The Durban High School Senior Prize Giving it to be held on Thursday 11 October. DHS Old Boy, Craig Kesson, Class of 2002, is to be the Guest Speaker at the ceremony.
While at School, Craig won the Matric prizes for English, History, and Cultural Achievement, he was the debating captain, achieved South African colours for debating, and won the World Individual Debating Championship.
Excerpts from the 2002 year book read:
“Craig Kesson will represent KZN at the National Debating Championships and in addition was adjudged the Best Speaker at the International Debating Forum hosted by Michaelhouse and attended by teams from all over the world – the DHS team represented South Africa. Our Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, congratulated Craig on his outstanding achievement and it could be claimed that he is the best schoolboy speaker in the world in 2002!
Head Master IT Bennison
“Early in January this year C Kesson was a member of the South African team that visited Singapore to participate in the World Debating Championships – a great accomplishment for a talented and committed debater.”
Public Speaking Report
After school, Craig received qualifications from the University of KwaZulu Natal, the University of Stellenbosch Business School, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar – one of the world’s most prestigious university scholarships.
He has published a book and has given lectures at a number of prestigious institutions, including the World Bank, Oxford University’s Executive MBA programme, and the London School of Economics.
Craig has worked in the field of city government for almost a decade and has advised several city governments in South Africa, including Johannesburg and Tshwane.
In 2017, he was appointed as the youngest executive director in the City of Cape Town’s history. He would later be appointed simultaneously as the City’s first Chief Resilience Officer, an appointment made with 100 Resilient Cities Network – a global body of leading cities tackling the world’s most complicated problems.
Last year, he made news headlines as one of the key officials responding to the city’s drought crisis and later as a whistle-blower concerning issues of city governance.
Since then, he has been given even greater duties in the City of Cape Town, including an additional appointment as the country’s first Chief Data Officer in a city government, where he is leading the city’s attempts to develop approaches to using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data to help the city make better decisions.
We look forward to welcoming Craig back to School and to hearing his talk.
The Senior Prize Giving & Grade 12 Bell Ringing Ceremony is to be held at 17h30 on 11 October in the DC Thompson Hall.
