It is with a heavy heart that we inform our community of the passing of Rifaat Emeran, an integral member of our management team.
Rifaat, known for his warmth, kindness and good humour, has been a part of the higher education IT landscape for nearly 30 years. He was a well-liked and respected member of the community in South Africa, and also, through his participation UbuntuNet Alliance events, in Africa. His loss will be sorely felt across the continent.
“Rifaat will be tremendously missed by everyone in TENET for his wisdom, his principled strength, his calmness, his deep insight into the community that we serve, his wry sense of humour, and his kindness and compassion,” says TENET CEO, Duncan Greaves. “We extend our deepest condolences to his wife and family and to all who loved him.”
Prior to joining TENET in 2016, Rifaat was the head of network infrastructure at the University of Cape Town’s Information and Communication Technology Services (ICTS). When he moved to TENET he took up a position in our network engineering section, with a view to taking over the day-to-day management there. It was not long however before he filled the vacant portfolio of Service Delivery Manager, first just as a stop gap but after his excellent work in that role it became a permanent step. Here Rifaat was responsible for important work fostering relationships with our clients, a role he was well-suited to. He successfully heard and analysed client needs and ensured our service offering was responsive to the clients.
He was extensively involved with the roll out of Zoom and its rapid escalation from a trial to a full-scale production in service of COVID-19 lockdowns as well as the ongoing deployments of cloud brokerage, particularly with Amazon Web Services.
Beyond his excellent professional service Rifaat was a wonderful person to work and interact with, always calm and quick to smile. He was generous with his time and concerned with the wellbeing of colleagues. Rifaat, you will be missed.
