Premier Winde has previously served as the provincial Minister of Finance, Minister of Economic Opportunities and Minister of Community Safety. He was first elected to serve as an MPL in 1999, a position he held for 10 years before the Democratic Alliance was voted into power in the province. His campaign for the premiership was centred on improving economic and household prosperity by getting the basics right, such as education and healthcare, and improving safety and public transport for all the residents of our province. He has further committed to improving the efficiency of government service delivery through innovation and new technology.

Andrew Donaldson is a senior research officer of the South African Labour and Development Research Unit of the School of Economics at UCT. He was a Deputy Director-General in the National Treasury and Acting Head of the Government Technical Advisory Centre. He was formerly Deputy Director-General for Public Finance, responsible for spending policy and budget advice. Andrew studied at the University of Stellenbosch and has Masters degrees in economics from UNISA and Cambridge University. He taught economics at the former University of Transkei, Rhodes University and the University of the Witwatersrand, and has published in the fields of demography, economics of education, social policy, macroeconomics and public finance. In the 1980s and early 1990s he worked on rural land issues in the Eastern Cape, and on the systems and planning work of the National Education Policy Investigation. Andrew joined the former Department of Finance in 1993 as Deputy Director in the Unit for Fiscal Analysis. In 2001 he was appointed Deputy Director-General and head of the Budget Office. He contributed to the work of the Katz Commission on tax policy, served on the Committee of Inquiry into a National Health Insurance System, and was a member of the team that drafted the 1996 macroeconomic strategy. He was responsible for the introduction of a medium- term expenditure framework in 1998 and led the subsequent reform of the budget process was restructuring of budget documentation. Andrew served on the Board of Directors of the South African National Roads Agency and the Board of Trustees of the Government Employees’ Pension Fund.

Economist, former Deputy Director-General in the National Treasury and Acting Head of the Government Technical Advisory Centre

Annabel Bishop is Chief Economist of the Investec Bank Limited, South Africa. She joined Investec in 2001, and has worked in the macroeconomic, risk, financial market and econometric, among other, fields for around 25 years.
Annabel is the holder of the Sake/Beeld Economist of the Year title for 2010 and has won numerous monthly Reuters Econometer awards, and various Focus Economics (Economic Forecasts from the World’s Leading Economists) categories for correctly forecasting a range of economic variables. She has authored a wide range of in-house and external articles, published both abroad and in South Africa. She has also guest lectured at Gibbs, the University of Pretoria, Wits, UJ and other academic institutions, and has presented at various national and international conferences.

After providing three decades of leadership in the church world, Dr Chakwera entered frontline politics in 2013 as leader of the Malawi Congress Party. Dr Chakwera ran for the presidency in 2019 on the ‘SUPER Hi5 Agenda’ which championed five pillars of his governing blueprint: Servant Leadership; Uniting Malawi; Prospering Together; Ending Corruption; and the Rule of Law. After attempts were made to alter the result in favour of his opponent, the result was taken to the Constitutional Court where a panel of five judges nullified the election and called for a fresh poll. Dr Chakwera is a candidate in the fresh elections set for Tuesday, 23 June 2020 and has allied with State Vice-President Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima of the United Transformation Movement as part of a coalition of nine parties.

Boniface holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Political Science from Michigan State University in the United States (2011). Dr. Dulani brings to IPOR a rich experience in conducting survey research in Africa through his involvement as a senior member of the Afrobarometer- a pan- Africanist research network that undertakes a series of public opinion surveys on governance, democracy, markets, livelihoods and other related topics in over 35 African countries. His areas of research interest include governance and democracy, presidential politics, politics of development, rural development, civil society and other related topics.

Dr. Dulani is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science of at Chancellor College of the University of Malawi and also serves as the Fieldwork Operations Manager for Southern and Francophone Africa in the Afrobarometer.​​​​​​​

Fatma A. Karume is the granddaughter of the first and the daughter of the second president of Zanzibar. Although she didn't embark on a political career herself, her very political background has made her one of the few experts on the political development of Tanzania. She studied law and set up her own law firm in Dar es Salaam. Until May 2019 she was the chairwoman of the Tanganyika Law Society, the country's bar association. In recent years she has become one of the best-known advocates of the rule of law, good governance and the separation of powers. She has filed a number of lawsuits against the government, which has resulted in her being stripped of her lawyer license.

Tim Cohen is editor of Business Maverick. He is a business and political journalist and commentator of more years than he likes to admit. He was previously editor of The Financial Mail and Business Day, and has written one book, A Piece of the Pie, about mine nationalisation in South Africa. He lives in the middle of nowhere in the Karoo.

Haroon Bhorat is Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. His research interests cover labour economics, poverty and income distribution. He has co-authored and co-edited a number of books on the labour market and poverty issues in Africa. Haroon has published more than 200 academic journal articles, book chapters and working papers. His commitments at UCT include lecturing Advanced Labour Economics (Hons), and supervision to Honours, Masters and Phd students.

Haroon has his PhD in Economics through Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a Cornell University research fellow. He holds the highly prestigious National Research Chair under the theme of Economic Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Exploring the Interactions for South Africa. In 2018, he was appointed by UCT Vice-Chancellor Prof. Phakeng as the university’s “SDG academic focal point” to help guide UCT’s strategic approach to engagement with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In September 2019, Haroon was nominated to sit on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), established by President Ramaphosa to generate new ideas for economic growth, job creation and addressing poverty.

Haroon is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution affiliated to the Global Economy and Development Program, and the Africa Growth Initiative (AGI), a Research Fellow at IZA, the Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Human Sciences Council (HSRC). He sits on the editorial advisory board of the World Bank Economic Review, is a Board Member of the National Research Foundation (NRF), the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), and also sat on the HSRC Board.

Haroon consults with international organizations such as the ILO, the UNDP, the World Bank, Ratings Agencies and emerging market fund managers. He sits on the Advisory Board of the UNDP’s 2019 Human Development Report, was a member of the World Bank’s Advisory Board of the Commission on Global Poverty, as well as a member of the Program Committee of the 2017 International Economic Association (IEA) World Congress. He is a member on the Advisory Committee of the joint United Nations and World Bank Policy Study on the role of Development in the Prevention of Violent Conflict. He is also a member of the UN/WHO’s High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth. Haroon previously served as a member of the UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP), and was Head of Research for the UN’s High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Haroon has undertaken extensive work for several South African government departments – most notably the South African Department of Labour, the Presidency and the National Treasury. Haroon was appointed as an Advisor on the South African Parliament’s High Level Panel on Acceleration of Change and Transformation. He served as an economic advisor to two past Ministers of Finance including Min. Pravin Gordhan, and previous Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, formally serving on the Presidential Economic Advisory Panel.

Irmgard Erasmus is the senior financial economist at NKC African Economics, having joined the company as a macroeconomist and fixed income analyst from JP Morgan in 2013. Irmgard holds a post-graduate degree in financial economics from the University of Stellenbosch.

John Steenhuisen was elected Leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) at the DA Federal Congress on 1 November 2020.

John previously assumed the role of interim Federal Leader from November 2019, having served as the Chief Whip of the Official Opposition from May 2014 to October 2019. John has been a public representative for over 20 years. He has been serving as a member of the National Assembly since July 2011.

​​​​​​​Prior to his appointment to the National Assembly, John was involved with the politics of KwaZulu-Natal first being elected as a councillor in Durban at the age of 22 and serving as the Provincial Leader of the DA and the Party’s Caucus Leader in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.

Ms Lindiwe Daphney Zulu is the Minister of Social Development from 30 May 2019 and was appointed Minister of Small Business Development of the Republic of South Africa from the 26 May 2014 to 25 May 2019. Ms Lindiwe Daphney Zulu was the special advisor to the President on International Relations .She previously served as the head of communication for the PAN African's women's organisation in Angola in 1988.
In 1989 she moved to Lusaka, Zambia where she held the position of head of communication in the ANC department of Religious Affairs. After which in 1990 she moved to Uganda where she was the head of communication and administrator in the ANC office. In 1991 she returned to South Africa where she became the head of communication in the ANC women's league and in 1993 she became an executive committee member of the women's league. That same year she was seconded to the ANC Department of Information and publicity as the spokesperson for the first democratic elections.
In 2004 she became the South African Ambassador to Brazil and in 2007 she was elected to the ANC national executive committee and in 2009 was elected to Parliament.

Presidential Investment Envoy, Chairman-designate of MTN, Chairman of The Centre of Change, former Deputy Minister of Finance
Mcebisi Jonas is the Board Chairperson of South Africa's MTN Group and a non-executive director in different company boards. He is also one of four Presidential Investment Envoys, appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to attract USD100-billion to South Africa. Jonas previously served as Deputy Minister of Finance and as a Member of Parliament from 2014 to 2017, during this time he helped to steer South Africa’s economy through one of the country’s most difficult post democratic periods. He also served as Chairperson and Non-Executive Director of the Public Investment Corporation, the state- owned pension fund manager and one of Africa’s largest investment managers. Before his appointment to national government, Mr Jonas played a key political leadership role in the Eastern Cape. Among other provincial ministerial positions, he served as a Finance MEC in the province. He served as Chief Executive Officer of the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC), a state-owned entity, which successfully amalgamated various smaller development institutions. He also served as Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Investment and Marketing in the Eastern Cape, developing the investment promotion agenda for the province, which resulted in the establishment of the ECDC, the Coega Industrial Development Zone and the East London Industrial Development Zone. Mr Jonas’ activism has defined his political career. During the anti-apartheid years he led a number of political activities both within South Africa and in exile. He played a key role in the establishment of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the Eastern Cape. Upon his return from exile in the 1990’s, Mr Jonas was central to establishing the ruling African National Congress (ANC) structures in the Eastern Cape. More recently, he played a seminal role in the civic activism against state capture.

Tendai Biti is a Zimbabwean politician who served as Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2013 in the Government of National Unity where he got experience in international trade and negotiations. He is known to drive a hard bargain and could be the best person to deal with the Zanu-PF controlled public service. He is the chairperson of the Public Finance Committee, a Member of Parliament for Harare East.
He is the senior partner at Tendai Biti Law. The firm specializes in international finance law as well as domestic constitutional issues. Tendai Biti has over 25 years of private practice experience. He is co-author in the book “Democracy Works.”

Dr Greg Mills heads the Brenthurst Foundation. He holds degrees from the Universities of Cape Town and Lancaster, and was the National Director of the SA Institute of International Affairs from 1996 to 2005. He has directed numerous reform projects in African presidencies, sat on the Danish Africa Commission and on the African Development Bank’s high-level panel on fragile states, and has served four deployments to Afghanistan with the British Army as the adviser to the commander. A member of the advisory board of the Royal United Services Institute, he is the author of the best-selling books Why Africa Is Poor and Africa’s Third Liberation, and most recently, together inter alia with President Olusegun Obasanjo Making Africa Work: A Handbook for Economic Success. In 2018 he completed a second stint as a visiting fellow at Cambridge University, writing this time a book on the state of African democracy, which was published as Democracy Works in 2019. The Asian Aspiration: Why and How Africa Should Emulate Asia has followed in 2020, which identifies the relevant lessons from Asia’s development and growth story.

Peter holds a LLM (first class honours) and Diploma in Comparative Legal Studies from the University of Cambridge. Additionally, he has an LLB (cum laude) and a BA (awarded with distinction in Roman Law) from the University of Cape Town. He was elected as senior scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge and is a council member of the Legal Practice Division of the International Bar Association responsible for the Africa Regional Forum and the section for energy, natural resources and infrastructure law.

Peter’s areas of expertise include crisis management, resource nationalism, mineral and petroleum regulation in developing countries (including international best practice), black economic empowerment and indigenisation law, international investment law and investment protection.

Owing to Peter's expertise he has significant experience in resource regulatory issues across Anglophone Africa. As a consequence, he regularly advises clients on an array of contentious matters involving States in sub-Saharan Africa, including disputes arising from the negotiation and implementation of major mine development agreements. He is also well versed in the sub-Saharan African geopolitical climate and accordingly provides strategic advice not only on issues related to the mineral regulatory framework but also how to navigate the framework within the prevailing economic and political conditions in key African mining jurisdictions. He is particularly skilled in crisis management and has provided expert advice on an urgent basis to clients to assist them in managing and mitigating significant country risks.

Peter is an accomplished speaker and a regular presenter and panellist at conferences, courses and Parliamentary hearings in South Africa and internationally. He has also written extensively on the topics of mining, resource nationalism, the regulation of foreign direct investment, and black economic empowerment and indigenisation law. He is an honorary lecturer at the University of Dundee in Scotland's Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy.

A self-made businessman and entrepreneur, Hakainde Hichilema (HH) has served as President of the UPND since 2006, leading the party through the closely fought 2015 and 2016 elections. After the Zambian Constitutional Court dismissed the UPND’s election petition contesting the outcome of the August 2016 polls, Hichilema was arbitrarily incarcerated for 127 days. He was released in August 2017 after the state discontinued the case following many calls from civil society actors, both domestic and international, particularly the Commonwealth Secretary-General. Hichilema has a BA in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Zambia and an MBA in Finance and Business Strategy from the University of Birmingham. Following his studies, Hichilema quickly ascended Zambia’s corporate world and was appointed CEO of Coopers and Lybrand at the age of 32 years, from 1994 to 1998, and later Grant Thornton. Among the numerous high-profile positions he held before entering politics, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors at Barclays Bank Zambia Plc. Hichilema is also a trained Business Negotiator, a qualified Change Management Practitioner, and member of the Zambia Institute of Directors.

Dr Moeketsi Majoro was appointed Prime Minister of Lesotho on 20 May 2020, having previously served as it’s Minister of Finance and. Member of Parliament representing the Thetsane #33 Constituency. He also served previously as Minister responsible for development planning in the Kingdom of Lesotho where he spearheaded policies for structural transformation through integrating several cluster solutions and dialogues. Before joining the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho as Minister and MP, he was executive director at the International Monetary Fund representing 21 African countries on the Executive Board (2008-2012). He also served as fiscal analyst and Principal Secretary responsible for public finance as well as teaching economics at the National University of Lesotho during 1991-2000. He was a consultant in the areas of business and economics under his company QE, and a director on numerous boards.

Kevin Schroeder is a bachelor of commerce graduate from Rhodes University.
He spent many years in the venture capital space and involved in multiple big corporate turnarounds.
He started a manufacturing business in the clothing and textile sector in 1992 creating over 2,000 sustainable jobs in the rural areas of Southern Africa where the employment is most needed.The business today is a leader in its field and in the top 3 in the clothing and textile sector and is an accredited SABS entity.
Kevin is still involved in the venture capital space and has invested in multiple businesses creating jobs and economic activity in the interests of Southern Africa.

Ray Hartley is the Research Director of the Brenthurst Foundation. Ray has a postgraduate honours degree from Rhodes University where he studied African politics and journalism.

Ray was an anti-apartheid activist in the United Democratic Front while serving on the executive of the National Union of South African Students. He later worked for the Human Awareness Programme, an NGO which provided training and advice to activists. He then worked as an administrator in the Codesa constitutional negotiations that ended apartheid. After a stint as the boxing correspondent of the then Weekly Mail, he joined Business Day and then the Sunday Times. He covered the Nelson Mandela presidency, travelling the world with him and witnessing the birth of the new, democratic South Africa.

He has edited several prominent South African newspapers and online publications, including the Sunday Times, The Times, Rand Daily Mail and BusinessLIVE.

Ray is the author of Ragged Glory: The rainbow nation in black and white, which tells the story of the first two turbulent decades of democracy in South Africa. He wrote The Big Fix: How South Africa stole the 2010 World Cup and most recently Ramaphosa: The Man Who Would be King.

After a brief stint as an economist at Total Oil, Danny Bryer began his career with Protea Hotels in 1986. His appointment culminated in 1994 when he became a shareholder and member of the board of Protea Hospitality Group, in the capacity of Director of Sales, Marketing and Revenue Management. Protea Hotels today is now part of Marriott International Hotels.
He has been instrumental in the strategic development of the company with his key knowledge of the market and his ability to adapt to industry trends, and has been influential in the establishment of Protea’s 3 brands, namely Protea Hotels, Fire and Ice and African Pride, and has ensured that these core brands remain recognised as the leading hospitality trademarks on the African continent.
Danny pioneered the principle of Revenue Management Optimisation in the hotel industry in South Africa . Danny is also a lecturer to post graduate marketing students at the University of Cape Town, focusing on “creative thinking” and adapting to the ever changing world of information and technology.

Tim Harris is the CEO of Wesgro, the Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape. He previously served as Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Finance for the Democratic Alliance (DA). Tim currently sits on the board of the Cape Town Film Studios and BPESA.

Mduduzi Mbada is the Head of the Policy Research and Advisory Services Unit at the Office of the Premier of Gauteng Province.

Margaret Mhango Mwanakatwe is a Zambian politician who was the Minister of Finance from February 2018 to July 2019. She worked previously as a businesswoman, accountant, and bank executive.

She was the director for business development in Anglophone Africa at the United Bank for Africa at the bank's headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. In this role she supervised business development in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Before that, she served as the managing director and chief executive officer of the United Bank for Africa Uganda Limited from March 2009 until May 2011.

Oliver Saasa is Professor of International Economic Relations and Managing Consultant/CEO of Premier Consult Limited in Lusaka. Prior to 2000, Prof. Saasa served for 12 years as the Director of the Institute of Economic and Social Research at the University of Zambia. A Rhodes Scholar, Prof. Saasa obtained his doctorate in 1983 from Southampton University in the UK.

Prof. Saasa has served and continues to serve on many financial sector boards at both national and international levels. These have included the Trade and Development Bank (formerly the PTA Bank) of which he was Chairman; Stanbic Bank (Zambia); Trade and Development Fund (a subsidiary of the TDB – of which he is Chairman); Public Service Pensions Fund in Zambia; and the Africa Economic Research Consortium (AERC). He is also Chancellor of Mulungushi University in Zambia, one of the public universities.

Prof. Saasa, a regularly-quoted personality on the Zambian scene, has published widely in the field of trade, investment and international economic relations, concentrating in earlier years on regional integration and trade and investment promotion in Southern Africa. In the past 25 years, he has released several books on the relations between developed and developing countries, focusing primarily on aid and investment flows and donor-recipient structures and systems for aid management.

Jonathan Moakes joined GQR’s London office as Vice President after working as both the Chief Executive and Chief Strategist for the Democratic Alliance (DA), the official opposition in South Africa. He is a multi-skilled organisational leader and an expert in strategy, communications, fundraising and campaign management, having delivered successful election results for the DA in South Africa, running its past four election campaigns, and has consulted to political parties and organisations in Brazil, Botswana, Ukraine, the Philippines and Zanzibar. Jonathan specializes in transforming strategic insights and messaging recommendations from qualitative and quantitative research into actionable campaign plans focused on delivering a core message in volume and over time to the identified target market. He has significant experience in campaign execution having mastered all key components of modern election campaigns – Fundraising, Earned (Free) Media, Paid Media, Digital Campaigning, Field Organisation, Get Out The Vote (GOTV), Voter Registration Campaigns and Election Day and Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) operations.

Since March 2015, Zitto has been the Party Leader of ACT Wazalendo, a political party in Tanzania.Zitto Kabwe studied economics at the University of Dar es Salaam and later studied international trade at the InWent-Trade Africa Programme in Bonn, Germany. He also pursued a masters degree in law and business from Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany. He researched fiscal regimes of mining, oil and natural gas to understand governance of natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa. He served as a legislator in Tanzania from 2005, chairing the Public Investments Accounts Committee and later the Public Accounts Committee, becoming the longest serving Chairman of parliamentary oversight committees in Tanzania. He led most of Tanzania’s anti-corruption efforts. His areas of interest are public accountability, international investments and taxation, social security and rural development, and natural resource issues and governance. He is credited for inspiring young Tanzanians to enter into politics, for fiscal reforms in the mining sector, for championing transparency of natural resources contracts and for curbing illicit financial flows. The UK’s Financial Times named Zitto Kabwe amongst 25 Africans to watch in its July 2015 publication. He is the most followed Tanzanian politician on Twitter.

Tundu A. Lissu is the deputy chairman of the largest opposition party in Tanzania and was their presidential candidate for the elections in October 2020. The trained lawyer who completed his studies in the USA and for many years represented the rights of the rural population against multilateral companies and their exploitation of Tanzania, was elected to the Tanzanian parliament for the first time in 2010 and from 2015 acted as group leader of CHADEMA in the Parliament. During this time he became the toughest critic of the President and his government. He has been regularly arrested for this and a number of legal proceedings have been brought against him. In September 2017 he miraculously survived an assassination attempt where he was shot 16 times. More than 20 operations later and after more than two years of rehabilitation, first in Kenya and then in Belgium, he returned to Tanzania at the end of July 2020 to show people a democratic alternative. After hundreds of opposition members were arrested and dozens of security forces were killed in the aftermath of the elections, Lissu sought refuge in the residence of the German ambassador in Dar es Salaam before he was able to leave the country, thanks to the efforts of the Belgian ambassador and others.

Mamello is FNBs Chief Economist. She plays a critical role in providing macroeconomic insight to FNB and the broader FirstRand group and its clients. Before joining FNB, she worked as a macroeconomic analyst for the RMB global markets research team. She began her career at the Bureau for Economic Research in Stellenbosch, one of South Africa’s respected economic research institutions.

Mamello holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours Degree (Econometrics) and is a candidate for a Masters in Management, Finance and Investment.

As Director of Signal Risk, an exclusively African risk advisory firm, Ronak focuses on the intersection of politics, economics and business on the continent.
He was previously the Head of Country Risk at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), providing in-depth analysis of economic, political, security and operational dynamics across sub-Saharan Africa. During his time at RMB, he also served on the Africa and International Management board, as a strategist and a number of exco positions.
A prominent voice in print, radio and television in both the local and international media, Ronak has made frequent appearances on the likes of CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and CNBC Africa, and also publishes regular opinion and analysis pieces.
He has spoken at a number of the world’s top universities and at leading Africa focussed policy and business conferences as a moderator, panellist and keynote speaker. In 2016, he delivered a TedX talk entitled “Embracing Africa: beyond the binaries” and in November 2015, he participated in the Asian Forum on Global Governance in New Delhi with a number of young leaders from around the world.

Marius Oosthuizen is a member of faculty at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He teaches leadership, strategy and ethics, and heads up the Future of Business Project that uses strategic foresight methods to explore the future of South Africa, Africa and BRICS. Marius is a previous participant of the Oxford Scenarios Programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK. He holds a Masters in Strategic Foresight from Regent University, Virginia Beach, USA. He is currently writing a PhD proposal on Integrative Public Leadership, and completing a Masters in Applied Social and Political Ethics.
Marius has worked with business leaders, policy makers and civil society activists using his expertise in stakeholder dialogue, scenario planning, strategic foresight and systems thinking to create future-orientated strategy. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Association of Professional Futurists and recent participant in the London-based School of International Futures, as well as a recent contributor to the European Strategy and Policy System, the foresight think tank of the European Parliament.
In his capacity as a consultant, Marius has worked within the following sectors; IT, financial services, insurance, agriculture, manufacturing (chemicals), warehousing and logistics, oil and gas, international relations, social development, tourism, city and regional planning and mining engineering.

Tshepidi Moremong is the Head of Client Coverage at Rand Merchant Bank, one of Africa’s leading corporate and investment bank. In her role as Head of Client Coverage, she is responsible for teams across 12 markets in the rest of Africa, who are focused on business development and client relationship management.
Prior to Rand Merchant Bank, Tshepidi, spent a significant portion of her career in private equity where she worked for institutions such as Aureos Capital and 8 Miles where she drove capital raising, deal structuring and investing. Tshepidi has spent approximately 18 years in financial services in investment banking and private equity.
She holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School in New York and a BA in Economics and Public Policy from Swarthmore College in Philadelphia. She has sat on numerous boards, including as Chairperson of the Africa Venture Capital Association and Investment Committee Member of BIFM.

Sheilan Clarke has close to 10 years media and advocacy experience. This experience range from traveling to all provinces doing community engagement on various campaigns and topics, to advocating for policy in Parliament.
Currently she is the Communications Officer for lobby group, My Vote Counts.

Rebecca Sibanda is a constitutional law expert, with a background in human rights and international law.
​​​​​​​Her experience in the South African constitutional law space includes participation in legislative change, and the monitoring and evaluation of the state's constitutional obligations to its citizens.

Dr Collette Schulz-Herzenberg holds a BA Hons in Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University), and an M.Sc in Democratic Governance, and a PhD in Politics from the University of Cape Town (UCT). She since completed her postdoctoral fellowship with the Centre for Social Science Research at UCT in 2013, specialising in South African voter behaviour.

​​​​​​​Collette has a growing track record in academic publications and an extensive published record in policy-based research including two edited volumes on the 2014 and the 2019 South African elections, both published by Jacana Media. Collette is a National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher (level C3) and was awarded a three-year duration NRF Grant in December 2018 to implement a South African nationally representative post election study following the 2019 elections.

She has 15 years of work experience in the academic and policy-based research arena, previously working as a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, and with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), specializing in issues of democracy and governance, corruption and public sector ethics, social justice and human rights, taxation, and citizenship. Collette also consults as a governance specialist for a variety of research-based and non-profit organisations in the region, and an elections specialist for South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) during elections.

Collette's academic interests include Political and voter behaviour, elections and party systems, democratisation, legislative studies, public opinion analysis and quantitative (survey) research methods, especially in South Africa and the sub-Saharan region. Her teaching specialisations include Political Behaviour and Political Theory, survey research and quantitative methodologies.

Heather Thuynsma holds a BA and a BA Honours from the University of the Witwatersrand, received her MA in applied politics from the University of Akron, and attended the Women’s Campaign School at the Yale Law School to complete her specialization in fundraising and political campaign strategy.

She is currently the Communications Manager for the Faculty of Humanities and a lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria.

Prof. Katabaro Miti is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria and Executive Director of Kilambo Green Flash Pty Ltd that conducts independent studies and surveys. He was born in Kikukwe, Kanyigo, Bukoba, Tanzania. He obtained his PhD in Political Economy from the University of Toronto, Canada in 1980. He has taught at various universities including: Universities of Dar Es Salaam, Botswana, Venda, Vista,Pretoria and the International University of Management, Windhoek.

He has been Visiting Lecturer/Professor at various universities. His many publications have focused on African Politics.

Siphiwe Ignatius Dube is the Former Head and Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is an author of numerous interdisciplinary articles and chapters (and has supervised) on a range of topics covering African politics and religion, feminisms, post-colonial literature, race, religion and masculinities, religion and identity politics, religion and popular culture, and transitional justice.

His current two projects focus on African Political Theology and the Religious New Right in post-apartheid South Africa

Philippe Burger is Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Poverty, Inequality and Economic Development, and Professor of Economics at the University of the Free State. In addition he is a member of the Fiscal Policy & Financial Markets Task Force of the Lancet Commission on Covid-19. He is a 2016/17 Fulbright Exchange Scholar at the Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, at Columbia University. From 2012-2014 he was President of the Economic Society of South Africa. He has also been a visiting scholar at the IMF and consultant to the OECD.

Lesedi Masha is a Network and Pathway Manager at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. Her role includes designing, leading and building products and processes for new network and pathway management delivery models that scale up pathways that young people can connect to. Prior to Harambee, Lesedi worked for TransUnion Africa, TymeBank and Deloitte Consulting. She commits her energy and skills in strategy, innovation, analytics and design, to bringing forth transformation and reform to Africa.

Marie Sukers is currently serving on the Portfolio Committee for Basic Education Social Development and Health. She represents the African Christian
Democratic Party in the National Assembly.

Mrs Sukers' served for over twenty years in youth and women's ministry in vulnerable communities.

Her professional background is in people and organizational management as a talent and recruitment specialist, with experience in organizational and team coaching at a corporate level.

Former UN-High Commissioner for Human Rights

Laurence Caromba is a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Johannesburg. He holds a Master's degree in political theory, and he is currently completing a doctoral research project in which he explains how states use computer hacking and online propaganda to advance their foreign policy interests. He has taught International Relations and Political Science at Monash South Africa and the University of Pretoria, and worked as a political researcher for the Royal Thai Embassy. He has published scholarly research on African politics and security, as well as popular articles in the Daily Maverick, the Mail & Guardian, and other publications.

Dr Ralph Mathekga (PhD) started his studies in Political Science, Law and Economic History at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he completed his BA degree. He subsequently completed an honours degree in Political Science as well as a MA (Masters) in Political Science at the same university. Ralph has completed PhD in Political Studies at the University of Johannesburg (2018). His thesis focuses on the court challenges on affirmative action in South Africa and the implications on equality and justice.

Ralph worked as a Political Researcher with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), where he focused on political, social and economic research. Ralph also worked as a Political Science Lecturer at the University of Western Cape. He has worked at the National Treasury (Ministry of Finance) in the Budget Office as a Senior Policy Analyst. Ralph regularly contributes content to local and international publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, and Financial Times, among others. He has written over 500 opinion articles over the years in various newspapers and magazines, both locally and internationally.

Ralph is the author of the books When Zuma Goes (Tafelberg, 2016) and Ramaphosa’s Turn (Tafelberg, 2018). He is currently a News24 columnist. Ralph contributes reports to the Lichtenstein based Geopolitical Intelligence Services (GIS), focusing on the SADC region. Ralph‘s forthcoming book, The ANC‘s last decade, will be launched in mid-2021. Ralph is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Johannesburg, Sarchi.

Ferial Haffajee is a South African editor and journalist.

She is currently associate editor at the Daily Maverick.

Previously, Ferial was editor-in-chief at the Mail & Guardian and City Press, where teams working with her won numerous investigative journalism awards. She is a regular analyst and commentator on radio, television and elsewhere.

Ferial is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a member of the Africa Leadership Institute fellowship. She is on the board of the Open Society’s Programme for Independent Journalism. She has won numerous awards for journalism and for her support of media freedom including a Committee for the Projection of Journalism’s International Press Freedom Hero award in 2015 and the Naspers Phil Weber award in 2013 – the global company’s highest internal honour.

Previously, Ferial was chairperson of the South African National Editors Forum and chairperson of the CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year Awards. She has served on the boards of the World Editors Forum and the Global Editors Network. She has published a best-selling book called “What if there were no whites in South Africa '' and in 2017 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Free State for her journalism.

Marianne Merten has written on Parliament since 2016 for Daily Maverick. The intersection of governance, policy and politics unfolds at many levels, from tiny nuggets of information hidden in the voluminous stacks of papers tabled at the national legislature to the odd temper tantrum by a politician. Sometimes frustrating, sometimes baffling, even after 26 years as a hack, there are few dull days in the parliamentary corridors.

Cathy is an award-winning broadcast journalist. She co-hosts, with Stephen Grootes, “The Pulse” and “Newz@Prime both on Newzroom Afrika. On radio, Cathy is heard daily on SAfm, anchoring “The Talking Point.” Cathy’s career in national broadcast-journalism spans over 12 years. She started as a reporter and radio anchor for Talk Radio 702’s Eyewitness News and Kaya FM. In 2009 she won the National Press Club Radio Journalist of the Year Award. In 2012, she was selected to take part in the CNN Journalism Fellowship and in 2014 was selected as a fellow for US President Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). A year later, she was named by Destiny Magazine as one of the “Top 40 Women under 40.” During her time at eNCA, Cathy hosted the eTV evening primetime bulletin and covered high profile stories including the life of Nelson Mandela and the Oscar Pistorius murder trial. She has also hosted weekly programmes including ‘#Africa’ and ‘Week-In-One’. Passionate about youth, education and current affairs, Cathy enjoys facilitating workshops and conferences which tackle issues of socio-economic development; particularly those impacting young girls and women. She is also part of an NGO that builds schools in rural areas and conducts youth development programmes for empowering and up-skilling young people.

Farai is a Partner Management Lead at the Youth Employment Service (YES), a business-led NPO works in partnership with government and labor to initiate policy changes which incentives the creation of jobs for youth. She is also the co-founder of the youth-led organization Africa Matters, which empowers young Africans to lead through leadership skills, capacity building and community-impact projects Farai was a Queen’s Young Leader for South Africa for 2017, a TEDx speaker, a One Young World Ambassador and a King’s Principal’s Global Leadership Award Recipient. In 2018 she was named as one of the top 100 Mandelas of the future by Media24. She is a Dalai Lama 2019 Fellow and was rated as one of the top 100 Influential Young South Africans. Prior to YES, Farai served as a project manager at The Aurum Institute, a leading African TB and HIV research and implementation institute, and Deloitte as a Strategy and Operations analyst. She was also an intern at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and achieved a distinction for her MSc in the Political Economy of Emerging Markets at King’s College London.

Cayley first joined SAIIA as a Konrad Adenauer Stiftung scholar in 2018, during which time she provided research assistance to the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme. She then spent two years as a researcher at Africa Check, the continent’s leading fact-checking organisation. Cayley re-joined SAIIA in 2021 as a researcher in the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme. She leads the organisation’s Russia-Africa project but also has a keen interest in the African Peer Review Mechanism. She holds a first-class Masters Degree in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand.

An efficient economic structure geared to sustainability must be based on a system of private property ownership that places the power of disposal over goods in the hands of private enterprises and households. Private ownership provides the critical incentive for generating income through work and is the basis of innovative entrepreneurship. Only an economic system that is based on private property can safeguard employment on a sustainable basis. This is the basis upon which individual responsibility and initiative can develop, without which an effective use of one’s own potential and of education, innovation, growth and prosperity is unimaginable. Private ownership characterises a competitive system in which a multitude of owners of small and medium-sized enterprises are liable for their economic activity through their personal property. Ownership entails social obligations. Making use of it must serve the common good. This ensures careful and sustainable business activity and protects against a one-sided concentration on short-term profit-seeking.

A global competitive system based on the free determination of prices optimises the allocation of scarce resources. Fully functional competition is the engine that drives sustained economic activity. It fosters efficiency, innovation and progress, reinforces responsible behaviour and prevents the establishment of one-sided market power. A competitive system requires open markets, both nationally and internationally, and control of market power, as well as concentration by the state and the international community. Competition is rooted in performance and equality of opportunity.

Freedom of competition requires the application of the principle of liability, by which competitive performance is tied to the responsible conduct of each participating player. The prospects for profits stimulate competition, while personal liability in the event of losses curbs irresponsible and excessively risky behavior.

A market economy needs a long-term economic policy and the greatest possible macroeconomic stability. This applies particularly to national and international financial markets. Confidence in a stable economic framework is a prerequisite for investments and long-term consumption decisions. Such confidence also requires the rejection of protectionist measures and of a monetary policy geared only to short-term national economic and growth targets.

In a market economy, the state must ensure the provision of public goods if the market is unable to provide these goods or can only do so inadequately. An efficient infrastructure, fundamental educational opportunities, and access to comprehensive healthcare provision are all areas that the state must be involved in shaping. The need for state involvement is particularly great where there is social disadvantage. However, there should be a limit to state intervention.

Economic growth facilitates poverty reduction. The market economy cannot, however, prevent the development of income disparities and the disadvantaging of certain sections of the population. Therefore, a market economy needs effective, broad-based social security systems functioning in line with market conditions, mechanisms for regional redistribution and a performance-oriented system of taxation in order to safeguard social peace and to enable appropriate levels of participation by broad sections of the population in the development of the economy and society.

A market economy requires an incentive-oriented system of levies to finance state tasks. These taxes must be designed in such a way that they neither minimise performance incentives nor lead to allocative distortions.

Every economic system must be judged also by its long-term results. In ecological, social and fiscal terms, sustainability is one of the most important criteria for success and an expression of intergenerational justice. A legal system based on responsibility and liability facilitates sustainability. In particular, an active climate protection policy is an economic and moral obligation towards safeguarding the natural basis of existence for future generations.

Going it alone does not represent a cure for individual countries in the current crisis. On the contrary, it can exacerbate the global impacts of an economic crisis. What is crucial is a coordinated policy of open markets and respect for the rules of fair play. The relevant international institutions must be further strengthened to counter protectionism and economic nationalism.