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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.

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.

2006 Tutu Fellow Kunyalala Maphisa has been appointed to the Council of the University of Cape Town. The appointment, which was made by the Minister of Higher Education, Bonginkosi (Blade) Nzimande, was made on 19 June 2020.  UCT Council members typically serve for four years.  Under the law governing the university, the Minister is entitled to appoint up to five people to the Council and the council's members recently began their 2020-2024 stint. 

The Council governs the university and its responsibilities include determining the mission, objectives, goals, strategies and policies for the progress of the institution. Kunyalala is a UCT alumnus, obtaining both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the university.

2014 Tutu Fellow Ada Osakwe delivered the convocation address to the Kellogg School of Management Class of 2020. She became the first African to be given this honour, and the fourth black woman. She followed in the footsteps of outstanding Black Americans Edith Cooper, the Global Head of Human Capital at Goldman Sachs in 2017; Roslyn Brock, the Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP in 2012; and media titan Oprah Winfrey, in 2011.

Ada is an award-winning food entrepreneur and Founder of The Nuli Juice Company and an alumnus of the Kellogg School.

2008 Tutu Fellow Eunice Ajambo has drafted a United Nations policy brief titled COVID-19: An Emerging Development Challenge, but opportunity for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Namibia.  The policy brief examines economic transformation in the context of COVID-19 and analyses how Namibia is currently fairing. It provides a socio-economic impact assessment for short, medium- and long-term recommendations in addressing COVID-19. She makes the point that crises can be an opportunity to prioritize economic transformation.

Eunice is the Economic Affairs Officer with the Macroeconomics and Governance Division of the UN Economic Commission for Africa.  Her work on economic policy spans economic governance, development finance, and public sector management.

2006 Tutu Fellow Aidan Eyakuze has published a LinkedIn article about serious concerns around Tanzania’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aidan writes that Tanzanians have been allowed to continue moving around and trading freely, with only minimal requirements being observed like being required to wear a mask in public. Thus while it appears the country has adopted the controversial 'herd immunity' approach to the pandemic, it is doing so in data darkness.

Aidan is an economist, scenario practitioner and is a board member on the Global Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership.

2014 Tutu Fellow Sello Hatang is raising questions about the worrying intersection of the political economy in a time of COVID-19 with the continuing issue of racism and white supremacy.  He questions what will be necessary for South Africa to do to see this moment as an opportunity to fundamentally restructure.  In a Daily Maverick Op-Ed published in June 2020, Sello, who is CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, reflects on the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as well as numerous incidents of police brutality in South Africa during the lockdown. 

He says that he has felt keenly the extent to which 'black lives don't matter' and he poses the question of when the country will start prioritising its most vulnerable?

Five Tutu Fellows are named in the annually released Top 50 Disruptors by The Africa Report.  The report names the top 50 firebrands making waves on the continent, who are 'shaking up the status quo, asking uncomfortable questions, upending business models and fighting preconceptions' and who are 'transforming the African continent. The Fellows are Mitchell Elegbe, Oluseun Onigbinde, Bibi Bakare, Edwin Macharia and Ahmed Zahran. Of the exclusive list, 10% are Tutu Fellows. 

The publication ranks these exclusive 50 individuals based on three factors: innovation, disruption and heft.   According to The Africa Report, these criteria take into account how new the idea is, how big the change is and how many people are impacted.

Re'ayit Misr emergency ICU field hospital has been set up by Tutu Fellow Ahmed Zahran’s company, KarmSolar, to aid Egypt’s COVID-19 response. He pulled together a coalition of experts from KarmSolar and it's partners and designed a functional, modular solution for an emergency ICU field hospital. The Re'ayit Misr emergency ICU field hospital is a product of the coalition’s combined expertise in energy, architecture design and construction.

Their expertise was used to develop a modular, pre-fabricated structure, to properly serve the needs of healthcare institutions and patients combating the pandemic, by providing additional ICU capacity.

Adebola Williams, 2018 Tutu Fellow and Media Entrepreneur, Journalist, Political Activist and co-founder and Group CEO of Red, has launched the Beating Corona website. This comprehensive and accessible website details information on what organizations, brands, groups, corporations, and individuals are doing to assist in the fight against Covid-19 in Nigeria.

Through the website you can access information according to region, resources and organisations and centres distributing resources as well as up to date information on interventions and donations nationwide.