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2018 Tutu Fellow and Deputy Executive Director , of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation(MRF), Judy Vatiswa Sikuza, has been announced as the organization’s new Chief Executive Officer, with effect from 1 August 2019. Sikuza is herself a Mandela Rhodes Scholar from the Class of 2007 (South Africa & NMMU) and is currently the MRF’s Deputy Executive Director having first joined as MRF Programme Manager in 2014. Sikuza, 33, succeeds Founding Executive Director Shaun A. Johnson, who was personally tasked, by Mr Mandela, to establish the Foundation in 2003.

2017 Fellow Nkuli Bogopa, is one of the finalists of the Mrs South Africa pageant. Her journey has had the full support of the Tutu Fellows, who have come out in helping Nkuli realize her dream through various sponsorships.

Four Tutu Fellows that have been extremely supportive in helping Nkuli achieve her dream to become Mrs SA. Sam Mensah, founder of KISUA, sponsored Nkuli with outfits for the big day, Dr. Theo Mothoa-Frendo with USO skincare, Tshepo Ditshego, CEO of Fundi, with a silver sponsorship and, finally, Dr. Cephas Chikanda with an event sponsorship. Many other Fellows have showed their support by voting.  Nkuli is the Executive Director at Broll Property Group.

2016 Fellow and Chief Executive Officer of Fundi, Tshepo Ditshego, has been appointed Chairperson of the Board at Eduloan Zimbabwe. Eduloan is a leading microfinance in Zimbabwe, offering affordable study loans to all Zimbabwean students studying at any preschool, primary, secondary, college, universities across the globe. Fundi is Eduloan's parent company.

2017 Tutu Fellow Mitoha Ondo'o Ayekaba, has published his first novel, titled Claro de Luna, at an event of the Association of Spanish Writers and Artists, in Madrid, Spain. The presentation ceremony took place on June 13 and counted amongst the audience personalities from the Spanish cultural and political world. Guillermina Mekuy, a local writer and businesswoman, read from the novel together with Emilio Porta, the Deputy Secretary of the Association of Spanish Writers and Artists.  During the reading, the two gave voice to the characters in the novel.

2008 Fellow, Mitchell Elegbe, the Group Managing Director of Interswitch Limited, has been awarded the African Banker Icon award, at the 2019 African Banker Awards held at a prestigious Gala Dinner in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

The Awards, held annually as a co-event of the annual meetings of the African Development Bank, have established themselves as the Oscars of African banking. They celebrate excellence in banking and finance on the African continent. Elegbe’s company, Interswitch, is predicted to be Africa’s first Africa-led unicorn – a tech start up whose value exceeds $1bn.

2017 Fellow Rosy Fynn has been appointed as the new CEO for the 4G mobile broadband service provider, BusyInternet, effective 10th June, 2019. As CEO, Rosy is coming in to lead a turnaround of the business into a world-class telecoms service provider, which provides cutting-edge internet solutions across the country. She comes into this new role with a wealth of strategic and operational business leadership experience honed internationally and locally.  

BusyInternet started operating in Ghana in 2001 as Ghana’s first internet café with mixed-use space, hosting startup businesses and providing co-working space. It has since evolved into an internet service provider offering 4G LTE, fibre, radio and satellite internet solutions to individuals, businesses and homes.

2013 Fellow Ify Malo - the CEO of Clean Technology Hub and the Country Campaign Director for Power for All in Nigeria - is sought after. She joins the Advisory Board of Extractive 360. And in April of this year, she joined the newly-constituted six-person board of the Norrenberger Financial Group.  

Extractive 360 is a specialized web-based publication that provides up-to-date reports on issues within Nigeria’s extractive industries as well as related developments across the world’s extractive industries and markets. She joins other Board members such as Sam Amadi, the former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), who is Chairman of the e360 board. 

2016 Tutu Fellow Peter Biar Ajak had his day in court today in Juba, South Sudan, after being detained for almost a year.  He was arrested on 28 July 2018, allegedly for treason.  However, the treason charges were thrown out by a court in April.

In court today, he was sentenced to two years for allegedly disturbing the peace and violence for giving interviews to foreign media that were critical of the government.  His lawyer is contesting the sentence as freedom of speech is constitutionally protected in South Sudan. His term was backdated to the day he was detained, so he still faces a year in prison for his peace activism.

The latest film by 2008 Fellow, Hopewell Chin'ono, State of Mind is being received well.  Hopewell is an award-winning Zimbabwean international journalist and film maker.  His film, which deals with mental health, is being extremely well received by audiences and critics alike.  It was nominated for Best Documentary at the Heart of England Film Festival and will be screened at the film festival in June. The film was also selected for the 2019 Festival International du Film Pan-Africain de Cannes, in France, which ran from April 18th to 22nd, 2019.  It was also nominated for an award and screening at the African Film Festival in Dallas.

To Peter, Sean, Jacob, Jackie, Jessica, Charles, Lord Hacking, Ronnie, Karen, Allen, and the rest of the faculty:

You called upon us to embark on a journey into the realm of human possibilities. In this short yet intense adventure, we stopped at many stations. We traversed the rich and complex jungles of leadership, negotiating between the charismatic and the inspirational, and wondered whether something “straight” would come out of the “crooked timber of humanity”. We encountered, with thoughts raised high, the wicked problems of how to effect change at the continent, pondered over “Africa’s critical choices”, and explored opportunities to use trade to bring prosperity to our continent.

The first workshop of the 2019 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Programme was held at the Mont Fleur Conference Centre from the 27th April to the 4th of May, 2019. The 23 Fellowship candidates came from some 250 nominees of outstanding excellence from over 30 African countries, and represented 11 different African countries - Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Gabon, Mali, South Africa, the Gambia, Tanzania, Ghana and Madagascar.

It was a memorable time of learning, introspection, forging deep relationships with peers and lots of laughter!

2008 Fellow, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, who is a leader in the new wave of African publishing houses, has been appointed as one of the judges for the Morland Writing Scholarships 2019 alongside Muthoni Garland, and Otosirieze Obi-Young.  Bibi is the award-winning co-founder of Cassava Republic Press.

The Morland Writing Scholarship is an award given annually to African writers to enable them to work on a manuscript over a year without worrying about an income.

2016 Tutu Fellow Dorothy Ghettuba Pala will be chairing the Board of the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) for the next three years.  She was appointed to the position by President Uhuru Kenyatta on 3 May 2019. The KFC was established in 2005 to develop a vibrant local film and TV industry, and to position Kenya as a preferred filming destination for sustainable wealth and job creation. The KFC, led by its CEO Timothy Owase, congratulated Dorothy Ghettuba on her appointment on Twitter.

2017 Tutu Fellows 'Bosun Tijani and Abayomi Awobokun have joined forces to develop and host the first STEMCafe, a creativity play space designed to introduce children between the ages 5-18 to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in a fun and engaging way.  'Bosun started up CCHub, an innovation and technology accelerator, and Abayomi is growing a network of energy, fuel and convenience store locations across Nigeria through his company, Enyo Retail & Supply.

By providing a STEM learning environment at facilities hosted at Enyo service stations, the STEMCafe initiative leverages the assets and expertise of the two founders’ companies. Since its founding in 2017, Enyo has grown to 70 locations across the country.

2014 Fellow Ladé Araba has been appointed as the Managing Director, Africa, at Convergence Finance, a global network that generates blended finance data, intelligence, and deal flow to increase private sector investment in developing countries. Prior to this, Araba was the Africa Region Representative also at Convergence Finance.

Araba is also the Co-Founder/President of the Visiola Foundation which empowers African girls and young women through education, training, and mentoring in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.