Karabo Kgoleng is a broadcaster and facilitator who works with writers and academics in the humanities to give their work a public life. She is herself skilled as a writer, social media manager, radio presenter and public speaker specialises in arts, culture and social development.
She believes that engagement in social and cultural issues contributes significantly to the transformation of individuals and communities. She drives content creation by building and maintaining networks and relationships with stakeholders including artists, writers, media organisations, government, diplomatic corps, civil society, academia, and business leaders, and specialises in contributing to development endeavours, as well as cultural and inter-generational exchange.
As an Independent Media Consultant, Writer and Public Speaker, she has worked as a facilitator and curator, created and executed media strategies, as well as opinion editorials in the visual arts, literature and film. She has been a radio broadcaster and talk show host at SAfm and Radio 702 since 2007. From Sept 2011 – Sept 2012 she was Books Editor at City Press. Between July 2014 – Jan 2015 she was Deputy Director: Books & Publishing, Dept of Arts and Culture, where she directed and facilitated the South African government’s books development mandate on behalf of the Minister of Arts and Culture, and subsequently has spent 2 years managing the written correspondence of the Vice Chancellor at Wits, including the drafting of lectures, papers and keynote speeches.
For 18 months, her role as Community Outreach and Social Media Manager, WITS Writing Centre has seen her implementing university wide writing programmes and consulting in creative writing workshops across the Wits campus. In the last 18 months and currently, she works as Research Communications and Outreach Officer, African Centre for Migration and Society at WITS and continues to contribute as a literary journalist on the Weekend Breakfast show on Radio 702.
Karabo’s honours and awards include being recipient of the South African Literary Award for Journalism, and Mail and Guardian 200 Young South Africans in 2010.
She has adjudicated at the South African, M-Net and Sunday Times Literary Awards, and has been panel chair at the Franschoek Literary Festival from 2008 to the present, and was judge at the Short Sharp Stories National Short Story Competition in 2016. She has been a board member of both the Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre, and the Sophiatown Heritage and Cultural Centre in Johannesburg, and was Vice-President & Board Member at Alliance Française, Johannesburg
MICHELLE CONSTANT
South Africa
Michelle Constant stepped down as CEO from Business and Arts South Africa (NPC) after 10 years, in 2019.
Post BASA, she consults diverse NPCs, Trusts, and corporates on strategy, social impact, corporate social development, fundraising, partnership, transformation and diversity – using cultural and creative intelligence and shared value tools. Constant writes regular opinion pieces for different national newspapers and magazines.
Michelle hosts the weekend breakfast shows on national radio station SAFM 104-107, between 07h00-10h00. She is renowned as a facilitator and speaker at diverse conferences, and events, both nationally and internationally.
She was an Ampersand Foundation Fellow in NYC in 2012, and in 2014 she graduated from the University of Pretoria Business School – GIBS, on the Social Entrepreneurship Programme.
In January 2016, she was awarded the Order of the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the Government of France for her work in culture and the arts.
Michelle is serving her second term as a non- executive director on the Board of SA Tourism nationally. She serves on the Board of the National Arts Festival as a non-Executive member, and was recently invited to the Board of Trustees for the UP Javett Arts Centre.
Michelle believes her purpose and passion lies in promoting the creativity of South Africa.
Musa Hlatshwayo
South Africa
Musa Hlatshwayo was born and raised in Maphumulo, a rural area not far from King Shaka ’s grave in KwaDukuza. He is a multi-award-winning performing artist, choreographer and Creative Director of his company, Mhayise Productions.
Some of his major achievements include the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance (2018), the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience Festival’s The Eric Shabala Dance Champion Award and the KwaZulu-Natal Dancelink’s Choreographer of the Year, which Musa has won for three consecutive years. Musa has extensively toured Africa, Europe and America.
Musa holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Performance Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), an undergraduate certificate in Contemporary Dance and Choreography from the Copenhagen School of Modern Dance and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Dance Education from UKZN. His work is studied in various tertiary education and training institutions where he continues to appear as a guest lecturer, exam moderator and creative researcher.
Musa’s speciality is in researching, creating, staging and producing cutting-edge and socially conscious contemporary dance theatre and multidisciplinary site-specific work. His company also offers free training opportunities to performing artists and youth interested in accessing movement and dance as a means of enhancing their creative voice. The Movement Laboratory participants include training and professional dancers, poets, actors, directors, writers and many other creatives who want to (re)discover movement and dance as an extension to their artistic vocabulary.
He also facilitates engaging creative workshops in arts festivals, schools and alternative or creative learning where he fuses Afrocentric (conventional and non-conventional) approaches to performative contemporary and cultural and artistic expression that sees voice and body as one.
NANCY RICHARDS
South Africa
Nancy Richards is an independent journalist with a good few years’ experience on radio and in print. As a radio presenter, areas of specialisation included shows on literature, the environment and ‘women’s issues’. In print she covers environment, books and literature, lifestyle, travel and décor amongst other things. She is founder of an NPO: Woman Zone and has established The Women’s Library at the Artscape Theatre Centre in Cape Town. She’s the author of Beautiful Homes: as featured in Fairlady magazine; co-author of Woman Today – 50 years of South African women on radio and Being a Woman in Cape Town: Telling your story. She is a speaker, media trainer and proud to be member of the board of NPO Soil for Life. Born in London, she is based in Cape Town.
PHINDI DLAMINI
South Africa
Phindi Dlamini is an author of isiZulu children’s books. Phini has three series titled Gwajo , Gundi and Abangani. The Gwajo series comprises of fifteen books that is currently used in schools across South Africa.The Gundi series has five books that have been translated into English and isiXhosa.
Phindi has also written a book called 2010 Kwakunje! written for young adults that is about the excitement of 2010, as well as textbooks on language and life skills.
Phindi works with national and international companies to translate children’s books. This venture led to her exploring conceptual integrity in the translation of material prescribed for students, which is her focus of her doctoral studies. Phindi is currently converting this study into a book about translation – A South African perspective.
