Neo Muyanga, David Kau, Tholoana Qhobela, Gugu Msibi, Nkuli Mkhize, Mondli Makhanya, Khumo Seopela, William Davis, Fred Swaniker and more ...
Foreword
For the third year, we publish our feature of young South Africans you should take to lunch. These are young people who will shape our country in the decades to come, in the sporting arena, in public life and in business. There is, sadly, a yawning gap in leadership in South Africa right now.
We are caught in an interregnum between one set of leaders and another. Which is why it should be all eyes on the next generation of leaders. Is our next generation ready for the stewardship of the country?
Our choices in this edition suggest that South Africa is a country brimming with talent. There are world-class young people in this edition who have blazed a trail locally and abroad. We hope they stay here (or if they go global that they do return with their capital and their skill) to give back and to grow their country into all it can be.
You will notice that the lunch spots of our leading young South Africans are as diverse as they are. It reflects that leadership is not only in boardrooms or in conventional high office. Our hot young leaders ply their crafts in banks, Parliament, at the forefront of community struggles -- you will find the gamut of leadership here as our vision criss-crosses the private, public and civil society sectors.
In a country that is largely young, I am sure there are gaps in our coverage. Please email stefanep@mg.co.za if you would think you should be in here or if you spot a glaring omission. We’ll add you online (provided you meet the criteria) and include the profile next year.
This year, the Mail & Guardian has partnered with Xstrata to bring you this edition. In the following months, we will be running a series of leadership articles called “Ready to govern” in which we profile and focus on leadership across our country as they ready to take their roles in politics, boardrooms or on the streets.
We do hope you will write to us with ideas and that you will take these young South Africans out to lunch.
Ferial Haffajee and Songezo Zibi
Co-editors
Our criterion
You will not find conventional celebrities in here. Sorry. Our criterion is wide and somewhat subjective -- these are people who have featured in the Mail & Guardian or who have been noticed by our team of writers for their excellence at their craft or their ability to lead. Our rule of thumb is that this is the generation that will define and lead the country in the future.
Ideally, we are looking for individual accomplishment with a matching and proven ability to take a leading role in your field; peer recognition and a willingness to give back by voluntarism and leadership either in the community, business or in government.
There are many young established leaders in here but also much younger emerging leaders who are showing skill at their choice of profession and craft. We have been guided by others. Lovelife provided a selection of the young people who are coming through their ranks. The Africa Leadership Initiative, the values-based programme that is the brain-child of Isaac Shongwe of Barloworld, has provided several young leaders. The Association of Black Securities and Investments Professionals is always a good talent-spotter.
The team
Editor: Ferial Haffajee (Lunch spot: My mother’s kitchen, Mayfair, and Cité, Dunkeld)
Editor: Songezo Zibi (Lunch spot: Café Da Vinci, Corporate Park, Midrand)
Designer and chief sub-editor: Helen Yardley (Lunch spot: Nice in Parkhurst and Ghazal’s in Bryanston)
Table # 1; background color: grey
EDITOR'S LETTER
Nic Dawes
Editor-in-chief
Mail & Guardian
The Mail & Guardian is well known for tough journalism and we can, at times, serve up a pretty depressing menu of bad people doing bad things.
It is not, however, gratuitous misery. Robust investigative and political writing aims to hold open space in our society for the building of a richer democracy, in all possible ways.
Our annual survey of Young South Africans is really the flipside of our investigative work. It's an effort to identify and recognize the emerging talents whose work thrills us with its potential.
When we put them all together in one room for lunch, we get an extraordinary sense of a country being born around us.
And far from being just future stars, our 200 picks are making real impacts now within their own fields, but crucially beyond them too.
We have reduced numbers this year, not because there are fewer young stars in the country, but because we want to be rigorous in selection, and stricter about the 35-year cut-off. On the other hand, we have included a few brilliant non-native South Africans who have made South Africa their home and applied
their enormous energies to our complicated, sometimes daunting, national project. We aren't opposed to xenophobia just because it involves abuses of human rights, but because we also know we are vastly better off when we are open to the world.
A smaller sample has also allowed us to pay more attention to each of the people we do profile, and I think that's evident in the improved writing, photography and design that characterise this year's edition.
As ever, we pass over people who I think are some of the most promising young South Africans you are likely to meet anywhere -- those journalists in our own newsroom, many of whom help to make this supplement happen, including Lynley Donnelly, Lionel Faull, Lloyd Gedye, Yolandi Groenewald, Tarryn Harbour, Karabo Keepile, Matuma Letsoalo, Mmanaledi Mataboge, Duduzile Mathebula, Phathisani Moyo, Faranaaz Parker, Verashni Pillay, Mandy Rossouw, Lisa Steyn, Valencia Talane, Niren Tolsi, Vuvu Vena, Lisa van Wyk and Percy Zvomuya, and our photographers Paul Botes, Oupa Nkosi, Lisa Skinner,
David Harrison and Delwyn Verasamy.
Tanya Pampalone has done an extraordinary job of wrangling them-- even very good journalists are not easily organized -- and editing the product that you have in your hands.
So, if you really want to engage with the potential this country holds, and borrow a bit of momentum from those who are really moving it forward, book a table and grab a plate of optimism.
Table # 1; background color: grey
Foreword
Andile Sangqu, Executive Director
Xstrata South Africa:
The Mail &Guardian publishes this special edition on South Africa's youth leaders during a time in which the eyes of the world are focused on our land.
The Fifa World Cup is going to be the most successful ever, and that is in large part due to the collective contribution of many South Africans, in different ways, but all significant. When it ends on July 11, the world will sit up and take notice of an African continent that is waking up from decades of struggle and under-achievement.
Of critical importance is that all South Africans takes the lead in keeping the momentum generated by this historic event so that our country can move forward, an endeavour in which young people from all walks of life have a central role to play. Their optimism, boundless energy and determination to
make the country great cannot go to waste at a time when the country, and its youth in particular, still face so many challenges.
This special edition attempts to recognise some of the most promising young people the country has produced. Please take note of them, work with and guide them to make them even better South Africans for the sake of our future. As an organisation, Xstrata has made a decision to seek and utilise all opportunities available to contribute to nation building and economic growth. It is everyone's responsibility.
To see who our 200 Young South Africans for 2011 are click here.
