Biographical Note Dumisani Shadrack Kumalo, the new Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.
Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Kumalo was Director of the United States Desk at his country's Department of Foreign Affairs. He took that position in 1997 upon his return from a 20-year exile, during which he worked as an International Education Program Coordinator at Phelps Stokes Fund in New York (1978-1980), and Projects Director for the Africa Fund and the American Committee on Africa (1980-1997). From 1982 to 1997, he also delivered lectures on South Africa at colleges and universities in the United States.
Mr. Kumalo started his career in 1967 as a reporter at the Golden City Post. In 1969-1970, he was a feature writer for Drum magazine, and in 1970 he became a political reporter at the Johannesburg Sunday Times. In 1976, he started work as Marketing Executive Officer at Total Oil Company, but left that job in 1977, when he went into exile.
Mr. Kumalo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Africa and a Master of Arts degree from Indiana University, where he participated in a multinational foreign journalists' project in 1973-1974. In 1997, he attended the International Seminar on Security and Diplomacy in Geneva, Switzerland.
Born on 16 September 1947, Mr. Kumalo speaks English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Pedi and Tswana. He is divorced and has a son.
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