This episode was recorded as a live broadcast on the 20th October 2021.
Moderated by:
Andrew Harding – BBC Africa Correspondent. Andrew is a British journalist and author who has been living and working abroad as a foreign correspondent for the past 30 years. Since 1994 he has been working for BBC News, and has been living in Johannesburg for the past 12 years. He reported on the Oscar Pistorius trial in Pretoria, before searching for another case that might dig deeper under the skin of modern South Africa. Early in 2016 he read about an incident in the Free State and decided to investigate. The result, four years later, was his new book, These Are Not Gentle People. A BBC Radio 4 series and podcast is in the works.
On the panel:
Emma Dicks – founder and director of CodeSpace, an education institution that specialises in teaching coding & software development. Emma saw that tech education is a powerful way to elevate young people into high potential careers and this led her to starting an education institution that offers world class education in a learning environment where young people can truly thrive. By equipping young people with the skills they need to actively participate in the global tech economy she seeks to bridge the learning divide. Emma pioneers transformative education models that prepare youth for the 21c workplace and is a dedicated global advocate for a more diverse and inclusive economy and tech industry. Emma has received global acclaim for her leadership and the initiatives that she has pioneered within CodeSpace to foster diversity in the tech world, including the Goldman Sachs Fortune Global Women’s Leadership Award; the Queen’s Young Leader Award; as a Westerwelle Young Founder; as a Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans; Brightest Young Minds award; and as a recipient of the Shuttleworth Flash Grant.
Professor Adam Habib – academic, activist, and public intellectual. Adam is Director of SOAS University of London and previously VC and Principal of University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa. He holds qualifications in Political Science from the University of Natal, Wits and City University of New York. Adam is a co-founder of the African Research Universities Alliance, an affiliation of research-intensive universities on the continent. He has published numerous edited books, book chapters and journal articles over the last three decades in the thematic areas of democratisation and its consolidation in South Africa, contemporary social movements, philanthropy, inequality, giving and its impact on poverty alleviation and development, institutional reform, changing identities and their evolution in the post-apartheid era, and South Africa’s role in Africa and beyond. His most recent books include South Africa’s suspended revolution – Hopes and Prospects, and Rebels and Rage. Reflecting on #FeesMustFall.
Nonkululeko Nyembezi – Chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. A seasoned business leader, Nonkululeko has a wealth of technical and strategic insight with a background in engineering and extensive experience spanning mining, steel, financial services, and technology in South African and global organisations. She has served at C-suite executive level at multinational organisations such as ArcelorMittal Group, where she was CEO of the South African subsidiary, Ichor Coal N.V., and Vodacom Group, where she headed strategy and M&A. She started her career as an engineer at IBM’s research labs in Raleigh, North Carolina. Nonkululeko’s holds non-executive director positions on the boards of Standard Bank Group, Anglo American plc and Macsteel Service Centres.
H.E. Nomatemba Tambo – High Commissioner of South Africa to the UK. Nomatemba is the daughter to apartheid struggle hero and former President of the African National Congress (ANC) Oliver Reginald Tambo and heroine Adelaide Tambo. High Commissioner Tambo is co-founder of the South African Women’s Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and Director/Founding Member of Women in Capital Growth (a Black Empowerment Company). She is also a Director of the charity ‘Girls on a Mission’, a Trustee for the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation, Patron of SchoolAid South Africa, and Patron of People First, a charity focussing on the education of disadvantaged children in Rwanda. Prior to her current post, Nomatemba served as Ambassador to Italy, Malta, Albania, and San Marino, as Permanent Representative to UN based agencies in Rome, and as Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau.