Ruvimbo Samanga

Education

Samanga attended Whitestone Primary School and Dominican Convent Secondary School. She graduated in 2017 with an LLB degree with a specialisation in law, psychology, criminology, sociology, anthropology, French and Spanish from the University of Pretoria.

She then pursued a second undergraduate degree with the same university in law, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 2018. While at the University of Pretoria, Ruvimbo Samanga took part in community service, leadership roles in the United Nations Committee and the Rotaract Club.

She developed an interest in the Space Industry and achieved victory as part of the winning team of the Manfred Lachs Space Law moot, a competition for law students held during the International Astronautical Congress. She was part of the first African team in the 26-year history of the competition to win.

In 2016 she served as treasurer for the United Nations Association Pretoria Chapter as treasurer. She later joined the University of Pretoria’s Student Disciplinary Advisory Panel during the year 2017.

In 2019 she attained a Masters in International Trade & Investment Law in Africa, specialising in Trade, Investment, Economics and Human Rights from the University of Pretoria. Samanga was also awarded the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship in 2019. In 2020, she became a Ban Ki-moon Global Citizen Scholar.^[1][2][3]

Career

She represents Zimbabwe on the Space Generation Advisory Council as well as on Women In Aerospace Africa. She became a member and National Point of Contact for Zimbabwe in the UN Space Generation Advisory Council while she was completing her Masters in International Trade & Investment Law at the Centre for Human Rights at UP Law.

She contributes to 2 working groups namely Space Law & Policy. Samanga is tasked with the legislative frameworks of the joint African Space Agency as well as the Small Satellites Project Group which explores nano-satellite technology as alternatives for developing countries.

Her paper presentations on Space Law & Policy have been accepted and presented at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the International Astronautical Congress as well as the African Leadership Congress on Space & Technology. Samanga's papers, specifically focused on the developmental potential of space technology for African states, have been published with the Springer Collection on Southern Space Studies.

Samanga is also the founder of AgriSpace, an early stage Agri-tech startup developed in collaboration with the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, as a Ban Ki-moon Global Citizen scholar in residence.

She also founded a project known as Water Clix with Tafadzwa Sachikonye. The project seeks to improve waste-water systems and management in urban settlements in Zimbabwe.

As a Research Fellow with the San-Francisco based Open Lunar Foundation, she provides research support in lunar settlement and development policy.

She played a role in the development of the HumbiSat 1st Pan-African satellite initiative. The initiative was entirely youth-led and premised on building educational and technological capacity in space for all Africa citizens, especially the youth, through the development of a satellite and the promotion of space science and technology education.^[2][4]

Awards & Honours

Samanga was recognised as one of the top 10 Under 30 in the African space industry by Space in Africa, a Nigerian space consultant firm and in 2020 she was also recognised as one of the Top Talents Under 25 in the world by Generation ZEO, a German magazine.^[4][2]

Contact Details

• e-mail: ruvimbosamanga@gmail.com

References