Witness is a Lead Economist at the South African Reserve Bank.
Witness was a Knowledge Manager at the INCLUDE Secretariat. He was also the Director of Research at the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), a position he assumed in May 2013. He holds a PhD in Economics (with a major in Industrial Economics) from the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden (2005).
Prior to joining AERC, Witness was Chief Director of the Microeconomic Policy and Analysis Unit of the Economic Policy Division at the South African National Treasury (2009-2013), where he was also a member of the National Treasury Senior Management Service (SMS). Before then, Witness was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town (2005-2010). He has also taught at the universities of Pretoria and Witwatersrand. He has published in leading international academic journals, including the Journal of Industrial Economics and the Journal of International Money and Finance, and is a reviewer for several journals, including the African Development Review, the Journal of Industrial Economics, and the South African Journal of Economics.