The UbuntuNet Alliance on Wednesday, 23rd February 2022 held a farewell dinner for its longest serving Communications Officer, Hastings Ndebvu who has left the Alliance after seven years. Ndebvu, who joined the Alliance on 1st July 2015, has left to take up a lecturing post at his alma mater, Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences, where he got his training as a Communications Specialist.
During his tenure Hastings enhanced the visibility of the Alliance and the AfricaConnect2 and AfricaConnect3 projects as well as established and reinforced internal and external communication channels and partnerships. He has also been the de facto chairperson and the lead person of the UbuntuNet Alliance’s annual networking conference, the UbuntuNet Connect since 2015, leading the organisation and running of seven of them: Maputo, Mozambique, in 2015, Entebbe, Uganda in 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2017, Zanzibar in 2018; Antananarivo, Madagascar in 2019; an online conference in 2020 and the recent hybrid (online and physical) conference held in Livingstone, Zambia in 2021.
Speaking on behalf of the Alliance Secretariat at the farewell dinner, Acting Finance and Administration Manager, Beatrice Ng’ambi hailed Ndebvu for his strong work ethics and great interpersonal skills and wished the Communications Specialist the best of luck in his future undertakings.
‘ Hastings has always been a jovial character around the office. He is always happy and willing to assist others with their work despite always being committed to his work. We will surely feel his absence but in life colleagues come and leave. We just wish Hastings the best of luck in his new position,’ said Ng’ambi.
Taking his turn, the new CEO, Prof Madara Ogot commended Hastings for his work at the Alliance and expressed satisfaction that Hastings is still in research and education networking.
‘We are happy that you remain in the field. This means that we will still be able to collaborate with you or the institutions you will now be representing so that we can continue to be benefiting from each other. We are grateful for the service you have rendered to the Alliance’ said Prof. Ogot.
In his farewell remarks, Hastings said that, ‘it is a very emotional moment for me to leave the Alliance after all the years. I have made important networks at a personal and professional level and I will always have fond memories of the Alliance. Being within the sector, I am quite optimistic we will continue to work together.’