The JudgesChaired by High Court Judge, Lucy Mailula, a panel of judges comprising of 16 high profile South Africans, met in June 2010 to determine the finalists and winners.
EducationThe chairperson is Prof Teboho Moja, who has served as Special Advisor to two Ministers of Education in South Africa. She is assisted by Prof Sarah (“Saartjie”) Gravett, Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg and Dr Gcina Mhlophe-Becker who is one of the most prominent storytellers in South Africa.
Corner Shop to Big Business MakersThe chairperson is Ms Chichi Maponya who is a dynamic young business woman. She is assisted by Ms Jeanne Groenewald another successful business woman who runs a multi-million enterprise and Mr Mokgethi Tshabalala who is the Head of Operations at the Branson School of Entrepreneurship.
Health Care GiversThe chairperson is Prof Sharon Fonn, a renowned academic who has widely published in the fields of women’s health, gender and health systems development. She is assisted by Prof Lynette Denny who has been doing research for the past 15 years in preventing cervical cancer in low resource settings and Dr Naeema Abrahams, a senior specialist scientist at the Gender & Health Unit of the Medical Research Council of South Africa. Good NeighboursThe chairperson is Ms Ruda Landman, a well-respected South African journalist. She is assisted by Ms Nonkombi Bertha Gxowa, former Treasurer-General of the ANC Women’s League and Dr Barbara Holtmann who leads research in crime and violence at the Meraka Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Youth MoversThe chairperson is Mr Thebe Ikalafeng, one of South Africa’s top marketers who has been recognised nationally and internationally in the marketing industry. He is assisted by Ms Aadielah Maker, a well-known community health campaigner and Mr Vaughn Bishop, the man who conceptualised and manages the award winning Let’s Play campaign which has been recognised as the best CSI initiative in South Africa.
|
|
 |
Judge Lucy Mailula was the first black female judge to join the High Court Bench in 1995 and is a judge of South Gauteng High Court and the Competition Appeal Court. She is also the Chairperson of the Membership Committee of the International Association of Women Judges and the Chairperson of the Standing Advisory Committee on Company Law. Her career started after she obtained B.Proc and LLB degrees from the then University of the North. Judge Mailula has worked as a state advocate in Mafikeng and advocate at the Johannesburg Bar. She has lectured part-time in criminal law and was a participant in the BLA Legal Education Centre’s Trial Advocacy Programme. She served on the Editorial Board of African Law Review and was a member and later Deputy Chairperson, of the South African Law Reform Commission. Judge Mailula was also one of the delegates to Germany on Constitutional Law and a leader of the SA Delegation to the USA and Jamaica on Court Management and Administration. Since 1999 Judge Mailula has been Chairperson of the Court of Military Appeals. In 2009 she was conferred an Honorary Captainship from the South African Navy (SANDF). She has attended and delivered papers at both national and international conferences.
Prof Teboho Moja is a professor of Higher Education at New York University and a visiting professor to the University of Oslo (Norway) and the University of Tampere (Finland) for this academic year. Prior to being a special adviser to the Ministers she taught at high school, college and university levels and was a policy analyst at the Center for Education Policy Development. She has published nationally and internationally on change in education. Her research focus is on the change in higher education and the implications of globalisation on higher education systems. Her contributions in education were recognised by the Alumni Association of the University of Limpopo in South Africa and she received the Abram Onkgopotse Tiro Award. Prof Moja serves on international education bodies such as the UNESCO Africa Scientific Committee and previously served for eight years as a Board Member for UNESCO's Institute for International Educational Planning (IIEP). She was the first black woman to be appointed as Chairperson of the UNISA Council and has been an honorary Professor at the University of Pretoria. She has published articles on higher education issues, presented papers at international conferences and given keynote addresses. 
Prof Sarah (“Saartjie”) Gravett has received many awards recognising her academic and/or professional achievements. She started her career teaching for eleven years before joining the then-Rand Afrikaans University as a researcher in 1993. Six years later she took a Professorship in the Faculty and became Dean in 2007. Under the leadership of Prof Gravett the Faculty has spearheaded a number of research projects mainly focusing on the improvement of education practice, as well as community engagement projects linked to schools in the communities. Most recently, she has started two major projects, namely the establishment of an Education Leadership Institute at UJ (in collaboration with the Harvard Graduate School of Education), and an Institute for Childhood education which includes a school, the Funda UJabule School. She is the author and co-author of several national and international books and articles on the design of learning environments and related themes. In recent years her research focus has shifted to teacher education. Currently, she is leader of a research project on “Learning to become a teacher: Novice teachers entering the teaching profession”. Her most recent awards include: The South African Association for Research and Development in Higher Education Teaching Fellowship and the medal of honour from the Education Association of South Africa honouring her for outstanding service to Education in South Africa. 
Dr Gcina Mhlophe-Becker is internationally acclaimed as a storyteller, playwright, author and actor. In 2008 she received a Doctorate in Literature and Philosophy from the Pretoria University and also has a Doctorate for Literature from the University of Fort Hare. Her storytelling is a deeply traditional African activity and her most important work. She works through charismatic performances to preserve storytelling as means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read and often with Nozinccwadi Mother of Books Literacy Campaign she travels to rural schools to promote literacy and donate books. Her career started in the early eighties after meeting Imbongi, one of the legendary poets of African folklore and encouragement from the then-directors of the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, Barney Simon and Mannie Manim. Since then she has appeared in theatres from Durban to London to Chicago and her work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Swahili and Japanese. Over the years she has received numerous national and internal Awards for theatre, cinema, poetry, books and publications. In 2009 she published African Tales with Barefoot Books in England and also created a new Workshop Theatre Production with Greenlandic performers in NUUK, Greenland, which was performed at the Artic Winter Games in Vancouver, March 2010. Her CD songs and stories of Africa have just won a SAMA Award for young audiences. 
Ms Chichi Maponya was awarded with the Business Women Association’s Business Woman of The Year title in 2008/2009. She earned this award 26 years after it was bestowed on her late mother, Ms Marina Maponya. Ms Maponya is currently the Managing Director of the Maponya Group of Companies and has worked closely with her father, Dr. Richard Maponya, in developing the Maponya Mall in Soweto. She started her business career after obtaining a BComm Degree from the University of Natal. After university she joined the Kwezi Group where she was responsible for new business development and became Director for Business Development, Marketing and Relationship Management. Thereafter she joined the ranks of the Maponya Group of Companies. Ms Maponya is also founder of Nalesa Resources (Pty) Ltd, a predominantly women owned mining company focusing on mining, procurement and commodity trading and Chairperson of Epsilog (Pty) Ltd, a milling company that assist communities with farming as a way of poverty alleviation and food security. Ms Maponya chairs the Board of the Imbe Exploration Co. (Pty) Ltd and is a trustee of the Marina Maponya Memorial Fund; Maponya Mall Property Trust; and is the Deputy Chairperson of Dr. Sam Motsuenyane Rural Development Fund. 
Ms Jeanne Groenewald has received numerous Awards for her business acumen as farmer and entrepreneur. In 2008 she won the entrepreneurs category of the BWA Business Woman of the Year Award. The year before she was runner-up in the Old Mutual Enterprise of the Year Award and in 2006 Ms Groenewald won South Africa’s Female Farmer the Year Award. Her career started after obtaining a B.Sc Agric Degree from the University of Stellenbosch. She then gained experience as a manager at various levels in the agriculture sector of the economy before she ventured on her own. In 1996 she started off with a 100 chickens to build this enterprise into the multi-million turnover business it is today. Elgin Free Range Chickens currently supply 70 000 chickens per week to the major supermarkets in South Africa. 
Mr Mokgethi Tshabalala is also the Africa Project Manager at Virgin Unite Africa, a non-profit foundation with the aim to unite people to tackle social and environmental problems with an entrepreneurial approach. He has over a decade of experience managing multiple foreign-donor programs in public health, public policy issues, poverty alleviation, community development and the eradication of social ills. Mr Tshabalala holds a BSc degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and has also done a number of post-graduate courses and is currently registered for a Master of Management in Public Policy at the University of Witwatersrand. In various positions he held he has been very active in initiating, developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating HIV/AIDS and Gender programmes in prisons, communities and workplaces in South Africa. Before joining Virgin Mr Tshabalala worked for Constella Futures LLC as Program Advisor for the HIV/AIDS Policy Project. Prior to this he was Country Director for South Africa at EngenderHealth and spent eight years managing HIV/AIDS prevention programs in Africa at HOPE worldwide Africa. 
Prof Sharon Fonn heads the School of Public Health at University of the Witwatersrand since 2003. Much of her work has resulted in policy development which has been adopted nationally and has influenced international discourse. Prof Fonn has served as research director of the University’s Women’s Health Project and has set up ‘Birth-to-Ten’ (now Twenty), a unique birth cohort following over 3000 children in Soweto SA. Her work on cervical cancer and a national cancer control programme for South Africa is well-recognised. Prof Fonn was awarded the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Distinguished Scientist Award for contributions to the quality of life of women and has been a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa since 2004. She serves on several national and international boards and is involved in international and United Nations initiatives in which she contributes research leadership and support. She is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council and has been a reviewer for the European Commission Framework programmes, the US NIH and the WHO. She has been invited to teach and develop curriculum in a number of countries and for the World Bank. 
Prof Lynette Denny is a leading academic who has earned many awards for combating violence against women and children and benefiting disadvantaged communities through her outreach programmes and research successes. She has published widely on her research interest in preventing cervical cancer in low resource settings. Prof Denny is a Principal Specialist and Full Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and is a registered sub-specialist in Gynaecological Oncology at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. She is currently the Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She is also a full member of the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine at University of Cape Town. She was awarded the Distinguished Scientist for Improving the Quality of Life of Women by the South African Department of Science and Technology in 2006 and is a rated scientist by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. She was the first recipient of the Shoprite Checkers SABC 2 Women of the Year award for Science and Technology in 2003. 
Dr Naeema Abrahams’ research work over many years on gender based violence has received national and international recognition. The research has amongst others covered risk factor studies of men who use violence against women, femicide, health sector responses to gender based violence, stigma in sexual assault reporting, adherence to post exposure prophylaxis after sexual assault, violence within school settings. She started her research career after obtaining degrees in nursing and a PhD from the University of Cape Town in Public Health. Dr Abrahams has served on numerous advisory boards and research projects. These included being a technical advisor to the World Health Organisation in a multi-country study on domestic violence against women and also collaborating with them to develop material to strengthen the global research on femicide. Currently she is a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Global Burden of Disease Project to estimate the health burden of gender based violence from across the world. 
Ms Ruda Landman has for nearly twenty years co-anchored Carte Blanche, one of the most influential investigative journalism programmes in the country. During her career in journalism Ms Landman received numerous accolades and awards. She started as a newspaper journalist in 1977 after reading languages at the University of Stellenbosch. From the world of newspapers she moved on to radio, magazines and TV news reading before taking her place in 1985 as co-anchor of Netwerk, the first live actuality programme on South African television. Three years later in August 1988 Carte Blanche was launched on MNet with Ms Landman as co-anchor. She departed in mid-2007 and has since been working as a freelance journalist and facilitator. Ms Landman has recently helped to produce a 26-episode series on the Angolan border war called Grensoorlog, which was broadcast on kykNET and is now commercially available on DVD. She has also pulled together actors and voice artists to produce a series of children’s stories on CD for charity. Ms Landman is a Director of Media 24 and a Trustee of the Stellenbosch Foundation. She has served as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Project Literacy and of the Board of Helpmekaar, an Afrikaans private school in Johannesburg. 
Ms Nonkombi Bertha Gxowa is a Member of the South African Parliament who was instrumental in organising the biggest mass-gathering of women in South Africa when 20 000 women marched in silence in 1956 to protest the carrying of passes. She chairs Malibongwe, a company which the ANC Women’s League established to assist women development in South Africa. Outside of her parliamentary responsibilities she is chairperson and founding member of the Kwaze Kwasa Katorus Women’s Development, A20 Helping Hand and a Director of Khaya Family Centre. The Kwaze Kwasa Katorus Women’s Development provides day care for children in Tokoza and Katlehong and also a home care service to many HIV / Aids sufferers while A20 Helping Hand in Katlehong helps township women help themselves. The Khaya Family Centre was set up during the often violent period preceding the first fully democratic SA elections when many township children and women were traumatised and needed guidance to fit into the community. It now provides life skills training for children and women, affected by HIV/AIDS. 
Dr Barbara Holtmann is also Vice-President of the Canadian based International Centre for Prevention of Crime (ICPC). Her research was the basis of the formation of the Action for A Safe South Africa (AFSSA) initiative and she is a founding member of AFSSA. Dr Holtmann has a Doctorate of Philosophy in the Management of Technology and Innovation from the Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management and a Master of Management (MMP&DM) Degree from the Wits School of Public and Development Management. The focus of her work is on the prevention of crime and violence and the reduction of criminality and the opportunity for crime. She has published and regularly presents her work both locally and internationally, aiming to influence a shift from security and punitive justice to an optimistic, achievable goal of a safe society in which all can play a role. Her position at the CSIR provides for innovative science-based approaches to achieving a safe South Africa. Dr Holtmann also serves on the Board of the Open Society Foundation of South Africa. 
Mr Thebe Ikalafeng is one of Africa's foremost brand authority and founder of the award-winning Brand Leadership Group and the Brand Leadership Academy. He has been recognised as one of the Top 10 Thinkers in Marketing in an Ipsos survey among business decision makers. Mr Ikalafeng is a non-executive director of Mercantile Bank Holdings and has held directorships at Foodcorp Group and Durban University of Technology Council. He is a member of the Vega School of Brand Communications advisory committee and has been recognised globally with a Marquette University/American Marketing Association "Award for Marketing Excellence" and "Global Brand Leadership" by the Asia Brand Congress. Mr Ikalafeng has a distinguished corporate career which started at Colgate Palmolive in New York, USA, and highlighted by his leadership of NIKE Africa to over 75 local and global awards, including the 10 Cannes Lions and the Institute of Marketing Management's Marketing Company of the Year Roll of Honour. He has served on all notable industry bodies advices, teaches and speaks globally in personal, commercial, political and nation branding and related matters. 
Ms Aadielah Maker is a senior executive for social mobilisation at the Soul City Institute for health and development communication. She has been centrally involved in the internationally awarded and recognised children’s intervention, Soul Buddyz which has a mass media and outreach component. The drama and reality television programme is one of the most popular South African programmes on television and helps children to take action in their own lives and communities. Soul Buddyz has established more than 5 500 Soul Buddyz Clubs with about 115 000 members across the country. Ms Maker has a Masters Degree in Community Health from the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia and a B.Soc.Sc from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She has worked in the fields of youth, sexual health and development over the past 18 years after her earlier involvement in student and youth politics. She started Aids prevention work while still at university and the highlight of this work was her involvement in a campaign with the country’s previous President Dr Nelson Mandela getting a major newspaper to include condoms in its publication. 
Mr Vaughn Bishop launched the Let’s Play campaign which has been recognised as the best CSI initiative in South Africa for SuperSport to encourage the children of South Africa to play again as they have become alarmingly inactive. Mr Bishop secured the strategic partnership of Unicef, the Departments of Sport & Recreation, Education and Health as well as the Office of the President to enhance the Let’s Play initiative. Today it is a leading light in the lives of millions of South African children. Mr Bishop started his career in promotions in the world of squash before he joined Adidas South Africa and then moved on to SuperSport International where he today heads CSI and Enterprizes for the broadcaster. In his tenure he has not only been responsible for the success of Let’s Play but has also been instrumental in SuperSport Enterprizes, the SuperSport Clothing range, the Action Café, SuperSport Series Cricket, Wheelchair Basket Ball Series and the SuperSport Show which was a platform for South Africa’s passionate sports-loving fans to interact with their local hero's.