Katekani Chabalala is the Newton Fund Officer for the United Kingdom (UK)-South Africa Newton Fund, based at the British High Commission in Pretoria. Launched in September 2014, the UK-South Africa Newton Fund supports research and innovation partnerships between the UK and South Africa, to support economic development and social welfare, and to develop research and innovation capacity for long-term sustainable growth. The partnership has focused on building and strengthening research and capacity building collaborations on shared science and innovation priority areas in health research on non-communicable diseases, TB control, anti-microbial resistance, HIV and mental health; transformation in higher education; urban transformations; radioastronomy, big data sciences, renewable energy; food security; 4IR; weather & climate impact based forecasting, climate services and entrepreneurship.

Katekani has a Masters in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand, and has experience in diplomacy, science communications and overseeing international development programmes.