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2007 Tutu Fellow Niven Postma has launched her book If you don't do politics, politics will do you...A guide to navigating office politics effectively and ethically (And yes, it is possible.)  Her publication seeks to raise awareness on what office politics actually are, and how being politically intelligent is the single biggest determinant of personal and professional success. The book was launched on 04 August 2020.

Niven reveals that you can use politics to advance your career, benefit your team and build the organisation you are part of.  She points out that politics needn't be unethical, unpleasant and unfair as most people perceive it, so so they shouldn't be avoided.

Several Tutu Leadership Programme alumni have been named in this year’s 100 Most Influential African Women list, which is published annually by Avance Media. They are Elsie Kanza, Ndidi Nwuneli, and Mimi Kalinda.

The prestigious listing is presented as a ranking of the 100 most influential African women, providing a summary of women who have climbed the corporate ladder, started their own businesses, or have been at the forefront of decision-making both locally and internationally.  The criteria for selection include excellence in leadership and performance, personal accomplishments, commitment to sharing knowledge, breaking the status quo, and being an accomplished African woman. The listing was released in August, to coincide with Women's Month.

2007 Tutu Fellow Ipeleng Mkhari is the Founder and CEO of Motseng Investment Holdings which partnered with Malani Padayachee and Associates (MPA) to acquire 100% equity of Mott MacDonald Africa, a South African engineering entity, to create South Africa’s largest black and women owned consulting engineering company.  Ipeleng will be the Chairperson of the new entity, MPAMOT, which has the potential to become a beacon for women in an industry that continues to be male dominated.

Another Tutu Fellow, Kunyalala Maphisa,  was the Lead Advisor on the transaction. Kunya is a 2006 Tutu Fellow and the Principal Partner at Brighton Wealth as well as the President of the Black Women's Association of South Africa, BWASA.

It is clear that we are living in exceptional and unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our ways of working and interacting and, naturally, AFLI has also been impacted. This post provides some sense of the impact of the pandemic and its implications on the Tutu Fellowship Programme.

When the effects of the pandemic were starting to be felt in March 2020, we had just completed the process of selecting our 2020 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Associates. We carried the news of that announcement here in our News.

2018 Tutu Fellow Jean-Guy Afrika has been appointed as the Chief Regional Funds Co-ordinator at the African Development Bank. In this role, he is responsible for the African Trade Fund’s (AfTRA) strategic planning and its overall management. This includes the monitoring and reporting of the operational performance of the Fund.

Jean-Guy is a public policy expert with deep specialization in trade, regional integration, and strategic planning and execution at the African Development Bank. He has coordinated efforts to develop two of the Bank’s most pioneering policy/analytical instruments - the Africa Regional Integration Index; and the Visa Openness Index.

Two Tutu Fellows are featured extensively in an article in TechCabal by Eghosa Omoigui, the managing partner at EchoVC Partners.  The article, titled Nudges and shoves : Tackling venture capital bias in Africa, deals with how historic inequalities are impacting venture capital investment in Africa.  The two Fellows mentioned extensively in the piece are Swaady Martin, a 2002 Fellow, and Ada Osakwe, who was in the Class of 2014. 

Eghosa begins his piece by offering an explanation of how prosperity happens, then qualifies it by saying that unfortunately, economics cannot presume rational actors.  The playing field, he says, is skewed, and this impacts how investors pattern match when making decisions on where to invest.

Two Tutu Fellows have been named to this year’s 100 Most Reputable Africans by Reputation Poll International. The two are 2008 Fellow, Elsie Kanza, and 2010 Fellow and AFLI CEO, Jackie Chimhanzi.  The annual Poll lists 100 Africans who are celebrated for their good governance, leadership, and a range of other criteria. 

The two Fellows are joined by a range of luminaries that include two African presidents and a number of policymakers. The selection criteria are integrity, visibility and impact.

2013 Tutu Fellow January Makamba has written a moving tribute for the late Tanzanian President, Mzee Mkapa, who died in July 2020. The tribute is a heartfelt and poetic portrait of a graceful leader, and the leadership he inspired in January and many others. Poignantly, he writes that, “Mkapa taught me that prominence is good when it comes to you, not when you seek it.”

January Makamba is a political leader, a former cabinet minister, and a Member of Parliament for the Bumbuli constituency. 

The Founding Co-Director and Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management and 2015 Tutu Fellow, Landry Signe, has published an analysis piece in The Washington Post. In it, he argues that COVID-19 prompted Africa to promote multilateralism through cooperation and coordination among its countries in the struggle against the impacts of the pandemic on the continent. 

The piece, which he co-wrote with Mary Treacy of the Brookings Institution, goes beyond COVID-19, though, and makes an argument for its potential to build the continent’s resource coordination and governance capacity.

2019 Tutu Fellow Sangu Delle's  company has opened a new Rabito Clinic in Accra, Ghana.  Sangu's company, Africa Health Holdings, opened the clinic in East Legon in July. 

The services the clinic will provide include general medicine, dermatology, urology, gynecology, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy.  Rabito Clinic’s main area of practice is in dermatology, offering a wide range of treatments for patients with skin problems, including acne, autoimmune and connective tissue disease, HIV-related skin disorders, moles, melanoma surveillance, pigmentation disorders, wound and ulcer care, and more.

2016 Archbishop Tutu Fellow Dorothy Ghettuba has been interviewed by CNN on how she is growing streaming viewership in Africa and bringing more African stories to the lineup.  Film and television productions worldwide have been negatively impacted by COVID-19, but the Kenyan Netflix executive has said that she is using this time to find the best stories, to make the best use of the interruption.

At the same time, for international streaming giant Netflix, lockdowns have translated into nearly 16 million new paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2020 alone, followed by another 10 million during the second quarter. 

2014 Tutu Fellow Sello Hatang - the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation - secured the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, to deliver the 18th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture on the theme: Tackling the inequality pandemic: A new social contract for a new era. 

Hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in partnership with the UN, the event took place virtually on 18 July 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the lecture was, for the first time, an online-only event, delivered at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Adejuwon Jude Feranmi Kolawole - known as JFK - has released his book, Lead the People. Jude is one of the Project Pakati Change Makers working on Youth inclusion in Africa. He is the Founder of the Raising New Voices Initiative and was formerly Executive Director of ToBuildANation, a citizen’s movement working towards political reforms in Nigeria with members in more than 25 states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He says that the book is meant to inspire and provide "clear-cut direction for any young leader who wants to see change happen in any community and in any country in the world." Lead the People was written to share strategies and tactics on how to become the leader that our world needs, with the capacity to influence change towards a positive direction.

2007 Tutu Fellow Sithembumenzi Vuma is now the Investment Director, Corporate Debt for the UK’s development finance institution, CDC Group plc. The department for International Development is responsible for the CDC.  The CDC Group invests in Africa and South Asia where the private sector is weak, jobs are scarce, and the investment climate is difficult, but particularly in sectors where growth leads to jobs.

Thembie is a seasoned Investment Banker, specializing in analyzing, developing, structuring and closing financial transactions for corporates and parastatals in East Africa and also giving advice on optimal capital structures.

The Tutu Fellows relish the time to connect with one another beyond the obvious connections through sector-related and work orientated opportunities and collaborations. While these are powerful ways for the network to deepen our impact across the continent and sharpen our understanding and nuances of each country, it is the building of relationships that glue the Fellows together.

Friday 29th June was a powerful and much-needed time for Fellows to connect, reflect and communicate about our experiences during the Covid 19 pandemic. It was led by 2006 Tutu Fellow Judy Malan, who facilitated a session to enable us to reflect on how we have responded to lockdown, both personally and as a leader. She touched on the different emotions we might have been processing, those of fear, hope and optimism as well as natural patterns we might default too - pessimist, optimist or realist.