of projects and programmes. She has a strong capacity for providing strategic direction to achieve broad economic and developmental goals.
Sue has an undergraduate BSc degree in Town and Regional Planning from the University of the Witwatersrand, an MPhil in Land Economy from Cambridge University and an MBA from the IE Business School in Spain. She also participated in a course run by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the Management of Development Projects, covering aspects of development such as development management, project cycle management, appraisal, monitoring and evaluation and budgeting for development projects.
Sue worked for an NGO in the 1990s assisting rural communities with land reform and development issues. In the early 2000s Sue worked as a development consultant, specializing in low income housing and sustainable development issues. During this period she worked with many international donors, designing development projects, researching Aid initiatives and evaluating projects.
Sue then joined eThekwini Municipality and served as deputy head, then head of the Strategic Projects Unit – a unit established to manage projects of strategic importance to the City. Here she was involved in conceptualising, motivating, planning and budgeting for new projects to political and administrative principals based on an analysis of needs, funding and priorities. Her work also included the procurement of multi million Rand contracts for the unit, including developing bid documents, driving the procurement processes and managing legal issues and contracts, often under tight timeframes.
During her tenure as the longest serving member of the Strategic Projects Unit team, she was integrally involved in major infrastructural projects, including the delivery of the Moses Mabhida Stadium and other major infrastructure for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Their regeneration of eThekwini’s CBD and beachfront, and the building of sports hubs in Clermont, Umlazi and KwaMashu.
Sue was appointed in 2015 by the President to serve on the National Planning Commission of South Africa.