Duncan Martin

I grew up in KZN, the younger of twin boys of a geography teacher/headmaster father and an english teacher mother. In 1965 I was awarded a Ph.D in Mathematics and embarked upon an academic career, lecturing mathematics at the California State College at Hayward, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and then the University of Natal.

In 1969, while a Senior Lecturer at Natal University in Durban,  I married Engela Helena du Toit, a research chemist, who had grown up on the farm Doornbult, east of Hopetown, in the Great Karoo.  Through her, I came to know and love the people, culture and landscapes of that very different Wêreld. A daughter and two sons arrived during the next five years.  My father-in-law observed: 'Janee!  Julle het goed geboer!'

We left Durban for Pretoria in 1977 when I took up a full-time research position in the CSIR’s then National Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, of which I was appointed Director in 1980. I embarked on part-time management studies, leading to an MBA in 1985.  My career soon transitioned - to the management of IT services.  In 1991, I came to Cape Town as UCT’s Director of Information Technology.  Together with Dr Stuart Saunders, I led the conception and founding of the non-profit company known as TENET, which, since August 2001, has procured Internet access, at high and ever-increasing bandwidths, for all South African universities and research councils.  I was a founding director of TENET and served as its CEO from 2002 until my retirement in 2013.  During this period I co-founded and was a non-executive director of the UbuntuNet Alliance, an association of national academic networks of countries of southern and central Africa.  UbuntuNet is headquartered in Lilongwe, Malawi and exists to procure and share the high costs of high-bandwidth connections, via terrestrial and submarine optical fibre cables, to major Internet nodes in Europe, America and the Far East. 

Engela passed away in October 2018.  We'd been married for 49 years. 

My membership of and active participation in the activities of Probus Groote Schuur have made my retirement years feel like a purposeful hike along a beautiful contour path in the face of a bracing mountain breeze!  I have enjoyed very much producing the Club's Newsletter, and found particular meaning and purpose, during the COVID lockdown, together with many other members, in writing stories for the amusement and distraction of fellow Probians.  These stories filled the pages of what were Newsletters-without-news - I dubbed them 'rettelsweNs'.

My partner, Carien Ras, is also a member of Probus Groote Schuur, and we are also members of the Rondebosch Lees- en Studiekring, which also meets at Kelvin Grove. We are both active hikers, adventurers, opera-buffs and theatre-goers.

2025-11-11