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There’s no way around the facts, at their current rate of decline, African penguins are going to be functionally extinct in the wild within 20 years. By 2035, some colonies which have thrived on the South African coastline for hundreds of years will be no more. Without immediate action, a future without African penguins in the wild is certain. We can prevent this – we can say #NotOnOu...

On 6 October 2021 President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the inaugural WECONA where private sector, civil society and women’s organisations, businesswomen and government have partnered to form the Women Economic Assembly – an initiative to facilitate  the participation of women-owned businesses in core areas of the economy. www.wecona.co.za was excited about this year’s theme that revolved ...

Casablanca, Morocco, was the host city to The World Bank’s FASE Round Table from 11 to 12 October 2022, aiming to develop more accounting technicians in Africa to support  growth, accountability, and efficiency in the public and private sectors in Africa. ALI Fellow Patrick Kabuya (Class Mayihlome) and Lefaria Kinimi, both from the World Bank, shared the platform with Turkish accountant Be...

The influence of colonialism driven by the so-called Western cannon of knowledge and power is pervasive and shapes global values, systems of governance, economic structures and cultural practices. The enduring power relationships underpin and are used to justify continued extraction of wealth from historically colonised territories. This has raised questions about the content and purpose served b...

Financial exclusion takes many forms. Do you know what the average Early Childhood Development Centre looks like? While the concepts of early learning and adequate stimulation are buzz words in world education, South African toddlers and young children in need of pre-primary care often attend informal, privately owned centres run from a home. The owner often has no way of obtaining credit to prov...

Native Merchants – The Building Of The Black Business Class In South Africa is Class 2 ALI Media Fellow, Phakamisa Ndzamela’s debut title. The book explores underwritten stories of black entrepreneurs during the 17th to early 20th centuries, giving insight into a time when black people built successful enterprises on their own account and not as labourers. The book is available from online re...

Eighty-one people joined a Zoom Dialogue in early March when a range of Fellows was invited to share their personal reflections on the state of the nation. It became abundantly clear that although there is the odd silver lining here and there, the dark clouds are mounting, leaving many feeling – if not helpless, certainly frustrated. Let’s start with the few silver linings that shone through ...

Enzo Scarcella. Photo © Africa Leadership Initiative. ALI welcomes Enzo Scarcella as our new Board Chair after Adi Enthoven, who served on the ALI Board for a dozen years and had been Chair for the last five, ended his tenure.  Enzo Scarcella will ensure that the ALI board is effective in its task of setting and implementing the organisation’s direction and strategy. Enzo Scarcella is the Grou...

My dear friends So many of you have been reaching out in the hours and days following the tragedy in Beirut, asking about us, about what happened, and about how you can help. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to respond to all of you. Here is my response now. Before anything else, we wanted to thank you from the bottom of our hearts; I cannot begin to express what it means to have your su...

Covid-19 has hit education hard. In an already fragile system, teachers, pupils and managers were all impacted negatively by the State of Disaster lockdown. The re-opening has been, if anything, worse, with contradictory messaging, union action, the trauma of infection hotspot suspicions, and crushing socio-economic disparities compounding fear, anger and frustration. In the formal education worl...

The Karl Flowers Trust launched this June, 10 years to the month since our friend passed away. A member of the Kilimanjaro class, Karl was passionate about ALI and our work. He assisted as a moderator and was integral in helping to build our community. Karl’s will stated that a significant portion of his estate should be placed in a trust to assist “young people between 16-25 years, who are u...

July’s ALI Dialogue Series event was a sparkling – and, participants felt, long-overdue – discussion focused on “The Constitution and the Economy: Renewing and Implementing the Social Compact.” In heartfelt comments both from the panellists and the floor, participants from all walks of life – economists and businesspeople, social justice advocates and media people, researchers...

In 1969, the high priestess of soul music, Nina Simone, released a song intended to “make black children all over the world feel good about themselves, forever.” She titled this song “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”. The queen of soul music, Aretha Franklin, covered the song and took it to a whole new level in 1973 when she won a Grammy for it. To be Young, Gifted and Black became an a...

Founded by Dr. Percy Malixole Mahlathi, Selizwe Leadership Academy will be hosting a symposium to introduce the idea of alumni investing in their Alma Mater on a collective basis by showcasing live examples of what alumni are experiencing in the Colosa Senior Secondary School situation; a focus on alumni role in nurturing a rural school. Alumni Activism: An Untapped Resource for Nurturing Scho...

ALI Fellows, Dr Mothomang Diaho and Dr Futhi Mtoba’s TEACH Initiative Continues to Affect Positive Change Armed with a passion for quality education in its entirety, TEACH South Africa’s objective to nurture a generation that embraces science and mathematics, as opposed to retiring to the status quo that, “Mathematics is not my strong suit,” (Lerato Mathenjwa), is well underway. When the ...

Having continued in the footsteps of those who gave her the opportunity to grow and empower herself, president of the African Women Chartered Accountants Forum Lesego Sennelo discusses what she had to do to make it in the industry, the opportunities it offers and how-to for those who would like to pursue a career in accountancy, as well as how far we are in South Africa with producing mentored ...

Ory Okolloh tells the story of her life and her family — and how she came to do her heroic work reporting on the doings of Kenya’s parliament. This talk was presented at an official TED conference. Read the full Transcript here. ...