With great sadness, I am writing to inform you that our colleague, Mr Manuel (Neco) Ventura, Life Member, IEEE, passed away on Monday, October 9, 2023, at the ripe age of 80.

Born in Moçamedes (Namibe), Angola, on 9 October 1943, Neco Ventura held the position of Senior Research Scholar at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He earned BSc degrees in Maths and Physics, as well as Electrical Engineering from UCT in 1973, and a BSc Honours in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pretoria in 1974. He served as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering from 1986 until retirement. In 1997, he founded the Telkom Centre of Excellence in Broadband Networks and Applications at UCT, where he served as the Head, which spans the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Computer Science (https://cbn.uct.ac.za/research-members-communication-research-group-members/neco-ventura).

Neco Ventura's research primarily focused on networking, particularly next-generation mobile networks and architectures, including Software Defined Networking (SDN), Networking Function Virtualization (NFV), the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications, fog/edge computing, and 5G. He supervised over 13 PhDs and 55 MScs, contributing significantly to academia with more than 100 publications in refereed journals, book chapters, and international conferences. Neco Ventura was recognised for his dedication and contributions as a Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and an active member of both the IEEE Computer and the IEEE Communications Societies

It is with sadness we extend our sincere condolences to Neco’s family, friends and colleagues. We trust that his legacy as a true engineer shall remain within those he taught, guided, worked and lived with to further human knowledge and improve the lives of countless people and as IEEE South Africa community, we will sorely miss him. Feel free to send in your messages of condolence and tributes to pass across to his immediate family: https://tinyurl.com/yekhyfek

His funeral will be held today, Friday, 13 October 2023 at Constantia Catholic Church at 10:30am (4 Price Drive, Constantia). Should you be unable to attend in person then the service will also be available on live-stream via the church's YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@maryconstantia2029?si=ryGuKzYbglZC-oVA

Udochukwu Bola Akuru

(On behalf of IEEE South Africa ExCom)

Section Chair: Udochukwu Akuru; Vice Chairs: Komla Folly & Richard Millham; Secretary: Joyce Mwangama; Treasurer: Jacques van Wyk