Staff

Prof Riël Franzsen
Director
Prof Riël Franzsen is the director of the African Tax Institute. He also occupies the South African Research Chair in Tax Policy and Governance. In 1990 he obtained a doctorate in tax law from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and in 2013 also obtained a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Pretoria. He specializes in land and property taxation and regularly acts as a policy advisor for the International Monetary Fund, United Nations, World Bank, and other entities. He has worked in this capacity in Africa (Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda), Asia (Thailand), the Caribbean (Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent & The Grenadines) and Europe (Albania, Croatia, Georgia, Romania, and Serbia). He has acted as an instructor for the IMF (Austria, Singapore and Saint Lucia), Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (China and Slovenia), Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (Macedonia), International Property Tax Institute (Czech Republic and Lithuania) and for The Hague Academy for Local Governance (Lesotho). He is on the Board of Advisors of the International Property Tax Institute, regularly participates in local and international conferences and has authored and co-authored many journal papers and book chapters on land and property taxation. He is co-editor of Property Tax in Africa – Status, Challenges and Prospects, published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in May 2017. Tel: +27 12 420 5538 Fax: +27 12 420 4508 E-mail: [email protected]
Dr Marius van Oordt
Senior Lecturer
Dr Marius van Oordt holds a PhD in Tax Policy from the University of Pretoria and is a senior lecturer at the African Tax Institute. He is involved in numerous projects focused on VAT policy in African and other developing countries and is a member of the United Nations sub-committee on extractive industries taxation in developing countries. He has been working at the University of Pretoria since 2010 and joined the ATI in 2015. Tel: +27 12 420 3470 Fax: +27 12 420 4508 E-mail: [email protected]
Dr Sansia Blackmore
Senior Lecturer
Dr Sansia Blackmore holds a D. Comm (Economics) from the University of Pretoria. In her thesis, she developed a long-run structural exchange rate model for South Africa. After a a decade of teaching and research at the Department of Economics, she entered private practice in 1999. During her years as an academic, she frequently presented research papers, locally and abroad, published several articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, and was co-author and editor of several textbooks. She remained involved in research projects at the University of Pretoria, continued to teach in the masters and doctoral programme at the Department of Economics, and served as Managing Editor of the South African Journal of Economics. She then pursued a career as specialist economics research editor for corporates in the financial sector. She joined the ATI in 2017 upon her return to academia on account of her interest in the persistence of inequality and poverty and the weaknesses in the policy environment that fail to reverse these trends. She is currently enrolled for a PhD in Tax Policy at the University of Pretoria. Email: [email protected]
Justine Nanziri
Research Associate
Justine Nanziri is registered for a PhD in Tax Policy at the University of Pretoria. She holds a Master's degree in Policy Studies from University of New South Wales in Australia and is a certified tax administation diagnostic assessment tool (TADAT) assessor. Prior to joining th ATI, she worked for seven years in the research division of the Uganda Revenue Authority where she was supervisor in charge for research and policy analysis. She has participated in tax administration assessments in Zambia, Sierra Leone, Zanzibar, and Nigeria.
Claudia Bittencourt
Academic Programme Coordinator
Claudia Bittencourt joined the ATI in 2010 as the academic programme coordinator and the ATI office manager. She was previously employed by IBM Brazil, Coventry Health Authority and the Universities of Westminster and Bristol in the UK. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Languages (Portuguese and English) from the Pontifical Catholic University, Brazil. Tel: +27 12 420 4553 Fax: +27 12 420 4508 E-mail: [email protected]
Prof Roy Bahl
Extraordinary Professor
Prof Roy Bahl was Regents Professor of Economics and Founding Dean at The Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta Georgia, US. Formerly, he was The Maxwell Professor of Political Economy at Syracuse University, and before that was with the Fiscal Affairs Department at the International Monetary Fund, and on the faculty at West Virginia University. He has long worked on questions of tax and expenditure policy, and on intergovernmental fiscal policy. He has advised many developing and middle income countries, and frequently consults with international agencies and private businesses. He has served on several editorial boards for journals, and is the author and coauthor of numerous books and scholarly papers, including most recently, Reforming the Public finance System to Fit a more Urbanized China (2014), and Financing Metropolitan Governments in Developing Countries (2013). He serves on the board of directors of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a director of the International Center for Land Policy Training and Research in Taiwan. He is the recipient of several awards, including The Dan Holland Medal of the National Tax Association, and The Aaron Wildavsky award of the American Society of Public Administration. His former students are working in universities, international agencies and governments all over the world. He is a graduate of Greenville College, and of the University of Kentucky.
Dr Tomas Balco
Extraordinary Lecturer
Dr Tomas Balco is a tax professional with over 15 years of combined practical experience in private (Big 4) and public sectors (Ministries of Finance of Chile, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, European Commission) as well as research and academia in 4 continents (Latin America, Europe , Africa and Asia) and 9 countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Mongolia, Chile, Belgium, Netherlands, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan). Next to extensive experience working as consultant for multinational companies, he has also experience working with different tax administration, as well as supranational organizations – OECD, United Nations and European Commission. He is currently employed by Ministry of Finance of Slovakia, where he also represents Slovakia in OECD and participates in the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project and also serves as delegate to Working Party 6 (Transfer Pricing). Dr Balco hols a PhD from Masaryk University in Czech Republic.
Prof. Sijbren Cnossen
Extraordinary Professor
Prof Sijbren Cnossen has been associated with the ATI and its predecessor – the Southern African Tax Institute – since 2002. He has been an extraordinary professor since 2009. Apart from his collaboration with the ATI, he is an academic partner at the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (since 2006) and a senior advisor to the International Tax and Investment Center (since 2001). Formerly he was Professor of Tax Law in the Economics Faculty at Erasmus University (The Netherlands) from 1977-2001 and Dean of the Economics Faculty from 1984-1987. He is also a former Professor of Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Maastricht from 1999-2007. He has also acted as an Alternate Judge in the Dutch Tax Court from 1984-2006. He has lectured at universities, ministries of finance, and research institutes in Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States (Harvard University, New York University and University of Florida), and various other countries. He has also acted as a Consultant to the IMF, OECD, World Bank, European Commission, US-AID, HIID, GTZ, and various foreign tax committees. He has advised some 30 countries on the design of their tax systems, including China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Poland, the Russian Federation, and South Africa. Lastly, he is a Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion, an honour bestowed on him by the Dutch Government in 2016.
Prof Odd-Helge Fjeldstad
Extraordinary Professor
Prof. Odd-Helge Fjeldstad holds a PhD (Dr. Oecon) in economics from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. He has more than 25 years of experience from research and policy analysis in Eastern and Southern Africa and the Middle East. He has published widely on taxation in developing countries, both scholarly and policy-oriented. He has authored several dozen articles and book chapters on tax reforms, revenue administration, tax evasion, fiscal corruption, local government taxation and intergovernmental fiscal relations. His academic publications are widely cited.
Prof Augustin Fosu
Extraordinary Professor
Prof Augustin Fosu is Professor, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, Legon and Extraordinary Professor, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is also Research Associate, Brook World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester, UK; and Research Associate, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford, UK. He has published extensively, with certain rankings listing him among ‘top economists’ globally, e.g., http://ideas.repec.org/coupe.html. His recent edited books include Development Success: Historical Accounts from More Advanced Countries (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Achieving Development Success: Strategies and Lessons from the Developing World (Oxford University Press, 2013).


Prof William McCluskey Extraordinary Professor Prof William McCluskey joined the Valuation and Lands Agency in 1980, then the University of Ulster in 1985 until 2014. He was appointed as Professor of Property Studies at Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand from 2001-02. He was appointed as Visiting Professor to the University of Lodz, Poland and the University of Technology, Malaysia. He is currently Extraordinary Professor at the African Tax Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa. His main professional and academic interests are in the fields of real estate valuation, property tax systems, computer assisted mass appraisal modelling and geographic information systems. He is a technical adviser on property tax issues with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Union and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and has been involved in a number of expert missions advising on ad valorem tax issues including to Cyprus on the mass appraisal approach to the property tax revaluation and in Greece advising on the new property tax which was implemented in 2014. Others missions were to Albania, Bermuda, Botswana, China, Gambia, Georgia, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Kosovo, Lesotho, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Mauritius, Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He is co-editor of Property Tax in Africa – Status, Challenges and Prospects, published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in May 2017.

Cecil Morden Extraordinary Lecturer Cecil Morden joined the ATI subsequent to retiring as Chief Director: Economic Tax Analysis at the National Treasury of South Africa. He holds a Masters in Science (Economics) from the University of Illinois, US. He was a teacher and lecturer before joining the CISR as a transport economist. He joined the South African government in 1996 as a Director in the Northern Cape Province and subsequently joined the National Treasury in 2000 as Director: Indirect Taxes. During his career at National Treasury he performed analyses on revenue forecasting and the impact of tax proposals and drafted multiple discussion documents and policy papers. He represented South Africa on the Working Party 2 of the Committee for Fiscal Affairs of the OECD from 2006 until 2010. He is a member a committee investigating the impact of value-added tax on the poor in South Africa.

David Solomon Extraordinary Lecturer David Solomon has been involved in research, education and training and policy development in the area of Urban Economics and Local Government Finance since 1980. He served for 20 years at The University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, as a lecturer, senior lecturer and professor, teaching, researching and developing new courses in the areas of Urban Economics, Local Public Finance, Property Economics, and Finance. From 2002 – 2004 he served as Head of School of Economic and Business Sciences. He has been active as an international consultant in the area of Local Government Finance, and has participated in several major projects both in South Africa and abroad, and has made inputs into the legislative process, and into national policy formulation. He is currently working on financial management reform in Somalia both at state and national level, and a review of property tax initiatives in Somaliland and Somalia (UN-Habitat). He has written and published numerous papers, and chapters in books on topics including land taxes, decentralisation, federalism, anti-corruption, and local government.

Prof Sally Wallace Extraordinary Professor Prof Sally Wallace is Professor of Economics and Dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University and Director of the School's Fiscal Research Center (FRC). She recently served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the International University of Grand-Bassam in Cote d'Ivoire, GSU's partner institution in West Africa. Previously, she was a Financial Economist at the US Treasury Department, Office of Tax Analysis. While at Treasury, she specialized in the analysis of legislation dealing with individual income tax and savings issues, pension plans, long term health care financing, and employee benefits and compensation. Currently, she is pursuing a research agenda in the field of public finance, specifically state, federal and international taxation and fiscal federalism. She is interested in behavioral aspects of taxation, the interdependence of federal and state and local governments, and the behavioral aspects of public spending and taxation.

Associated Staff
Dr Carika Fritz Dr Carika Fritz holds LLB, LLM and LLD degrees from the University of Pretoria and is an admitted attorney and notary public. She is senior lecturer in the Department of Mercantile Law at the University of Pretoria. Her research focus is tax administration and taxpayers’ rights.

Dirk Scholtz Dirk Scholtz holds LLB, Bcom(Hons): Economics and MPhil: Taxation degrees from the University of Pretoria.His research is focused on tax incentives, tax harmonisation and taxation for development. He is currently enrolled for a PhD in Tax Policy at the ATI. Email: [email protected]