Speakers

Ferial Haffajee is editor-in-chief of City Press. Previously she held the same position at the Mail&Guardian, a leading investigative newspaper and website.
An alumni of the Africa Leadership Initiative, a project of the Aspen Institute and Barloworld’s Isaac Shongwe, she tries to practice values-based leadership and is impelled by independence and innovation.

Ferial sits on the boards of GenderLinks and the Inter-Press Service, both of which are geared to improving the media’s coverage of development and gender empowerment. She is a previous winner of the Shoprite-Checkers woman of the year award, The Media magazine’s women in media award and a Sanlam financial journalism award.

In 2008, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Ferial has also worked at Financial Mail and at the SABC in both radio and television.

She enjoys her family, friends, cooking, travelling, reading and of course, fashion.

 

Randall Abrahams was the Station Manager at Good Hope FM in Cape Town in the mid 1990’s. He then moved to Johannesburg where he helped establish the youth radio station Yfm as an important new player in the commercial market. From 2002-2006 he was the General Manager of Commercial Radio at the SABC responsible for the success of 5fm, Metro FM and Good Hope FM. He is currently developing an electronic marketing platform aimed at the SMME/SOHO sector for PostNet while also judging his fifth season of the highly-rated MNet reality show Idols.

 

 

 

Toby Shapshak is the editor of Stuff magazine. He writes a column for The Times newspaper and is also a contributing editor for Business Day’s Wanted magazine.

He was a senior newspaper reporter covering everything from crime to politics before becoming a tech journalist 10 years ago. He has been the Mail & Guardian’s technology editor on three occasions, having also been the newspaper’s sports editor twice, and ran the M&G website when it was the first news site in Africa. He has also been the technology editor for Business Day’s Weekender and ThisDay newspapers.

He was a contributing editor for GQ magazine for nearly ten years and was digital publisher of Avusa’s magazine division, for whom he launched Stuff in 2007

Shapshak was the 2002 Telkom ICT Journalist of the Year, and has won numerous other awards for technology and science journalism. Shapshak also covered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Sapa and Nelson Mandela’s Gauteng activities when he was president.

In 2009 Shapshak was named in GQ's top 30 men in media and the Mail & Guardian's 300 influential young South Africans. GQ said "Shapshak has become the most high-profile technology journalist in the country" while the M&G wrote: "Toby Shapshak is all things tech. As the editor of Stuff magazine... he reigns supreme as the major talking head for everything and anything tech.

Sylvester Chauke’s passion for marketing and advertising started at age 10 when he so naively got involved in TV commercials. It was this experience that fuelled his passion for marketing communication and led him to an interest in media and advertising. Straight after high school he went to Rand Afrikaans University where he obtained his Honours Degree in Marketing Communication.

After that he joined FCB Advertising Agency working in account management on brands such as Vodacom, Adcock Ingram and FNB. He then joined Ogilvy Advertising working on DStv and Sprite brands before joining DDB Jhb as a Group Account Director on Unilever brands such as Knorr, Mrs. Balls Chutney, Aromat, Cup-A-Soup and Nelson Mandela Square.

In 2006, Sylvester joined chicken giant Nando’s as Marketing Manager. In 2008, he took a short break to join MTV Networks Africa as Marketing Manager, to help establish the Network’s marketing. Sylvester also sits in the Communication Departments ’ Advisory Board for the University of Johannesburg. He is a frequent guest lecturer on account management at UJ and Varsity College. He is currently National Marketing Manager for Nando’s South Africa.

In 2009, Sylvester was identified by the Mail & Guardian as one of the Top 300 Young South Africans and recently gained a spot on GQ’s 35 Most Influential young South Africans.

On his spare time, he is busy completing his Master’s degree in Marketing, he gets inspiration in the performing arts and catches up with the happenings in the streets of Mzansi.

 

Dr Craig Nossel is currently Head of Vitality Wellness at Discovery, where he is responsible for developing market-leading offerings that help incentivise healthy living. Discovery Vitality is one of the world’s leading wellness progammes, which aims to find innovative ways to incentivise people to lead healthier lives and overcome the barriers to healthy living. A key focus for Craig is ensuring that Vitality remains a science-based wellness programme that is clinically proven to improve the health of its members.

Craig is a recognised thought-leader in the area of wellness programmes. He is a regular commentator in the media, has co-authored a number of papers and was recently a panelist at the World Economic Forum for Africa.

Since joining Discovery Health as a Clinical Consultant in 1998, Craig has been involved in several aspects of the business including Clinical Risk Management, Health Underwriting, Pharmaceutical Strategy, and Research and Product Development. He also sits on the company’s Corporate Social Investment Committee. He is currently Head of Vitality Wellness.

Prior to joining Discovery, he spent a couple of years practising Clinical Medicine in the public sector, with a particular interest in paediatrics. Craig completed his MBA at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in 2004, where he was awarded the Barloworld Prize for Strategy. He is currently registered for an MPhil in Sports Medicine at the University of Cape Town.

 

Prior to launching SAFCEI in 2005 Bishop Geoff was the first Bishop of the new Anglican Diocese of Umzimvubu, covering East Griqualand and the northern half of the former Transkei. During this time he and his wife Kate, an environmental educator, promoted environmental learning in schools and community based sustainable agriculture projects.

Between 1981 and 1987 he was Director of the Department of Mission for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Born and educated in Cape Town, he studied history and social anthropology at UCT. He worked as a journalist and a teacher before reading theology at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

SAFCEI

The Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute (SAFCEI) is dedicated to raising awareness and promoting responsible action by Faith Communities in response to the growing environmental crisis facing humanity and all life on this planet.

Members of SAFCEI are united in their vision: Faith communities committed to cherishing living earth, believing that all faiths and all nations should unite to meet the environmental challenges facing the planet. People of faith have a significant role to play in bringing about change through their extensive communication network, placing values and morality on the economic, social and environmental agenda.

Mokena Makeka founded Makeka Design Laboratory during his studies in 2002. Months later he graduated with a distinction in architecture. His personal milestone was being selected amongst 100 architects from around the world to design 1 of 100 villas by Ai Wei Wei and Hertzog and de Meuron to be a part of the Ordos 100 in Mongolia China.

Mokena is quickly gaining renown as an authority on sustainable transport and spatial design, writing and speaking regularly on the subject. He is a two-time recipient of the Cape Institute for Architecture Award of Merit and a 2010 nominee for the Johnnie Walker Celebrating Strides Awards in Design.

He chairs the boards of the CAPE Africa platform and the Isandla Institute and is a member of the World Economic Forum on Global Agenda Council for Design. He is an external examiner at the Columbia University School of architecture and a guest lecturer at the University of Cape Town.

Mokena is first and foremost an artist and major proponent of the creative sector making significant input and contributions to the social and economic landscape of the country.

“GREAT ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT!!!” Mokena Makeka

Poet, performer, actress, presenter and producer Lebogang Mashile, the daughter of exiled South Africans, was born in the U.S. in 1979. Her family returned to South Africa when she was sixteen years old. While studying law and international relations at Wits University, Lebo desired to become a performance artist, focusing on poetry. She rapidly became one of South Africa's most popular young artists in 2002 when she performed her hip-hop inspired poetry at the Urban Voices Spoken Word and Music Festival. In 2003 she co-founded alongside Myesha Jenkins, Ntsiki Mazwai and Mapo Masheane, the hugely successful “Feel a Sistah!” Spoken Word Collective. In 2004 she made her acting début in the Oscar nominated film "Hotel Rwanda". She produced and presented the television programme "L'Atitude". Throughout its seventy-eight episodes she introduced the viewers to the personal stories of different people and their relationships with their immediate surroundings. These insights were gained from her travels through South Africa. The series reached an audience of over two million viewers.

Lebo has published two poetry anthologies - "A Ribbon of Rhythm" (2005), which won the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, and “Flying Above the Sky” (2008). Lebo has performed extensively internationally and in 2006 and 2007, she was named one of the Top 100 youth in South Africa by the Mail & Guardian. In 2007, she was the recipient of the City Press/ Rapport Woman of Prestige Award.

Lebo is currently working on a cross-media and cross-generational collaboration fusing poetry, music and dance with renowned choreographer Sylvia Glasser. Lebo also writes a monthly column for True Love magazine entitled “In Her Shoes”.

Dianne Bayley is a freelance writer, editor of Marketingweb and co-founder of infORM Online Reputation Management. She studied online marketing with America Online (AOL) in Santa Clara, California and Toronto, Canada, in 1996 and has been actively engaged in online and offline writing and marketing as a freelancer since then. Her key focus now is online reputation management in the social media sphere.

 

 

 

 

 

Prince Menzi Mthethwa is a young innovative, multi-talented entrepreneur and philanthropist. Being passionate about the youth and social development, Menzi heads up the 5 cent Project, a 2008 Johnnie Walker Dream Red Winner. He has a certificate in management and business accounting from Tshwane University of Technology and is currently doing his 3rd year in marketing through UNISA.

The 5c Project

In 2007, the SA Reserve Bank estimated that there was about R3 billion in coins in circulation. People tend not to circulate these coins, preferring to hold onto them, which is why the bank has to keep on producing more and more coins. 70% of new coins issued are 5c coins.

100 Soldiers, a youth research and marketing team, is facilitating a platform called ‘5c week’ where coins will be collected around the country by local communities, businesses and government departments. The project aims to raise funds for underprivileged schools in order to help improve children’s learning conditions.

People have compared this campaign to the biblical David and Goliath story: South Africans are fighting poverty, arguably the biggest enemy of our time, with the smallest denomination in our currency, the 5c coin. To make the campaign even more exciting, 100 Soldiers will be attempting to break a record for the largest coin collection in the world.

Chacey Eder is 22 years old and finished a three year Bachelor of Design Degree in December 2009 at Inscape Design College. She was the 2009 national winner of the Plascon Prism Awards, winning a trip to the 100% Design exhibition in London. She has an absolute passion for South Africa and the design that takes place in this country. She would love to be able to make a positive change in South Africa through the field of design.