Cultivating A NEW GENERATION OF FEMINIST Leadership!

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Nizenande is a Learning and Development Specialist. She has a particular interest in creating epistemologies for African people development, with a focus on equipping African professionals with the tools to perform and thrive.

Corporate Education programs. Nizenande’s people development work has included working with teams at various stages of the team development life-cycle: team formation, conflict and diversity management, stretch and high-stakes, change management, and high performance. It is this enduring passion for the development of African people that led her to birth Karani Leadership.

Nizenande has been published as a featured author alongside former South African Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, and former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela in a book titled: ‘Inspired: Remarkable South Africans share their stories’. In 2015, she spoke at the online Global Women’s Annual Leadership Summit on ‘Developing Your Leadership Mandate’. In 2017 Nizenande was named as one of the 100 Most Influential Young South Africans as part of her active citizenry, she serves as a Member of the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) for Transformation in Sport under the Minister of Sport. She was also the Deputy Curator for the Johannesburg Hub of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers. And as an advocate for the empowerment of women, in 2018, Nizenande was elected as a fellow on the Zanele Mbeki Fellowship, which was designed by the Former First Lady to cultivate Feminist Leadership for Africa’s economic and socio-political leadership development.

Feminism has moved me from the fringes of my life to its centre. It has taught me to rage, be kind, be steady, be unstable, be messy and put-together all at the same time. To me, it is a sloppy wet kiss with the love of your life: you’re constantly aware of the need to improve, but feel deeply sated and loved with every encounter.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Nomfundo Mahlangeni was born in Eshowe, and raised in Ndwedwe.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry and Honours in Chemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She completed her Masters and Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof Sreekanth B. Jonnalagadda and Dr. Roshila Moodley, with a research focus on the chemical composition of some medicinal plants used in African Traditional Medicine. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at UKZN, with a project focus on plant-based synthesis of nanomaterials and their biological activities. Her research interests lie in the field of medicinal chemistry, environmental chemistry, and nanotechnology.

I have now been given the tools to actually look at the facts and decide what the truths are.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

I am a graduate from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg a Global Shaper for the World Economic Forum and an Advocate of the High Court. I am the founder of Fundisa – an e-Tutoring and e-Mentoring platform at Wits University in collaboration with Wits Citizenship & Community Outreach Programme and Student Development & Leadership Unit.

I am passionate about Compliance, Governance, Education, Public Policy, Human Rights, Human Development, and bridging the digital divide through increased access to Technology.

I work as a Regulatory Risk Manager in the Executive Office of FirstRand Bank.

I moderate and speak on a number of panel discussions and radio programmes regarding the issues closest to my heart; education, development, and thought leadership. In a nutshell; I am a vibrant, driven, compassionate, and ambitions young woman who believes that the problem that infuriates you the most is the one that you have been assigned to solve.

COUNTRY: ESWATINI

Nothando is the COO of Kulani Engineering, a 100% black female-owned Consulting Engineering firm offering multidisciplinary professional services within the infrastructure value chain.

Nothando holds a BSc in Civil Eng. (2012) and MSc in Civil Eng. (2014) obtained from the University of Cape Town. In 2015, she was one of 100 global scholars selected to be part of the first cohort of the prestigious Yenching Academy Program at Peking University in Beijing (China). During this year that she spent completing her Master of Economics in China Studies, she grew a profound appreciation for the role infrastructure plays in economic development, and it’s potential to uplift Africa’s economies when strategically implemented with a clear regard for contextual appropriateness. Her time in Asia also fuelled her wanderlust and lifelong interest in tourism and desire to explore the world’s immense diversity and cultural offerings. Living in a country (China), and within a culture, so different from her own was one of her best life decisions yet. It was more than an eye-opener – it was a doorway to greater consciousness. Since returning, she has made it her mission to be a socially mindful engineer who equally prioritises the technical and social aspects of engineering in her work. As part of this mission, Nothando is involved in a housing strategy project whose mandate is to aid lower-income employees in her workplace enter the housing market earlier by seeking solutions that mitigate affordability barriers. Nothando has made it her mission to expose herself to as many opportunities and experiences as possible, to enable herself to contribute to society, and to engineer economic change in any way that she can for our Africa.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

A transformation champion and change agent at heart and in deeds. Nthabi Montsho, 36 Years of age, is the founder and Director of Soul Inspiration Global and Soul Inspiration Foundation. She is passionate about Social, Life Skills and Entrepreneurial Development to help women and children who are victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

Her Audio Book Broken Woman Arise with Power has been narrated to shift the mind-sets of women which will enable them to take back their power through self-development. She hosts various Seminars to help women in this regard.

Her other AudioBook and Life Skills Diary designed for the Learners aged 9-19 speaks to social challenges faced by the youth in and out of school premises. Topics covered are bullying, the ‘Blesser’ phenomenon, teenage pregnancy, addictions; youth in entrepreneurship including financial literacy are some of the topics covered. It is designed such that the learner can learn about each topic and therefore apply solutions in their personal lives. Soul Inspiration Global has the solutions to the Department of Education and Social Development challenges for leadership, teachers in schools, and the community at large.

She continues to travel offering mentoring, coaching, life and social skills training to various communities in and around South Africa.

She runs Soul Inspiration Global and Foundation full time and had experience in senior corporate rankings in the financial industry, telecoms industry, and the education division in Times Media. She participated in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 63 in New York USA as part of the South African Delegation.

She continues to serve and inspire the Souls through the Power of Talk.

Now that I understand the notion of feminism being equality, fairness, non-judgemental, and wholeness. Then if that is the case, I can boldly declare that Jesus Christ is a Feminist!

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Shalate Teffo is an Advertising Management graduate with eight years’ experience in marketing and advertising. Being passionate about the development of young people & community development, She currently runs a non-profit organisation called Dimphonyana Tsa Lapeng(little gifts of home) which was founded by her mother in 2001.

The core services offered is a children’s home, early childhood development programme, skills development projects, community garden, and homework programme. She is a brand ambassador for Brand South Africa ‘play your part’ initiative and ran sanitary pad drive together with Procter and Gamble, through their “Always keeping girls in school “programme after graduating from their Leadership College between 2015 & 2016. This has sparked her desire to now work on her own sanitary pad line. In 2016 she was selected to participate in the Mandela Washington Young African Leaders Initiative which is a flagship programme of the former US President Obama, where she attended a civic leadership programme for 6 weeks in the US and currently serves on the board representing the 2016 cohort under Civic Leadership. In 2017, the local Radio Station Kaya FM profiled her in their “SA’s 16 ordinary youth, doing extraordinary things” campaign during youth month. Her long-term goal is to build more full-service centres in the disadvantaged communities she works with as there is a desperate need for such support programmes, to improve the lives of young people living in South Africa.

As you continue to work a little and live a little, remember to serve a little bit more.
The world today needs us to be more human than intellectual.

COUNTRY: MAURITIUS

From the time I left college, I knew what I wanted to be. I had my goal clearly set in front of me. After pursuing a degree in Sociology & Gender Studies, I joined Gender Links, an NGO working towards gender equality in Mauritius. The thrill I get to advocate for women’s rights cannot be expressed in words. I want to see women – the future of tomorrow in the decision-making sector, in the news, in the private sector but most importantly leaving and leading a life of dignity. When our project to open the first-ever halfway home in Mauritius was announced, I cannot disagree that I was scared. Scared of the fact that I might not be able to make it up to the level. Being the Shelter Manager for a halfway home providing a safe space to homeless young adults contributed a lot in my own empowerment. I believe in learning at each stage of life – each moment and every day. I am a believer, a dreamer.

I am passionate about writing and absolutely love my mother tongue being ‘Kreol Morisien’. My fav hobbies include reading, writing short poems, cooking, and snorkelling

The journey has been very enriching and I am sure that this learning process will help me both professionally & personally. I intend to use the knowledge gained in my country work targeting women and young girls who are homeless and victims of violence.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

This South African entrepreneur, youth leader, and the speaker has been involved in business for almost 10 years. She is currently the Managing Director of Ntsika Uhuru; a business-to-business distribution services firm focusing on the selling, repairs, and maintenance of specialised pumps, valves, motors, actuators, and instrumentation equipment. Ntsika Uhuru services the mining and power generation industry.

Mandisa is a serial entrepreneur, having started her first business – an Internet café – at age 19, all the while studying towards a Bachelor of Laws with the University of the Witwatersrand. She dropped out of law school after her second year; and enrolled with the Raymond Ackerman Academy for Entrepreneurial Development. She graduated from the Academy at the top on her class and with seed capital for her next business venture, Vanity Space – an online store of second-hand branded apparel. This would be her second and most significant business failure. Not being one to give up she went into uncharted territory as a Safety, Health, Environmental, and Quality consultant and would obtain her SHEQ qualification with distinction. She stepped down from the helm of Maanda Africa Group in 2017 – and had been one of its founding members.

She was inducted as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper in the Soweto Hub in 2017, and was elected as its Curator for the 2018/2019 term. She also hosted a discussion at the Pan-African Parliament on Accelerated Solutions to Youth And Gender Empowerment at the African Youth Development Summit, alongside the Global Citizen Festival in 2018.

Her passion and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship has seen her being invited to speak about her business journey, the lessons along the way, and the failures that have laid the foundation for a strong future in business. She is also a seasoned event programme director, facilitator, and discussion moderator; and has hosted the likes of Dr. Judy Dlamini, Ipeleng Mkahri, Farah Fortune, and Basetsana Kumalo’ alongside She Boss Conversations.

Mandisa is committed to work that harnesses and leverages the continents’ youth to unlock wealth, further entrepreneurship, and create social value.

The Fellowship has been such a gift. A gift of sisterhood,
healing, and a reclaiming of my voice and choices. I am eternally grateful.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Musa Gwebani has been a social activist. She cut her activism teeth while she was a student and has continued her activism well into her professional life. She is committed to the realisation of a non-racial, non-sexist society that works for all people.

Her academic background is in journalism, business and law. She has worked extensively as a writer in corporate communications and in film where she specialised in strategic communications. She now works for the Social Justice Coalition as the Co-Head of Programmes. She oversees the local government and safety programmes which are aimed at improved services and effective policing in informal settlements in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Her work involves assessing the needs of communities as they relate to water, sanitation, land, and safety in their communities. This includes working with communities for ways in which they can advocate for their rights to these services to be protected and promoted. This advocacy can take the form of research, protest, and litigation.

She is passionate about the advancement of people’s power and seeing communities begin to hold their government accountable in the platforms provided as well as making those platforms more accessible. Musa is also passionate about the education of girl children in Africa and bringing awareness to and assisting the victims of gender-based violence. She also is very interested in women and their rights to land and ways in which these rights can be strengthened.

She hopes to stop procrastinating on Twitter and write a book soon, maybe soonish.

I am not alone in my feminism. I am a part of millions of women who have struggled against patriarchy and have insisted that they are people too.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Fortunate Jwara was born in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, and grew up in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the University of Pretoria in 2015.

Fortunate Jwara was born in Durban and grew up in Pretoria. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the University of Pretoria in 2015. Her passion for social justice inspired her to enrol for a Master’s degree in Multidisciplinary Human Rights with the same university in 2016. She is an author of the novel The Music Thing – which speaks passionately about the art crisis in our country, interpretation of art, patriarchy, and psychopathy.

She works for a Labour Rights NGO, gaining experience on working with communities on issues such as gender-based violence, racism, health issues, and underpay in the workplace. She blogs and writes for online magazines.

It is very important for a woman, no matter who you are and what you have, to create your own identity and to be remembered for who you are and for the things that you did for yourself.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Edwina is an entrepreneur, a motivational speaker, a disability activist, and most importantly a mother to two adorable boys. Miss Edwina is the founder and Managing Director of Thusanang Enabling Support Services (Pty) She is also the CEO of a non-profit organization Thuso Ke Botho.

Edwina sit on the board of SpesNet Global Group as Non-Executive Director, the company provides leading-edge healthcare solutions for healthcare providers, medical insurers, administrators, and managed care organisations using a combination of technology solutions, healthcare intelligence, and artificial intelligence. Being the Wings for life world run ambassador Edwina dedicates time for the international not-for-profit foundation which has one mission only – to help scientists find a cure for spinal cord injury.

100% of the entry fee and donations go directly to cutting-edge research projects worldwide. The founder and managing director of Thusanang Enabling Support Services has been Nominated the best Social entrepreneur with a disability by the Gauteng government Disability Excellence Awards 2019 in the Premier’s office. Edwina Makgamatha has in addition been awarded a 100-bed acute hospital license, to build a hospital that will fully accommodate persons with disabilities across the board. The motivation is to adopt the universal design standards which will accommodate all with or without disabilities.

Furthermore, Miss Makgamatha’s work has been celebrated in most social media platforms (TV, Radio, magazines, and newspapers). Edwina’s life journey has been one with challenges that are now motivating the nation, because giving up is not an option. My company Thusanang Enabling Support Services( Pty)Ltd has empowered fifteen employees and we have our second branch in Mokopane Limpopo bringing our services closer to the people. Miss Makgamatha is not only a businesswoman, amongst other things she is a student at the University of South Africa (UNISA) studying Industrial Organizational Psychology so as to advocate for disabled individuals’ rights in the workplace.

Women with disabilities need to step up into leadership, they must have the ambition, and be prepared to work exceptionally hard, and demonstrate to others that they are entrepreneurs first and foremost and successful at what they do, and NOT use the disability as a barrier to success. It’s important to remember that, no-one owes you anything, so don’t expect anyone to do favours for you – take ownership of your life!” if I can do it – you can too.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Lebohang Masango has a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is the author of children’s book, Mpumi’s Magic Beads (David Philip Publishers, 2018), which is available in 9 of South Africa’s official languages, and The Great Cake Contest (Book Dash, 2018).

She is also a UNICEF South Africa advocate for volunteerism. She has also been identified by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a #Goalkeeper, one of the young people working to realise the United nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She is a poet and a writer working in service of her feminist politics. As an Anthropologist, she has lectured first years at North West University and she recently co-managed the Well Sexuality pilot study; a group of scholars and artists investigating notions of sexuality among the youth of Johannesburg. She regularly hosts storytelling sessions for children in schools, bookshops and community libraries. She currently hosts the Word N Sound Poetry League, a monthly open mic challenge aimed at developing young poets in Johannesburg. Lebohang has been published in Mike Alfred’s Twelve + One (Botsotso, 2014) a poetry anthology of Johannesburg poets, and To Breathe Into Another Voice (Real African Publishers, 2017), a Jazz poetry anthology edited by Myesha Jenkins. She has read her poetry in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the UK. Lebohang used to write regularly for Rookie, the discontinued American website for teen girls, and has been commissioned by various publications to write about issues regarding literacy and feminism. A range of media platforms including news publications, magazines, television shows, and radio programmes have covered her literary and academic work.

Feminism is about love and justice. Our struggle for freedom is intricately bound up with the freedom of all the marginalised, oppressed, and even most deviant women and femmes in

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

I see the world through people and brands and at any given time, the most important conversations for driving positive change engulf my energy and passion. Right now, I am most inspired by the voice of women and the tone of business.

I have the privilege of leading the Marketing strategy at TFG for the Foschini Division; a team that houses female brands championing female confidence and inspiring women to find their position in the economy. This journey has also been about the strong need to include men in the conversation about the empowerment of women. Education for both men is as important as empowerment for women.

Having nurtured my career over 17-years, the brands and people I have worked with have been in multiple geographies and industries including FMCG, Financial Services, Public Sector, as well as Advertising. My work is wholeheartedly anchored on 3 key pillars: that better people (personal branding) lead to better brands (brand strategy) and ultimately better organizations (corporate strategy). Through my MBA from Gordon Institute of Business, I am a published research author in the Journal of Brand Management. My study focused on how organisational competitiveness through employee endorsement aims to change organisations from within.

To refresh, I enjoy traveling. I follow food, music, and film. An avid Photographer. Active boxer and yogi.

In 2015, I was listed as one of Finweek’s top women to watch; an honour I see as a call to action for myself, to keep exploring, innovating, and contributing to building a female economy.

I am now inspired to not only talk about what I believe in but to put clear action behind it. I’m realizing that I have influence. I can now finally put the word activist next to my name knowing that it’s important for me to ACT. – Pride Maunatlala, ACTivist

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Thato Valencia Mmatli was raised in a humble, yet vibrant home in Soweto. She is dedicated to her large, non-nuclear family and takes personal responsibility for the education of those who succeed her. She is an avid reader and advocate for the liberating capacity of literature.

She takes great pride in her background and seeks to reconcile her respect for her cultural upbringing with her feminist views. She is deeply introspective and delights in critical dialogue on issues affecting South Africa and the world. Professionally, Thato is a registered Industrial Psychologist and has work experiences within the corporate, consulting, and government services. She holds two master’s degrees, her alma maters include the University of Johannesburg (undergraduate studies), Wits University (Postgraduate Psychology studies), and Linnéuniversitetet in Sweden (International Leadership and Management studies). She is the former chairperson of the Kalmar Network for Future Global Leaders, an initiative to promote youth agency. She is also currently the Deputy President for the Sweden Alumni Network in SA, which aims to continue the bi-national relationships between scholarship holders and their institutions. Among her many passions and ambitions she seeks to contribute to the areas of female leadership identification and development, overcoming the ‘glass ceiling’ and ‘glass cliff’. Being a Zanele Mbeki Fellow continues to equip her with feminist ideology and strategy. Principally, creating better awareness of and access to education and business opportunities for underprivileged youth is her lifetime goal.

I am able to move through the world fearlessly! And I am armed with the deepest self-love because of feminism. This Fellowship has been the most transformative experience. The journey continues!

COUNTRY: BOTSWANA

Tumelo MORERI is a Social Entrepreneur and a Self-Leadership and Reconciliation Teacher. Her work on Self-Leadership fuses practical principles of developing inner leadership of self with Universal Spiritual Truths and African Indigenous Knowledge.

She is a 2018 Fellow of the Zanele Mbeki Fellowship, whose mandate is to cultivate and support a new generation of African feminist leaders. In 2017, she was named and selected as a Global Shaper of the Global Shapers Community, which is an initiative of the World Economic Forum. And, in 2014, she was awarded the Mandela Rhodes Leadership Scholarship by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation for postgraduate studies in Mathematical Statistics.

Tumelo has founded Tumelo Moreri Inc. (est. 2019) where she curates spaces, experiences, and programs for the Self- Leadership development of professionals and entrepreneurs in various work spaces and communities. She also hosts Conversations on Self-Leadership in schools, for work-teams, in corporate institutions, and local communities and organizations. She is the founder of Afrika Ithute (est. 2016), which is a space for the healing and reconciliation of the African – for the African to remember who she truly is, and begin to reclaim her true power. Through Afrika Ithute, she curates and facilitates grassroots leadership development programs whose aim is to facilitate this process of healing and reconciliation for African youth, and to build leadership capacity within African communities.

Tumelo holds degrees in Actuarial Science (Cum Laude, 2012) and Mathematical Statistics (2013) from the University of the Free State in South Africa.

In applying for this Fellowship, my intention was to fully explore Feminism and locate myself in it. And, I have got this, and more. While in the Fellowship, I finally surrendered to my true feminine power – my intuition – and I have developed hearing beyond my body and bones. I feel at one and at home with myself, and I’m grateful for the Fellowship, for having kick-started this process (of hearing beyond bones) for me.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Noluthando Mthonti is a financial services professional, a broadcaster, and an entrepreneur. She is a student at the Wits Business School pursuing a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration.

Noluthando exited the formal corporate space in January 2019 to pursuit radio broadcasting an on a full-time basis. Through her involvement with various youth led organisations, Noluthando identified an opportunity to advocate for the SDGs in her community, this has subsequently led to her founding a consultancy that will partner with the South African private sector to support the SDGs through their Corporate Social Responsibility and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) compliance initiatives. Noluthando founded the Financial Consultancy (Pty) Ltd, an accounting services company aimed at servicing small businesses and start-ups.

During her time in the formal corporate space, Noluthando worked as an Enterprise and Supplier Development Consultant, advising mining companies on this specific mining charter requirement, as well as performing due diligences, screening, and recommending SMMEs to be funded.

Noluthando served as the Deputy Chairperson of the Youth Against Unemployment Working group founded by the Association for Black Securities and Investment Professionals (ABSIP) along its strategic partners, AISEC, ABSA, BMF, and the AWCA. She also served on the ABSIP Student Development Sub-committee for 2 years, assisting young people in 13 Universities across South Africa in facilitating their readiness to enter the South African financial services sector. Through her various leadership roles representing young prospective female Chartered Accountants, the African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) awarded her the President’s Ambassador Award at the annual Women of Substance awards in 2014 alongside UN Women Director, Dr Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka.

Noluthando is the incoming curator of World Economic Forum Global Shapers Soweto Hub and will represent her community in Geneva, Switzerland in September 2019. She is also a member of the South African Institute of International Affairs and a Zanele Mbeki Fellow. Noluthando is a passionate steward of the world and believes it is important to leave the world better than she found it, especially for girls and women.

Feminism is the world’s best bet – the unburdening of men and the process of reconciling women to their innate being, the rebalancing of the world as we know it.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Ziyanda Nqebelele is a Chartered Accountant by profession with experience in corporate finance and auditing. Her experience in corporate has cultivated her ability to analyse problems both within and outside of the organizational and business environment.

She has also learnt about patience and the importance of cultivating an environment where people from various backgrounds can be free to think critically and question the information being presented to them without taking everything at face value. Her interests lie in mentorship, education, and finding sustainable solutions that will improve the lives of the marginalized. To this end, she founded a company, Au Pair Express (Pty) Ltd, an on-demand marketplace that connects families with reliable, background screened, and experienced childcare professionals. The platform connects and negotiates fair wages for unskilled women who had struggled obtaining employment, with families in need of such services.

She is also a Senior Lecturer at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, a university that predominantly caters for a disadvantaged student profile, and offers much-needed guidance and support to students who come from very unstable homes.

Ziyanda plans to open early childhood centres in the Eastern Cape in the near future, with a primary target of rural and poor communities. She hopes these centres will have a positive contribution to the dire school-leaving results produced by the province.

The Fellowship has broadened my thinking around feminism and impact work and what contribution feminists can have in making the world easier for those less fortunate than us.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Lehlogonolo Michell Ratlabyana is a Community Shaper, Entrepreneur, Professional, and a Lover of Life. She holds a Bachelor’s degree and an Honours degree in the field of Public Management from the University of the Western Cape and the University of Johannesburg. She has over 4 years’ experience in Research, Training, and Project Management.

She is one of the authors for a National Study titled “Enhancing Active Citizenry Engagement in South Africa” published by the National Development Agency and Human Sciences Research Council. She has also co-authored a desktop research titled “Government Funding to NPOs: What is the Investment Value?” published by National Development Agency.

Her experience in the public sector has inspired her passion for community and youth development. She has trained and mentored Youth Organisations and Representative Council for Learners in Secondary Schools and has also facilitated Radio Shows aimed at giving youth a voice to be change agents across the Limpopo Province. She was a panelist for the 1st Annual Limpopo Youth Leadership Talk hosted by Agape Youth Movement. She has recently founded an Events Management Company “Amore Berries & Brew” which was birthed by her love for creating environments for people to celebrate themselves and life.

I am a Feminist, Afrikan, Black, and Beautiful. Feminism allows me to be me in my entirety, to love myself, and to be conscious of my capabilities. The Zanele Mbeki Fellowship Programme has been a beautiful gift, it has given me the boldness to show up as I am and to be fearless in the pursuit of what sets my soul on fire.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Iris Nxumalo is an Innovation Manager at The DG Murray Trust, and an outgoing Peace Security and Development Women Fellow at the African Leadership Centre (ALC), dually based in London and Nairobi.

She has dedicated her life’s work to transforming systems of power and leadership processes that shape and govern experiences of peace, justice, development, and security on the African continent.

Iris is committed to utilising transformative forms of knowledge to advance research, activism, policy analysis, and development programming in the areas of governance, gender peace and security, education, youth advocacy, leadership development, and movement building. In her present role as an Innovation Manager at The DG Murray Trust, Iris seeks to use intersectional strategic investments through grant-making as a tool to drive organisational and public innovation for inclusion, justice, and development in South Africa.

Iris has five years of professional and volunteering experience, advancing gender equality and women’s rights through development programming in peace, security, and development; governance innovation, Pan-African youth advocacy, and movement building and conducting political and media analysis. Her professional experiences span a variety of contexts and sectors, including working with inter-governmental organisations, research and policy centres, and teaching in the academy in South Africa.

The fellowship has placed meat on my feminist bones. It has enabled me to locate myself within the rich tapestry of Afrikan feminisms and revel in the pure delight of identifying as a feminist scholar and activist.

COUNTRY: RWANDA

Imana yirirwa ahandi igataha iRwanda (God roams elsewhere in the world and returns to rest in Rwanda). This Rwanda mentioned is the birthplace of Aimée Gratia Ilibagiza Mutabazi who, due to the war in 1994, had to flee it and seek refuge elsewhere in the world.

The saying both hints at the importance of Rwanda as the resting place of God and at God’s timeless wondering away from it in the world. This paradoxical contemplation characterizes much of the personal and professional aspirations that Aimée Gratia is drawn to. Currently, as a Masters of Arts candidate in Anthropology, her academic interests include identity reconstruction amongst Rwandan refugees who live and have grown up in exile. She draws largely from her experience as both Rwandan refugee and South African permanent resident to reflect on the ambivalent feelings of growing up away from home and having to live in different cultural contexts to make sense of life.

Aimée Gratia is a traditional Rwandan dancer in a Johannesburg based refugee cultural group. It is from here that she has drawn much of her creative and intellectual inspiration for her academic and community service work. She is a Mellon Mays fellow and has presented her research at Bowdoin College and Columbia University at summer institutes in the United States.

Passionately curious about humanity, Aimée Gratia describes herself as a creatively intuitive person who strives to find collaborations between her African-orientated academic work and broader social, political, and artistic spaces. She is also interested in the role of African women in knowledge production as well as their financial emancipation as community builders.

COUNTRY: MALAWI

Rachel Sibande is the Founder of Malawi’s first technology hub; mHub. The hub nurtures young technology enthusiasts with technical and entrepreneurship skills and champions the development of technology solutions. Rachel was named by Forbes as one of Africa’s most promising young entrepreneurs in 2016. In 2015; she received the Anita Borg Scholarship from Google given to outstanding female computer science students from around the world.

She is Malawi’s Ambassador of the Next Einstein Forum Initiative which promotes science, technology engineering, and mathematics. Rachel is also an alumna of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative. Rachel is the first Malawian to hold a local TEDx License. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Rhodes University in South Africa.

Rachel Sibande has piloted a technology platform in Malawi, called Mzinda, where citizens engage with locally elected leaders and service providers on service delivery. Rachel has also led the deployment of citizen engagement initiatives using technology during elections in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. She also has a Certificate in Entrepreneurship for Scientists from ICTP in Italy.

Through the hub, Rachel has established a Children’s Coding Club and a Girls Coding Club where children and girls are taught how to develop mobile technology applications in quest to enhance a generation of creators of technology. In her free time, Rachel loves to spend time with her three bundles of joy; Uwemi, Uzengi, and Unenesco, and experimenting with spices in the kitchen.

The ZMDT fellowship has activated the feminist in me. It has been a journey of self-discovery. I am now working on creating a ripple effect to have more young feminists within my network of innovators and entrepreneurs.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

I am the Founder and CEO of The AMAZI Group, a beauty brand crafted on the principles of inclusivity cultivated through two distinct arms: The AMAZI Academy (a non-profit training school) and AMAZI Beauty (a chain of Nail and Beauty Salons) with operations in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

These two entities collaborate to journey marginalized women from unemployment to equity ownership within the Group. The Cape Town Academy was first established in 2014, with the first AMAZI store following in 2015.

My purpose is rooted in combating the ingrained sense of inferiority among marginalized women. The first time I felt a deep sense of anger about the inequality that oppresses women was in high school when I helped my karate instructor teach self-defense to victims of abuse. From then I knew that I wanted to find a way re-build women that have lost belief in their potential. It took me the next 12 years to configure the “how”.

I studied development economics at the University of Cape Town and began my career at Absa Capital where I was the Lead Credit Research Analyst. In this role, I was the first- and second-rated analyst in the country in 2010 and 2011, in the Spire Awards and Financial Mail rankings respectively. I left finance after just over 5 years and found myself on a path toward founding the AMAZI Group that was largely possible through incredible synchronicity.

I’m a big fan of coffee, the Harvard Business Review and Star Wars. I’m lucky to be married to a man that gives me the freedom to be me.

What I want my work to be about is installing the human back into economics.
What this Fellowship has done is install the human back into me.

linda@zmdt.org.za

naledi@zmdt.org.za

nonhlanhla@zmdt.org.za

samantha@zmdt.org.za

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Nizenande is a Learning and Development Specialist. She has a particular interest in creating epistemologies for African people development, with a focus on equipping African professionals with the tools to perform and thrive.

Corporate Education programs. Nizenande’s people development work has included working with teams at various stages of the team development life-cycle: team formation, conflict and diversity management, stretch and high-stakes, change management, and high performance. It is this enduring passion for the development of African people that led her to birth Karani Leadership.

Nizenande has been published as a featured author alongside former South African Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, and former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela in a book titled: ‘Inspired: Remarkable South Africans share their stories’. In 2015, she spoke at the online Global Women’s Annual Leadership Summit on ‘Developing Your Leadership Mandate’. In 2017 Nizenande was named as one of the 100 Most Influential Young South Africans as part of her active citizenry, she serves as a Member of the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) for Transformation in Sport under the Minister of Sport. She was also the Deputy Curator for the Johannesburg Hub of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers. And as an advocate for the empowerment of women, in 2018, Nizenande was elected as a fellow on the Zanele Mbeki Fellowship, which was designed by the Former First Lady to cultivate Feminist Leadership for Africa’s economic and socio-political leadership development.

Feminism has moved me from the fringes of my life to its centre. It has taught me to rage, be kind, be steady, be unstable, be messy and put-together all at the same time. To me, it is a sloppy wet kiss with the love of your life: you’re constantly aware of the need to improve, but feel deeply sated and loved with every encounter.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Nomfundo Mahlangeni was born in Eshowe, and raised in Ndwedwe.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry and Honours in Chemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She completed her Masters and Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof Sreekanth B. Jonnalagadda and Dr. Roshila Moodley, with a research focus on the chemical composition of some medicinal plants used in African Traditional Medicine. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at UKZN, with a project focus on plant-based synthesis of nanomaterials and their biological activities. Her research interests lie in the field of medicinal chemistry, environmental chemistry, and nanotechnology.

I have now been given the tools to actually look at the facts and decide what the truths are.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

I am a graduate from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg a Global Shaper for the World Economic Forum and an Advocate of the High Court. I am the founder of Fundisa – an e-Tutoring and e-Mentoring platform at Wits University in collaboration with Wits Citizenship & Community Outreach Programme and Student Development & Leadership Unit.

I am passionate about Compliance, Governance, Education, Public Policy, Human Rights, Human Development, and bridging the digital divide through increased access to Technology.

I work as a Regulatory Risk Manager in the Executive Office of FirstRand Bank.

I moderate and speak on a number of panel discussions and radio programmes regarding the issues closest to my heart; education, development, and thought leadership. In a nutshell; I am a vibrant, driven, compassionate, and ambitions young woman who believes that the problem that infuriates you the most is the one that you have been assigned to solve.

COUNTRY: ESWATINI

Nothando is the COO of Kulani Engineering, a 100% black female-owned Consulting Engineering firm offering multidisciplinary professional services within the infrastructure value chain.

Nothando holds a BSc in Civil Eng. (2012) and MSc in Civil Eng. (2014) obtained from the University of Cape Town. In 2015, she was one of 100 global scholars selected to be part of the first cohort of the prestigious Yenching Academy Program at Peking University in Beijing (China). During this year that she spent completing her Master of Economics in China Studies, she grew a profound appreciation for the role infrastructure plays in economic development, and it’s potential to uplift Africa’s economies when strategically implemented with a clear regard for contextual appropriateness. Her time in Asia also fuelled her wanderlust and lifelong interest in tourism and desire to explore the world’s immense diversity and cultural offerings. Living in a country (China), and within a culture, so different from her own was one of her best life decisions yet. It was more than an eye-opener – it was a doorway to greater consciousness. Since returning, she has made it her mission to be a socially mindful engineer who equally prioritises the technical and social aspects of engineering in her work. As part of this mission, Nothando is involved in a housing strategy project whose mandate is to aid lower-income employees in her workplace enter the housing market earlier by seeking solutions that mitigate affordability barriers. Nothando has made it her mission to expose herself to as many opportunities and experiences as possible, to enable herself to contribute to society, and to engineer economic change in any way that she can for our Africa.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

A transformation champion and change agent at heart and in deeds. Nthabi Montsho, 36 Years of age, is the founder and Director of Soul Inspiration Global and Soul Inspiration Foundation. She is passionate about Social, Life Skills and Entrepreneurial Development to help women and children who are victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

Her Audio Book Broken Woman Arise with Power has been narrated to shift the mind-sets of women which will enable them to take back their power through self-development. She hosts various Seminars to help women in this regard.

Her other AudioBook and Life Skills Diary designed for the Learners aged 9-19 speaks to social challenges faced by the youth in and out of school premises. Topics covered are bullying, the ‘Blesser’ phenomenon, teenage pregnancy, addictions; youth in entrepreneurship including financial literacy are some of the topics covered. It is designed such that the learner can learn about each topic and therefore apply solutions in their personal lives. Soul Inspiration Global has the solutions to the Department of Education and Social Development challenges for leadership, teachers in schools, and the community at large.

She continues to travel offering mentoring, coaching, life and social skills training to various communities in and around South Africa.

She runs Soul Inspiration Global and Foundation full time and had experience in senior corporate rankings in the financial industry, telecoms industry, and the education division in Times Media. She participated in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 63 in New York USA as part of the South African Delegation.

She continues to serve and inspire the Souls through the Power of Talk.

Now that I understand the notion of feminism being equality, fairness, non-judgemental, and wholeness. Then if that is the case, I can boldly declare that Jesus Christ is a Feminist!

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Shalate Teffo is an Advertising Management graduate with eight years’ experience in marketing and advertising. Being passionate about the development of young people & community development, She currently runs a non-profit organisation called Dimphonyana Tsa Lapeng(little gifts of home) which was founded by her mother in 2001.

The core services offered is a children’s home, early childhood development programme, skills development projects, community garden, and homework programme. She is a brand ambassador for Brand South Africa ‘play your part’ initiative and ran sanitary pad drive together with Procter and Gamble, through their “Always keeping girls in school “programme after graduating from their Leadership College between 2015 & 2016. This has sparked her desire to now work on her own sanitary pad line. In 2016 she was selected to participate in the Mandela Washington Young African Leaders Initiative which is a flagship programme of the former US President Obama, where she attended a civic leadership programme for 6 weeks in the US and currently serves on the board representing the 2016 cohort under Civic Leadership. In 2017, the local Radio Station Kaya FM profiled her in their “SA’s 16 ordinary youth, doing extraordinary things” campaign during youth month. Her long-term goal is to build more full-service centres in the disadvantaged communities she works with as there is a desperate need for such support programmes, to improve the lives of young people living in South Africa.

As you continue to work a little and live a little, remember to serve a little bit more.
The world today needs us to be more human than intellectual.

COUNTRY: MAURITIUS

From the time I left college, I knew what I wanted to be. I had my goal clearly set in front of me. After pursuing a degree in Sociology & Gender Studies, I joined Gender Links, an NGO working towards gender equality in Mauritius. The thrill I get to advocate for women’s rights cannot be expressed in words. I want to see women – the future of tomorrow in the decision-making sector, in the news, in the private sector but most importantly leaving and leading a life of dignity. When our project to open the first-ever halfway home in Mauritius was announced, I cannot disagree that I was scared. Scared of the fact that I might not be able to make it up to the level. Being the Shelter Manager for a halfway home providing a safe space to homeless young adults contributed a lot in my own empowerment. I believe in learning at each stage of life – each moment and every day. I am a believer, a dreamer.

I am passionate about writing and absolutely love my mother tongue being ‘Kreol Morisien’. My fav hobbies include reading, writing short poems, cooking, and snorkelling

The journey has been very enriching and I am sure that this learning process will help me both professionally & personally. I intend to use the knowledge gained in my country work targeting women and young girls who are homeless and victims of violence.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

This South African entrepreneur, youth leader, and the speaker has been involved in business for almost 10 years. She is currently the Managing Director of Ntsika Uhuru; a business-to-business distribution services firm focusing on the selling, repairs, and maintenance of specialised pumps, valves, motors, actuators, and instrumentation equipment. Ntsika Uhuru services the mining and power generation industry.

Mandisa is a serial entrepreneur, having started her first business – an Internet café – at age 19, all the while studying towards a Bachelor of Laws with the University of the Witwatersrand. She dropped out of law school after her second year; and enrolled with the Raymond Ackerman Academy for Entrepreneurial Development. She graduated from the Academy at the top on her class and with seed capital for her next business venture, Vanity Space – an online store of second-hand branded apparel. This would be her second and most significant business failure. Not being one to give up she went into uncharted territory as a Safety, Health, Environmental, and Quality consultant and would obtain her SHEQ qualification with distinction. She stepped down from the helm of Maanda Africa Group in 2017 – and had been one of its founding members.

She was inducted as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper in the Soweto Hub in 2017, and was elected as its Curator for the 2018/2019 term. She also hosted a discussion at the Pan-African Parliament on Accelerated Solutions to Youth And Gender Empowerment at the African Youth Development Summit, alongside the Global Citizen Festival in 2018.

Her passion and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship has seen her being invited to speak about her business journey, the lessons along the way, and the failures that have laid the foundation for a strong future in business. She is also a seasoned event programme director, facilitator, and discussion moderator; and has hosted the likes of Dr. Judy Dlamini, Ipeleng Mkahri, Farah Fortune, and Basetsana Kumalo’ alongside She Boss Conversations.

Mandisa is committed to work that harnesses and leverages the continents’ youth to unlock wealth, further entrepreneurship, and create social value.

The Fellowship has been such a gift. A gift of sisterhood,
healing, and a reclaiming of my voice and choices. I am eternally grateful.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Musa Gwebani has been a social activist. She cut her activism teeth while she was a student and has continued her activism well into her professional life. She is committed to the realisation of a non-racial, non-sexist society that works for all people.

Her academic background is in journalism, business and law. She has worked extensively as a writer in corporate communications and in film where she specialised in strategic communications. She now works for the Social Justice Coalition as the Co-Head of Programmes. She oversees the local government and safety programmes which are aimed at improved services and effective policing in informal settlements in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Her work involves assessing the needs of communities as they relate to water, sanitation, land, and safety in their communities. This includes working with communities for ways in which they can advocate for their rights to these services to be protected and promoted. This advocacy can take the form of research, protest, and litigation.

She is passionate about the advancement of people’s power and seeing communities begin to hold their government accountable in the platforms provided as well as making those platforms more accessible. Musa is also passionate about the education of girl children in Africa and bringing awareness to and assisting the victims of gender-based violence. She also is very interested in women and their rights to land and ways in which these rights can be strengthened.

She hopes to stop procrastinating on Twitter and write a book soon, maybe soonish.

I am not alone in my feminism. I am a part of millions of women who have struggled against patriarchy and have insisted that they are people too.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Fortunate Jwara was born in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, and grew up in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the University of Pretoria in 2015.

Fortunate Jwara was born in Durban and grew up in Pretoria. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the University of Pretoria in 2015. Her passion for social justice inspired her to enrol for a Master’s degree in Multidisciplinary Human Rights with the same university in 2016. She is an author of the novel The Music Thing – which speaks passionately about the art crisis in our country, interpretation of art, patriarchy, and psychopathy.

She works for a Labour Rights NGO, gaining experience on working with communities on issues such as gender-based violence, racism, health issues, and underpay in the workplace. She blogs and writes for online magazines.

It is very important for a woman, no matter who you are and what you have, to create your own identity and to be remembered for who you are and for the things that you did for yourself.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Edwina is an entrepreneur, a motivational speaker, a disability activist, and most importantly a mother to two adorable boys. Miss Edwina is the founder and Managing Director of Thusanang Enabling Support Services (Pty) She is also the CEO of a non-profit organization Thuso Ke Botho.

Edwina sit on the board of SpesNet Global Group as Non-Executive Director, the company provides leading-edge healthcare solutions for healthcare providers, medical insurers, administrators, and managed care organisations using a combination of technology solutions, healthcare intelligence, and artificial intelligence. Being the Wings for life world run ambassador Edwina dedicates time for the international not-for-profit foundation which has one mission only – to help scientists find a cure for spinal cord injury.

100% of the entry fee and donations go directly to cutting-edge research projects worldwide. The founder and managing director of Thusanang Enabling Support Services has been Nominated the best Social entrepreneur with a disability by the Gauteng government Disability Excellence Awards 2019 in the Premier’s office. Edwina Makgamatha has in addition been awarded a 100-bed acute hospital license, to build a hospital that will fully accommodate persons with disabilities across the board. The motivation is to adopt the universal design standards which will accommodate all with or without disabilities.

Furthermore, Miss Makgamatha’s work has been celebrated in most social media platforms (TV, Radio, magazines, and newspapers). Edwina’s life journey has been one with challenges that are now motivating the nation, because giving up is not an option. My company Thusanang Enabling Support Services( Pty)Ltd has empowered fifteen employees and we have our second branch in Mokopane Limpopo bringing our services closer to the people. Miss Makgamatha is not only a businesswoman, amongst other things she is a student at the University of South Africa (UNISA) studying Industrial Organizational Psychology so as to advocate for disabled individuals’ rights in the workplace.

Women with disabilities need to step up into leadership, they must have the ambition, and be prepared to work exceptionally hard, and demonstrate to others that they are entrepreneurs first and foremost and successful at what they do, and NOT use the disability as a barrier to success. It’s important to remember that, no-one owes you anything, so don’t expect anyone to do favours for you – take ownership of your life!” if I can do it – you can too.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Lebohang Masango has a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is the author of children’s book, Mpumi’s Magic Beads (David Philip Publishers, 2018), which is available in 9 of South Africa’s official languages, and The Great Cake Contest (Book Dash, 2018).

She is also a UNICEF South Africa advocate for volunteerism. She has also been identified by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a #Goalkeeper, one of the young people working to realise the United nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She is a poet and a writer working in service of her feminist politics. As an Anthropologist, she has lectured first years at North West University and she recently co-managed the Well Sexuality pilot study; a group of scholars and artists investigating notions of sexuality among the youth of Johannesburg. She regularly hosts storytelling sessions for children in schools, bookshops and community libraries. She currently hosts the Word N Sound Poetry League, a monthly open mic challenge aimed at developing young poets in Johannesburg. Lebohang has been published in Mike Alfred’s Twelve + One (Botsotso, 2014) a poetry anthology of Johannesburg poets, and To Breathe Into Another Voice (Real African Publishers, 2017), a Jazz poetry anthology edited by Myesha Jenkins. She has read her poetry in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the UK. Lebohang used to write regularly for Rookie, the discontinued American website for teen girls, and has been commissioned by various publications to write about issues regarding literacy and feminism. A range of media platforms including news publications, magazines, television shows, and radio programmes have covered her literary and academic work.

Feminism is about love and justice. Our struggle for freedom is intricately bound up with the freedom of all the marginalised, oppressed, and even most deviant women and femmes in

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

I see the world through people and brands and at any given time, the most important conversations for driving positive change engulf my energy and passion. Right now, I am most inspired by the voice of women and the tone of business.

I have the privilege of leading the Marketing strategy at TFG for the Foschini Division; a team that houses female brands championing female confidence and inspiring women to find their position in the economy. This journey has also been about the strong need to include men in the conversation about the empowerment of women. Education for both men is as important as empowerment for women.

Having nurtured my career over 17-years, the brands and people I have worked with have been in multiple geographies and industries including FMCG, Financial Services, Public Sector, as well as Advertising. My work is wholeheartedly anchored on 3 key pillars: that better people (personal branding) lead to better brands (brand strategy) and ultimately better organizations (corporate strategy). Through my MBA from Gordon Institute of Business, I am a published research author in the Journal of Brand Management. My study focused on how organisational competitiveness through employee endorsement aims to change organisations from within.

To refresh, I enjoy traveling. I follow food, music, and film. An avid Photographer. Active boxer and yogi.

In 2015, I was listed as one of Finweek’s top women to watch; an honour I see as a call to action for myself, to keep exploring, innovating, and contributing to building a female economy.

I am now inspired to not only talk about what I believe in but to put clear action behind it. I’m realizing that I have influence. I can now finally put the word activist next to my name knowing that it’s important for me to ACT. – Pride Maunatlala, ACTivist

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Thato Valencia Mmatli was raised in a humble, yet vibrant home in Soweto. She is dedicated to her large, non-nuclear family and takes personal responsibility for the education of those who succeed her. She is an avid reader and advocate for the liberating capacity of literature.

She takes great pride in her background and seeks to reconcile her respect for her cultural upbringing with her feminist views. She is deeply introspective and delights in critical dialogue on issues affecting South Africa and the world. Professionally, Thato is a registered Industrial Psychologist and has work experiences within the corporate, consulting, and government services. She holds two master’s degrees, her alma maters include the University of Johannesburg (undergraduate studies), Wits University (Postgraduate Psychology studies), and Linnéuniversitetet in Sweden (International Leadership and Management studies). She is the former chairperson of the Kalmar Network for Future Global Leaders, an initiative to promote youth agency. She is also currently the Deputy President for the Sweden Alumni Network in SA, which aims to continue the bi-national relationships between scholarship holders and their institutions. Among her many passions and ambitions she seeks to contribute to the areas of female leadership identification and development, overcoming the ‘glass ceiling’ and ‘glass cliff’. Being a Zanele Mbeki Fellow continues to equip her with feminist ideology and strategy. Principally, creating better awareness of and access to education and business opportunities for underprivileged youth is her lifetime goal.

I am able to move through the world fearlessly! And I am armed with the deepest self-love because of feminism. This Fellowship has been the most transformative experience. The journey continues!

COUNTRY: BOTSWANA

Tumelo MORERI is a Social Entrepreneur and a Self-Leadership and Reconciliation Teacher. Her work on Self-Leadership fuses practical principles of developing inner leadership of self with Universal Spiritual Truths and African Indigenous Knowledge.

She is a 2018 Fellow of the Zanele Mbeki Fellowship, whose mandate is to cultivate and support a new generation of African feminist leaders. In 2017, she was named and selected as a Global Shaper of the Global Shapers Community, which is an initiative of the World Economic Forum. And, in 2014, she was awarded the Mandela Rhodes Leadership Scholarship by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation for postgraduate studies in Mathematical Statistics.

Tumelo has founded Tumelo Moreri Inc. (est. 2019) where she curates spaces, experiences, and programs for the Self- Leadership development of professionals and entrepreneurs in various work spaces and communities. She also hosts Conversations on Self-Leadership in schools, for work-teams, in corporate institutions, and local communities and organizations. She is the founder of Afrika Ithute (est. 2016), which is a space for the healing and reconciliation of the African – for the African to remember who she truly is, and begin to reclaim her true power. Through Afrika Ithute, she curates and facilitates grassroots leadership development programs whose aim is to facilitate this process of healing and reconciliation for African youth, and to build leadership capacity within African communities.

Tumelo holds degrees in Actuarial Science (Cum Laude, 2012) and Mathematical Statistics (2013) from the University of the Free State in South Africa.

In applying for this Fellowship, my intention was to fully explore Feminism and locate myself in it. And, I have got this, and more. While in the Fellowship, I finally surrendered to my true feminine power – my intuition – and I have developed hearing beyond my body and bones. I feel at one and at home with myself, and I’m grateful for the Fellowship, for having kick-started this process (of hearing beyond bones) for me.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Noluthando Mthonti is a financial services professional, a broadcaster, and an entrepreneur. She is a student at the Wits Business School pursuing a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration.

Noluthando exited the formal corporate space in January 2019 to pursuit radio broadcasting an on a full-time basis. Through her involvement with various youth led organisations, Noluthando identified an opportunity to advocate for the SDGs in her community, this has subsequently led to her founding a consultancy that will partner with the South African private sector to support the SDGs through their Corporate Social Responsibility and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) compliance initiatives. Noluthando founded the Financial Consultancy (Pty) Ltd, an accounting services company aimed at servicing small businesses and start-ups.

During her time in the formal corporate space, Noluthando worked as an Enterprise and Supplier Development Consultant, advising mining companies on this specific mining charter requirement, as well as performing due diligences, screening, and recommending SMMEs to be funded.

Noluthando served as the Deputy Chairperson of the Youth Against Unemployment Working group founded by the Association for Black Securities and Investment Professionals (ABSIP) along its strategic partners, AISEC, ABSA, BMF, and the AWCA. She also served on the ABSIP Student Development Sub-committee for 2 years, assisting young people in 13 Universities across South Africa in facilitating their readiness to enter the South African financial services sector. Through her various leadership roles representing young prospective female Chartered Accountants, the African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) awarded her the President’s Ambassador Award at the annual Women of Substance awards in 2014 alongside UN Women Director, Dr Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka.

Noluthando is the incoming curator of World Economic Forum Global Shapers Soweto Hub and will represent her community in Geneva, Switzerland in September 2019. She is also a member of the South African Institute of International Affairs and a Zanele Mbeki Fellow. Noluthando is a passionate steward of the world and believes it is important to leave the world better than she found it, especially for girls and women.

Feminism is the world’s best bet – the unburdening of men and the process of reconciling women to their innate being, the rebalancing of the world as we know it.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Ziyanda Nqebelele is a Chartered Accountant by profession with experience in corporate finance and auditing. Her experience in corporate has cultivated her ability to analyse problems both within and outside of the organizational and business environment.

She has also learnt about patience and the importance of cultivating an environment where people from various backgrounds can be free to think critically and question the information being presented to them without taking everything at face value. Her interests lie in mentorship, education, and finding sustainable solutions that will improve the lives of the marginalized. To this end, she founded a company, Au Pair Express (Pty) Ltd, an on-demand marketplace that connects families with reliable, background screened, and experienced childcare professionals. The platform connects and negotiates fair wages for unskilled women who had struggled obtaining employment, with families in need of such services.

She is also a Senior Lecturer at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, a university that predominantly caters for a disadvantaged student profile, and offers much-needed guidance and support to students who come from very unstable homes.

Ziyanda plans to open early childhood centres in the Eastern Cape in the near future, with a primary target of rural and poor communities. She hopes these centres will have a positive contribution to the dire school-leaving results produced by the province.

The Fellowship has broadened my thinking around feminism and impact work and what contribution feminists can have in making the world easier for those less fortunate than us.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Lehlogonolo Michell Ratlabyana is a Community Shaper, Entrepreneur, Professional, and a Lover of Life. She holds a Bachelor’s degree and an Honours degree in the field of Public Management from the University of the Western Cape and the University of Johannesburg. She has over 4 years’ experience in Research, Training, and Project Management.

She is one of the authors for a National Study titled “Enhancing Active Citizenry Engagement in South Africa” published by the National Development Agency and Human Sciences Research Council. She has also co-authored a desktop research titled “Government Funding to NPOs: What is the Investment Value?” published by National Development Agency.

Her experience in the public sector has inspired her passion for community and youth development. She has trained and mentored Youth Organisations and Representative Council for Learners in Secondary Schools and has also facilitated Radio Shows aimed at giving youth a voice to be change agents across the Limpopo Province. She was a panelist for the 1st Annual Limpopo Youth Leadership Talk hosted by Agape Youth Movement. She has recently founded an Events Management Company “Amore Berries & Brew” which was birthed by her love for creating environments for people to celebrate themselves and life.

I am a Feminist, Afrikan, Black, and Beautiful. Feminism allows me to be me in my entirety, to love myself, and to be conscious of my capabilities. The Zanele Mbeki Fellowship Programme has been a beautiful gift, it has given me the boldness to show up as I am and to be fearless in the pursuit of what sets my soul on fire.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

Iris Nxumalo is an Innovation Manager at The DG Murray Trust, and an outgoing Peace Security and Development Women Fellow at the African Leadership Centre (ALC), dually based in London and Nairobi.

She has dedicated her life’s work to transforming systems of power and leadership processes that shape and govern experiences of peace, justice, development, and security on the African continent.

Iris is committed to utilising transformative forms of knowledge to advance research, activism, policy analysis, and development programming in the areas of governance, gender peace and security, education, youth advocacy, leadership development, and movement building. In her present role as an Innovation Manager at The DG Murray Trust, Iris seeks to use intersectional strategic investments through grant-making as a tool to drive organisational and public innovation for inclusion, justice, and development in South Africa.

Iris has five years of professional and volunteering experience, advancing gender equality and women’s rights through development programming in peace, security, and development; governance innovation, Pan-African youth advocacy, and movement building and conducting political and media analysis. Her professional experiences span a variety of contexts and sectors, including working with inter-governmental organisations, research and policy centres, and teaching in the academy in South Africa.

The fellowship has placed meat on my feminist bones. It has enabled me to locate myself within the rich tapestry of Afrikan feminisms and revel in the pure delight of identifying as a feminist scholar and activist.

COUNTRY: RWANDA

Imana yirirwa ahandi igataha iRwanda (God roams elsewhere in the world and returns to rest in Rwanda). This Rwanda mentioned is the birthplace of Aimée Gratia Ilibagiza Mutabazi who, due to the war in 1994, had to flee it and seek refuge elsewhere in the world.

The saying both hints at the importance of Rwanda as the resting place of God and at God’s timeless wondering away from it in the world. This paradoxical contemplation characterizes much of the personal and professional aspirations that Aimée Gratia is drawn to. Currently, as a Masters of Arts candidate in Anthropology, her academic interests include identity reconstruction amongst Rwandan refugees who live and have grown up in exile. She draws largely from her experience as both Rwandan refugee and South African permanent resident to reflect on the ambivalent feelings of growing up away from home and having to live in different cultural contexts to make sense of life.

Aimée Gratia is a traditional Rwandan dancer in a Johannesburg based refugee cultural group. It is from here that she has drawn much of her creative and intellectual inspiration for her academic and community service work. She is a Mellon Mays fellow and has presented her research at Bowdoin College and Columbia University at summer institutes in the United States.

Passionately curious about humanity, Aimée Gratia describes herself as a creatively intuitive person who strives to find collaborations between her African-orientated academic work and broader social, political, and artistic spaces. She is also interested in the role of African women in knowledge production as well as their financial emancipation as community builders.

COUNTRY: MALAWI

Rachel Sibande is the Founder of Malawi’s first technology hub; mHub. The hub nurtures young technology enthusiasts with technical and entrepreneurship skills and champions the development of technology solutions. Rachel was named by Forbes as one of Africa’s most promising young entrepreneurs in 2016. In 2015; she received the Anita Borg Scholarship from Google given to outstanding female computer science students from around the world.

She is Malawi’s Ambassador of the Next Einstein Forum Initiative which promotes science, technology engineering, and mathematics. Rachel is also an alumna of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative. Rachel is the first Malawian to hold a local TEDx License. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Rhodes University in South Africa.

Rachel Sibande has piloted a technology platform in Malawi, called Mzinda, where citizens engage with locally elected leaders and service providers on service delivery. Rachel has also led the deployment of citizen engagement initiatives using technology during elections in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. She also has a Certificate in Entrepreneurship for Scientists from ICTP in Italy.

Through the hub, Rachel has established a Children’s Coding Club and a Girls Coding Club where children and girls are taught how to develop mobile technology applications in quest to enhance a generation of creators of technology. In her free time, Rachel loves to spend time with her three bundles of joy; Uwemi, Uzengi, and Unenesco, and experimenting with spices in the kitchen.

The ZMDT fellowship has activated the feminist in me. It has been a journey of self-discovery. I am now working on creating a ripple effect to have more young feminists within my network of innovators and entrepreneurs.

COUNTRY: SOUTH AFRICA

I am the Founder and CEO of The AMAZI Group, a beauty brand crafted on the principles of inclusivity cultivated through two distinct arms: The AMAZI Academy (a non-profit training school) and AMAZI Beauty (a chain of Nail and Beauty Salons) with operations in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

These two entities collaborate to journey marginalized women from unemployment to equity ownership within the Group. The Cape Town Academy was first established in 2014, with the first AMAZI store following in 2015.

My purpose is rooted in combating the ingrained sense of inferiority among marginalized women. The first time I felt a deep sense of anger about the inequality that oppresses women was in high school when I helped my karate instructor teach self-defense to victims of abuse. From then I knew that I wanted to find a way re-build women that have lost belief in their potential. It took me the next 12 years to configure the “how”.

I studied development economics at the University of Cape Town and began my career at Absa Capital where I was the Lead Credit Research Analyst. In this role, I was the first- and second-rated analyst in the country in 2010 and 2011, in the Spire Awards and Financial Mail rankings respectively. I left finance after just over 5 years and found myself on a path toward founding the AMAZI Group that was largely possible through incredible synchronicity.

I’m a big fan of coffee, the Harvard Business Review and Star Wars. I’m lucky to be married to a man that gives me the freedom to be me.

What I want my work to be about is installing the human back into economics.
What this Fellowship has done is install the human back into me.

linda@zmdt.org.za

naledi@zmdt.org.za

nonhlanhla@zmdt.org.za

samantha@zmdt.org.za